Square Enix's Final Fantasy III for Nintendo's handheld gaming system, the Nintendo DS, has finally got its release date for Europe: 4th May. The game will also have a few features from its NES counterpart, updated of course and perfectly tailored for the double screened handheld's performance.

"The arrival of Final Fantasy III on Nintendo DS showcases the power of the hardware and proves that no compromise has to be made in order to create an adventure of this magnitude for a handheld system," said John Yamamoto, president and CEO of Square Enix. "With over 1.4 million copies already shipped in Japan and North America, we are sure that Final Fantasy III will be a big success in Europe too."

Actually, the game is an enhanced remake of the 1990 Japan-only console role-playing game of the same name, originally developed for the Nintendo Entertainment System. This is the first and only version of Final Fantasy III to have been officially released outside of Japan.

The DS version of Final Fantasy III has the same gameplay as the Famicom version and tries to keep true to the original game while still addressing some of the more outdated and unbalanced elements. Also seen in the first two Final Fantasy games, this game features the same upgraded turn-based combat system. However, the experience point system featured in Final Fantasy remains in the game, unlike in Final Fantasy II and its remakes.

Reviews of the game have shown that all the classic Final Fantasy elements are there (in case you thought that a handheld porting of the game would reduce some of its features), plus there are some subcharacters now joining your team to help out and the more important characters have had a redesign (carried out by Akihiko Yoshida). However, the narrative and story parts of the game are pretty thin for a game with such a long history. Then again, we're talking DS title here. No disk space, right? Remember, May 4th is when it hits European shops.