Technically, I just played Golden Sun DS, Camelot's return to the role-playing game series born on the Game Boy Advance. I say "technically," because the playable portion of Nintendo's E3 showfloor demo lasts about five seconds.
Tap the touchscreen and your character will jog to the location of your choice. Or, use the cross pad.
The rest is a hands-off demonstration that showcases how good Golden Sun's transition to the Nintendo DS and into the third-dimension looks. Golden Sun DS on the E3 showfloor is essentially a series of elemental summons, showing off a half-dozen or so dual-screen filling beasts and deities raining damage down upon foes.
The Djinn system that made the first two Golden Sun games so replayable is back. As we watched battles unfold, a collection of Djinni danced about the top screen. On the bottom, our AI controlled trio of heroes did battle.
Golden Sun DS looks to include some familiar summons. Extended cinematic attacks from Atalanta and Ramses looked sharp. Some of those summons look have been given a redesign, as I'm not sure if one was supposed to be Tiamat or Procne. But these summons illustrate how pretty the DS iteration look, so they were highlighted prominently.
Visually, the game looks lush, as the demo panned across a series of environments, showing off bright foliage and rocky mountain passes. Fans of the visual style of the GBA version will appreciate what Camelot Software Planning has done with the 3D design.
Golden Sun DS is out sometime next year.