Age of Empires: The Age of Kings

"One of the Best DS Games to Date"

Age of Empires……For the DS? NO WAY! This game is one of the most fun I own, and the most addictive as well. This game will have you smiling from ear to ear, or wanting to crush your DS depending on the battle and hero you play as. Even though I have not played any of the PC versions of Age of Empires, but I can tell a fun game when I see one.

Game Play – 9/10
The gameplay is simple enough, but close to perfection. You start out with a certain Hero depending on which civilization you are playing as. You also get bonuses on certain units or resources depending on your civilization as well. On most missions, you start off with your Hero, one or two cavalry units, and a few infantry units. Heroes have unique abilities which could be healing, offense bonus, or giving other units extra movement. You also have Villagers. These unique units can build mills, farms or mines in certain areas and can also create new Town Centers, where you add buildings and train more units. The objectives of the missions can range from defending a building to slaughtering every enemy to destroying the enemy town center. Goals are minor things to do in a mission such as killing a certain leader or taking control of all the resources on a map. You earn bonus points for completing each goal. As an added feature, you can also unlock special units and maps with bonus points to play on by yourself, or with a friend. One of my favorite parts of this game is the hot-seat battle, in which you use one DS to play with up to 4 human players, by passing the system around. Age of Empires: Age of Kings also boasts a DS to DS battle feature with a few added functions. The only downside I see to this game is the glitches. This game will often freeze, leaving the user extremely frustrated if they haven't saved in a while. Anyway, the gameplay is one of the stronger points of the game.

Music – 6/10
The music and sounds are good enough for a few hours, but can become tiring and annoying very quickly. Hearing your units yell out the same battle cry for hours can really take a toll on your ears, and will most likely leaving you wanting to let your DS meet your food processor.

Graphics - 7/10
Not superb, but passable. The battle scenes are well animated, but the map screen can leave one wondering whose unit is whose and what that unit is.

Story - 9/10
Solid story, fairly historically accurate. Very engrossing and interesting.

Replayability – 8/10
You will probably want to replay some of the more fun missions, to see how many days in which you can beat it and if you can complete all the goals on each.

Buy or Rent -
In my opinion, renting is the way to go. Of course, if you can find this in the bargain bin for $15, I'd go ahead and pick it up. It can be beaten in about 10 hours, but if you are like me, it could easily take as long as 30.

Overall Score - 8/10
This is probably my favorite for my DS, and will continue to be until I can beat all of the missions. The gameplay is great, the story is actually educational, and the graphics are pretty good. What else is there to want in a game?

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/20/07

Game Release: Age of Empires: The Age of Kings (US, 02/14/06)