Does the iPhone make one of the best games even better? "Final Fantasy Tactics" has always, and will always, hold a special place in my heart. Besides being my favorite game in the "Final Fantasy" series (admittedly I haven't played them all), it sits proudly in my Favorite Games of All Time list. And if there was any game that was made for touchscreen controls, this is it. The iPhone's touch screen is perfect for grid-based tactic games and the ability to just move my finger wherever I wanted my characters to go was welcomed.

The iOS version, "Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions," is the same game you know and love, plus the updated visuals and story from the PSP version. Add in complete touch functionality and you've got yourself a portable adventure that could easily suck up the next few hundred hours of your life.

iOS Multitasking is a God-send that cannot be underestimated in a game like "FFT," where battles can rage for hours. The convenienceof being able to stop mid-fight and come back whenever I find time does break up some of the intensity of such power-hour fights, but also makes them much more manageable in the long run.

The improved touch controls of the game come at a cost, and most of them are iPhone hardware related. The text font -- and the game features a lot of it -- is just too small (retina screen, my ass). It hasn't been that long since the original that I should need glasses for reading.

In the same vein, most of the buttons or menus that you need to click are small, meaning that people with big fingers (or normal-sized even) could have trouble navigating and controlling the game. I frequently had to fiddle to get the game to let me pick exactly the right quadrant I needed, usually because it was too small to select easily.

The biggest issue with the game, however, was the engine's lag. It seemed every time I tried to attack someone/use an item/cast a spell the game struggled to keep up with me, slowing down under even simple, repetitive actions. For a game that hinges almost entirely on its battles, and long ones at that, the fact that the game can't run smoothly is practically inexcusable.

The move to the iPhone is a double-edged sword, and it seems for everything that platform technology managed to improve in the game, something else was made worse. The overall game though, and everything that made the original as timeless and enjoyable as it was, still remains intact and just as enjoyable as it was all those years ago. This version could have been better and isn't the ultimate release of it by any means, and shows that 2011 bells and whistles can't always improve on one of the high points of game play -- even if that game was from 1997.

The bottom line though: I still love FFT, and it really is the equivalent of gaming crack. Few games have ever absorbed as much of my time as it has, and to get to dig deep into the mire of the game's story and world again, and on the go, is a treat. The slowdown and other port problems are hard to forgive, but well, it's still "Final Freaking Fantasy Tactics." ("Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions" is now available for the iPhone, and will be released for iPad this fall. It currently costs $15.99 at the App Store.)

Willie Clark has been playing games and spinning cds since the days of the Game Boy Color and cd players(both of which seem dinosaur old in today's world). To keep up with his musical and gaming ramblings, be sure to follow him on FB. But not on Twitter, which is against everything he believes in.