Yes, I know, this review is ridiculously late.

But ... for fans of the first two Golden Sun games on the Game Boy Advance that have been looking forward to this anticipated, yet quietly-released Nintendo DS sequel, this review being late is a good thing.

You see, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn is a huge game. This is not a lazy, quickly put-together sequel to appease fans who have been clamoring for a new game in the series for years. This is a fully realized, super robust RPG that feels about as long as the first two Golden Sun games combined.

So, yeah. This review is late because the game took me a really long time to complete.

But was that long time (40+ hours!) spent playing a worthy follow-up to the cult-tastic previous games in the series? Or did I just waste a lot of great holiday gaming time on something ultimately disappointing?