"Review from a Table Top Mage Knight Player"

Introduction
The game that has been long-awaited by many devoted fans of the table top Mage Knight game has finally arrived. Since it's announcement, there has been quite a bit of discussion as to how faithful it would be to the original.

On a whole, the game plays similar to the tabletop version. Though there are some differences in the way that it's set up, it's different than many strategy games for the DS or other consoles in that it truly was an attempt to mimic the actual game. Overall, I feel they succeeded.

Game Play
Being an avid player of the tabletop game, I was very familiar with the rules and mechanics of the game. As such, the learning curve on the game for me was pretty easy to master. However, there are still several nuances that even an experience MK gamer must learn, as there are some discrepancies on how the DS portrays some rules. Unfortunately, the game manual is of little help in this matter.

Once you get the hang of how things move around, though, the battles become fairly simple. Dragging a warrior to where you want it to go is very nice, because it shows a yellow line when it's a legal move, a red line when it's legal but will hurt you, and no line if you can't move there at all. Very handy for determining where you want to go.

Positioning the figures and facing them the right way can sometimes be tricky. Sometimes, you want it to face a certain way to be able to attack certain figures, and many times you can't quite get it to face the way you want easily. However, with a little practice and patience, even this can be mastered.

Building armies is easy to do as well. Drag and drop is the name of the game, and it's fairly easy to do; it will even tell you how many points you've used!

Overall, I found the gameplay to be outstanding, all things considered. Not without it's flaws, but a good representation of the tabletop game. And since I love the tabletop game, I like this one, too. However, for those not familiar with the rules of the tabletop game, it may be a trickier, harder path to learn.

My rating: 8/10

Story
I'm still not completely finished with it, but the general plot is interesting. Your warrior is on a quest to stop a race of magical beings called the Solonavi from destroying the land with their powerful magic. In doing so, your warrior has to recruit warriors to his cause, to be ready to fight them.

I'm a sucker for cheesy dialog, though. This story is ripe with it. While the plot underneath the dialog is pretty interesting, the way it is portrayed often is more "silly" than anything else, which even I admit sometimes detracts from the supposed seriousness of the situation.

At the beginning, the storyline is fairly linear - you go from one battle to the next, with the only options being who you will recruit and how you will build your army. However, as the game progresses, you are presented with several branches. If you go down one branch, though, you can always go back and do the other one, too (at least so far). Sometimes, doing so is necessary if you want to be able to recruit every possible warrior you can - some may not be available except during certain paths.

Overall, not bad. I'm not done with the game yet, but I expect it will be as interesting, if cheesy, as it has been.

My Rating: 7/10

Graphics/Sound
Many people have complained about these two elements. I'll start with the sound. I will admit, the music and sound effects strike me more as Game Boy Advance quality than DS quality, for the most part. The music sometimes gets a bit stale and repetitive. However, I don't find it TOO obnoxious myself. If it starts to bug me, I'll just turn the volume down, not just turn it off; the ambiance does add something to the game.

The Sound Effects are a bit simple and crude. However, they at least seem appropriate for the effect they represent. Attacks sound like "whiffs" or "smashes" (and different creatures have different effects for their attacks). Not bad, but not great.

The Graphics I found to be acceptable. Again, more along the quality of a GBA game, but not too awful. The images of the warriors are at least fairly accurate to how their corresponding tabletop figures look, and they are animated which gives them a little more lively feel. Each of them uses their "poses" and such in their animations, too. The Blood Priestesses, for example, are holding some kind of chalice; they use this chalice for their attacks in various ways that are rather interesting, if not strange.

However, the use of the dual screen definitely is well done; the bottom screen is typically for moving around the map, choosing actions, etc. The top screen is for information and other "non-changeable" stuff, like warrior stats, etc. As such, it did at least make full use of the DS capabilities on this front.

My Rating: 7/10

Play Time/Replayability
Since I'm not finished yet, I can't fully comment on this one. However, if my game were to be erased right now, and I'd have to start over, I wouldn't mind too much. I enjoy the tabletop game for the sake of the battles, and wouldn't mind doing them over again.

My Rating: 9/10

Final Recommendation
For anyone who likes and knows the tabletop game, this game may be right up your alley, as long as you are willing to look past it's flaws and enjoy the game for what it is. For non-Mage Knight players, it may be one you want to try first, as it may just not be your cup of tea. If you DO decide to play, though, I would recommend going to the WizKids site and getting the tabletop rules; knowing them will be a big help in figuring out the whats and why's to the game.

However, I would recommend this game for anyone wanting to try a new and different strategy game!

My Overall Rating: 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/05/06