While the series had misteps during its 27 years - most of them recently - Final Fantasy games can always be relied upon to deliver great music.

In Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call, a huge library of the most iconic compositions -  from the swirly electronic nostalgia of the 80s and early 90s games, to the sweeping orchestras and J-rock of Final Fantasy VII and VIII, to the more contemporary tunes of current games - are collected and repurposed into a unique and brilliant rhythm-based role-playing game.

Depending on the song you play, you'll either need to battle monsters by tapping and swiping to the beat, explore a field by following musical contours or watch a video of iconic game moments while swiping and tapping along.

At the easiest difficulty level, the songs are very difficult to fail, but that's handy if you're still trying to wrap your head around the mechanics or want to focus on the familiar landscapes and enemies as you enjoy the music and absent-mindedly tap along.

The expert (middle) difficulty level represents the game at its most enjoyable and, as in Guitar Hero, the genius of the design only really reveals itself once you kick up the difficulty. Suddenly the rhythm of the input patterns falls into a kind of internal logic, and all you need to really succeed is concentration, rhythm and a solid familiarity with the song you're performing.

If you know the song really well or are just searching for a way to put as many scratches into your 3DS touchscreen as possible, the third and final difficulty level generally consists of a terrifying cascade of input icons to test your rhythm and reflexes. Be sure to equip a good potion.

Beyond providing a great interactive jukebox of Final Fantasy music, Curtain Call models itself on its source material with a deep (but at times obtuse) role-playing design.

As you battle and explore with your favourite characters they level up, giving access to new skills you can use to take down monsters more easily, avoid taking damage (which happens when you miss notes) and more. Traditional Final Fantasy elements such as items, potions, magic and summons are woven into the play as well.

You also unlock a steady stream of new songs and characters as you go, but the game smartly lets you choose your first four characters out of the entire roster, so if you only ever played a couple of the games you won't get stuck with unfamiliar faces.

As you may have surmised from the title, Curtain Call is actually the follow-up to 2012's Theatrhythm Final Fantasy. While the core mechanics are identical to the first game, Curtain Call packs around three times the musical tracks (221 in total, not counting paid downloadable content).

It also has a greatly upgraded roster of characters and several new modes that make the whole package feel a lot more like a cohesive game and less like a collection of disparate songs.

Curtain Call is both the definitive version of the original game and a sufficient reason for fans to pick it up again. Non-fans with a particular interest in game music or rhythm action games may find plenty to like as well.