Developer: Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix
Platform: IOS, Android (Review Platform)

For me, Final Fantasy VIII is not a game, it is a biennial event...Once every couple of years I'll visit gamefaqs.com for the brilliant walkthrough by Alex and proceed to go through every inch of Final Fantasy VIII, max out the stats, beat every boss, whistle at every chocobo...and of course, collect every card for the unique Triple Triad mini game. So it was with equal parts optimism and absolute dread that I decided to play Triple Triad Mobile. Thankfully the Triple Triad collectible card game has made its move to mobile quite gracefully though not without problems.

To play, you'll need to download the Final Fantasy Portal app and open Triple Triad Mobile through this app each time. Quite an unintuitive way to open an "on the go" mobile game but in my experience, smart phones never really live up to their name anyway. Triple Triad Mobile's frame rate is jittery at times but this may depend entirely on what phone you're using.

After your account is set up the game gives you a rather heavy-handed tutorial, going as far as forcing you to make poor moves to learn the basics of the card game which, for those of you that don't know, takes place on a 3x3 grid. Players take turns to lay down a card from their hand of 5 and each card has 4 numbers corresponding to the direction they can attack and how powerful the attack is. A higher number placed adjacent to a lower one flips the card with the lower number, making it the victor's colour, the player who has the most cards in their colour when all cards have been placed wins the match.

Once the tutorial is over, the real fun begins! You must duel with the protagonists of each Final Fantasy game starting with easy, medium then hard AI. You can also play with other people online at any point, though the different rule sets of the online mode are only unlocked once you have beaten another human opponent. Each win nets you cards (1 to 5 depending on the rule set) and not just the cards found in Final Fantasy VIII, there are cards from every Final Fantasy game up to Final Fantasy Type-0.  If there's a certain card you have your eye on but you don't like it's attributes, collect 10 of that card and you can create a new card of your own with a different layout.

Triple Triad Mobile improves upon the system present in Final Fantasy VIII in a few different ways. First off, you aren't given incredibly powerful cards right at the start. It's actually a lot more fun playing with weaker cards and this makes the plus and same rules a lot less frustrating because you're not losing despite always having a far superior hand, the game feels far more balanced. I was given a slightly overpowered Tidus card with two 8s for completing the tutorial but this is a 'limited card' part of a new system which means you can only have one limited card in your hand.

My Tidus card was soon bested though, both by online players and by the harder AI opponents. When faced with tougher cards, the same and plus rules really do help to balance the game. Same takes effect when you match 2 or more sides of a card you play and plus when the opposing cards on 2 or more sides add up to the same number which means you still have a chance of flipping an opponents cards even if they have a better hand than you.

In Final Fantasy VIII, the rules were more of an annoyance than anything, in fact there are in-depth guides on how to stop the spreading of rules to the different regions of the game...but in Triple Triad Mobile these rules really do feel like an integral part of the game. Newly introduced rules like 'swap' (swapping cards at the beginning of a match) and 'chaos' (cards must be played in a random order) are also welcome additions and provide deeper gameplay to an otherwise simple card game.

Moving on to the elephant in the room, micro-transactions are present in this free-to-play game. While I am against this practice outright, the rate at which you are given the crystals used to play both single player and online matches is pretty generous. Your crystals max out at 5 and you're given one every half an hour so I can't really see any reason for anyone having to purchase these crystals. Luckily, the only way to collect all of the cards is through playing and not paying.

So is Triple Triad Mobile worth your time? If you're a fan of the original mini-game I would have to say yes! It's quite satisfying collecting all the cards and being nostalgic over the artwork. The music in the game includes Nobuo Uematsu's Shuffle or Boogie but also two other equally catchy tunes which never seem to get old and its online play, whilst probably too difficult to jump in to with just the starter deck, ends up to be a far more balanced and enjoyable experience than the original Triple Triad.

If you are looking for a deep card game akin to something like Yu Gi Oh or Magic: the Gathering this game may not be for you. The defensive focus of the game, prioritising keeping your own cards rather than flipping your opponents, can lead to frequent draws which may frustrate some. I for one look forward to the possibility that Square Enix will one day create a full-blown Yu Gi Oh-esque trading card game. Until that time, Triple Triad Mobile is a great entry to the Final Fantasy franchise...you know...for a mobile game.

Pros:

• Expands upon the original in some fun ways.

• Music and presentation are great for nostalgia.

• Cards gained through playing NOT paying.

Cons:

• Built entirely with assets from other games.

• Lacking any long lasting depth or variety.

• It's a mobile game...

(Disclosure: This article was originally created for Gamesnosh.com)