Nintendo DS

Age of Empires: The Age of Kings

Bei Portierungen bin ich eigentlich sehr skeptisch. Normalerweise gehen solche Aktionen doch eher in die Hose und es wird meist ein liebloser Port abgeliefert. Doch mit Age of Kings hat es Majesco geschafft, eine Handheldversion auf den Markt zu bringen, die mir mehr Spaß macht als das PC Vorbild. Der Schritt von Echtzeit zum Rundenmodus war genau richtig, gerade weil dadurch die Komplexität bewahrt wurde. Mit dem Spiel wird man nicht nur lange, sondern auch bestens unterhalten. Egal ob man die Mission einfach "so" spielt oder zusätzlich die Nebenziele meistern will. Das "nur noch eine Runde"-Prinzip greift wunderbar.

No início, "Age of Empires: The Age of Kings" causa suspeitas, mas a conversão para o portátil de duas telas é uma grata surpresa e quem gosta do estilo consagrado por "Advance Wars" terá em mãos (literalmente) um verdadeiro banquete.

If anything else, Age of Empires: The Age of Kings proves that strategy games have a bright future on the DS. If you’re a strategy nut that has worn out their copy of Advance Wars and are looking for that next great strategy game, Age of Empires is a must have.

Age of Kings is one of the smartest games on the DS. It's highly recommended for gamers of all ages and intelligence.

All in all this is one heck of a good game. You’ll be hard pressed to find a better one on the DS that is as deep and engrossing (other than Advanced Wars). If you’re a strategy fan who’s looking for your next portable fix, then this educational history lesson is waiting to be played.

If stories that function logically enough on a small scale, but begin to reveal their cracks when you broaden your point of view, weren't able to propel you through bits of unconnected action toward a distant payoff, no one would've remembered Battlestar Galactica long enough to bother with a remake. Think, then, how much more memorable and ...errr, better ...such disjointed narratives would be if every episode displayed the characters' tactical mastery as they worked their way toward bigger, strategic goals.

Age of Empires: Age of Kings ist der kleine Bruder von Advance Wars DS! Ich habe das PC-Original aufgrund des mittelalterlichen Flairs geliebt und genau das gibts hier im Miniformat - egal ob Musik, Grafikstil, Forschung oder Truppentypen. Das Team von Backbone Entertainment hat die edle Seele des Klassikers eingefangen. Ich kann Türme und Burgen bauen, Weizen und Gold scheffeln, Truppen in die Schlacht schicken und jede Menge taktische Finessen innerhalb des Geländes oder der Spezialfähigkeiten ausspielen. Trotz der Umstellung von Echtzeit auf Runde fühlt sich das Spiel an wie sein Vorbild! Insgesamt ist dieser Ausflug ins rundenbasierte Mittelalter zwar nicht so komplex und freischaltfreudig wie Advance Wars DS, aber ich konnte mich kaum davon losreißen.

True, you've got the multiplayer modes, but as any Advance Wars gamer knows, these can often end up in stalemate and playing turn-based games is actually pretty tedious - especially when you've got dozens of units to control, making the gaps in between each turn painfully long. But despite these shortcomings, Age Of Empires: The Age Of Kings is still a really entertaining game. And by the time its flaws really become noticeable, you'll have had a good couple of weeks' fun out of it. So don't worry too much about its failings - buy it and enjoy the feelings of megalomania while they last!

The decision to port Age of Kings to the DS was an inspired one. It all works so wonderfully well that this is certainly, in my opinion, in the top 5 DS games released so far. Is it as good as the current turn based DS king, Advance Wars? No, not quite, but it's not far behind, and when you consider just how good Advance Wars actually is, to get as close as this is certainly some achievement. This is highly recommended to all who like strategy games, and it is so accessible to be also recommended to strategy game newcomers who want to experience a great game in its own right.

In school my teachers always made sure that my social studies and history classes were very, very boring. They'd drone on about the Hundred Years War, the invasion of the Khwarezmid Empire, or the Crusades, careful to avoid anything that could be considered interesting or exciting about any of it. In the Midwestern school I went to, great pride was taken in crushing young spirits in the name of training them for the ceaseless monotony they'd experience as a cog in the mighty machine that is the American work force. So, I sat down with Age of Empires a bit skeptical of a strategy game based on those uninspired lessons I'd learned in school about dusty old Richard the Lionheart, Joan of Arc, or Genghis Khan.

