December 14th, 2000 - Final Fantasy VII sold the PlayStation One back in 1996, Final Fantasy X will sell the PlayStation 2 in the same way next year, and now Final Fantasy I has been brought from the dead to sell Bandai's WonderSwan Color.

Japanese Queue up for their WSC and copy of Final Fantasy I.	They'll be able to play the game on the way home!

With 300,000 WonderSwan Colors sold in the first day - a sell out - and Final Fantasy 1 shipping on a ratio of 1:1, there can be no doubt as to the marketing muscle of Final Fantasy and Square. In scenes reminiscent of the launch of the PlayStation 2, fans queued up in their hundreds outside major gaming outlets on December the ninth.

What's it like then?
Looking back on the first Final Fantasy that appeared on the NES thirteen years ago in the days of 128-bit Emotion Engines and the like leaves a lot to be desired. With sprite images and a black screen for a background, the only thing really that could save the game was its gameplay.

The Final Fantasy 1 + WSC Packaging.	Also available in orange!

To many hardcore fans, Final Fantasy I remains the best Final Fantasy, so when Square/Bandai announced that it was going to be spruced up for a release on a handheld, it set many tails wagging. As Yukiyoshi Ike Sato at GameSpot comments, this is no simple cut-and-paste job in the same way as in Final Fantasy Anthology for the PlayStation. Indeed, the graphical quality of the release has been upped to more-or-less the quality of Final Fantasy VI (II U.S.) - released on the SNES.

The user interface (menus etc.) have been given a more modern day Final Fantasy outlook. Everything has been decorated so to speak (such as in shops or inns). You can now buy or sell in bulk, know which character you can equip what and generally do things a lot more easily than a Final Fantasy player of thirteen years ago could have.

WSC FF1 features much more familiar menus in and out of battle.

Instead of text messages and dull magic graphics in battles, damage is now displayed using the much more convenient numbers and icons, while magic effects have been given a lease of life with colour and better animation. Not only that, but monsters are bigger and meaner, and characters have been given more frames of animation.

Features have been integrated into the remake to make Final Fantasy I more accessible - Final Fantasy 1 was pretty hard for any novice back on the NES. There's a quick save feature enabling you to save anywhere, players can choose a difficulty level, you can resurrect dead party members (something we take for granted these days) and earning money has become easier thanks to the number square game.

Players will now be able to save anywhere using the Quick Save feature.

It's not all good, though: the music and sound effects haven't really been improved significantly over the original and you can only get the remake in Japan for the WonderSwan Color as of yet. Watch this space for news.

The Future For WonderSwan And Final Fantasy?
With Bandai intending to sell 1.2 million units of the WonderSwan Color on the back of its Final Fantasy I remake, hopes are high in the west for a release over here.

Going in direct competition to the GameBoy Advance in Japan in March 2001 and Dragon Quest Monster II, Bandai will be pushing to get the Final Fantasy II remake out by this time if they're to meet their now high expectations.