Crystal Chronicals really seems like a bad concept to me. Its mainly just a gimmick to sell as many GBAs as Nintendo can (I know its a Square game, but Nintendo provides incentives to 3rd party developers that make games with link-cable functionality).
I can see where they were going with the concept, not cluttering the screen up with menus and such, but when you look at the other features of the game, I don\'t see it as a problem. Firstly, you can\'t move when you\'re using the menus, holding the group up; secondly, the \"bucket\" prevents anyone from moving ahead as long as someone is stopped.
The implementation I would have went with would have used the C-stick to navigate a non-intrusive menu; possibly a radial, or a menu bar near the character information panel.
I\'m refering to Crystal Chronicals as the Gamecube Steel Battalion; when you need to pay $500 to play a game, it better be good!
Now Four Swords, that looks like a good reason to buy another 3 GBAs...