Age of Empires für den Nintendo DS schafft es tatsächlich, das Feeling des großen Bruders auf einem Handheld zu bieten. Die kleinen Kürzungen stören kaum und das verschlankte Gameplay tut dem Spiel gut. Lediglich ein paar kleine technische Mankos verhindern eine höhere Wertung. Kenner der Serie werden sich sofort heimisch fühlen, wenn sie sich mit der langsamen Spielweise anfreunden können.

Other than the potential bugs, the only major issue with Age of Empires: Age of Kings is it’s ability to overwhelm, both in its scope and its demands on your time. But if you have the patience, and most important, the mind for strategic thinking, this makes practically every other strategy game on the market feels like child's play.

Age of Empires: The Age of Kings ist richtig gut geworden. Schon nach kurzer Zeit packte mich die stimmige Mittelalteratmosphäre des Titels und man leidet beim Verlust wertvoller Einheiten richtig mit. Insbesondere der Basenbau sowie die Technologie-Forschung über die Zeitalter machen richtig Spaß und ich kann Age of Empires für DS nur empfehlen.

Innovation has been the key to DS's success in the past year. Nintendo risked all by offering a cheaper, more innovative product, rather than embracing macho consumerism ala PSP. It is this innovation that sets DS products apart as well, making the "good" games less than appealing, and the "great" games legends. In true Nintendo fashion, when people think of the DS they will remember the first party greats. Games like Advance Wars, Mario Kart, and Animal Crossing come to mind as the pinnacle that all games hope to achieve. Every once in a while, however, an outsider is allowed into the hierarchy of gaming goodness.

Talk about a pleasant surprise. Age of Empires for the Nintendo DS shares its name with the popular and long-running PC real-time strategy game series, but it's been completely redesigned to play well on a portable system. Specifically, this is a turn-based strategy game that plays much more like Advance Wars than like previous Age of Empires games, which force you to be very quick with the mouse and keyboard in order to succeed. Yet almost all of the elements that made the original version of Age of Empires II so great are still here, despite such a fundamental change to the gameplay. There are a few relatively minor issues with Age of Empires for the DS, but for the most part, this is a fun, deep, and addictive strategy game that packs in a good history lesson to boot.

Purists of the original PC version will lament the lack of free-flowing manoeuvres, however at its heart the game is Age of Empires - albeit a cut-down version. It still retains the challenges and the rich historical backdrop of the original, and fans will enjoy the familiarity and the new challenges.

With strategy series out there like Advance Wars, which expand upon your average strategy game with sexy results, a title like The Age of Kings comes off as an old monarch, and not the new generation.

"Age of Empires: Age of Kings " for Nintendo DS is a fantastic game; when it finally comes out here in Europe, you can't go wrong. The sound is a bit substandard compared to the rest of the game, and it's a bit annoying there is only local multiplayer, as Wi-Fi support would have been ace. However, this is still a deep and compelling game. AOE2 does not just imitate Advance Wars, but really rivals it, and in fact surpasses it in many ways, making this one of the most highly recommended Nintendo DS games available!

Podsumowując, "The Age of Empires: The Age of the King" jest naprawdę udaną konwersją. Gra co prawda nie ustrzegła się pewnych błędów. Są problemy ze sterowaniem (trudno trafić rysikiem w określoną jednostkę, gdy w jednym miejscu stoi ich kilka), bywa nużąca (szczególnie w ostatnich kampaniach), ale też nie ma wielkiej konkurencji, więc posiadacze Nintendo DS'a, powinni w nią grać z przyjemnością. Przynajmniej ja grałem.

Age Of Empire : The Age Of Kings sur DS est une adaptation quasi exceptionnelle. Et le verbe "adapter" n'est pas galvaudé. Digital Eclipse fait preuve d'intransigeance et son contraire en faisant survivre la richesse ludique et éditoriale des versions PC dans un moule tour par tour vraiment bien fichu. Ce respect donne lieu à un titre complexe pour une portable, et vous devez absolument vous sentir capable avant de craquer. Je me répète : on est loin d'Advance Wars, et si vous ne connaissez pas AOE ou Heroes Of Might And Magic sur PC, ou n'importe quel Wargame un tant soit peu pointu, réfléchissez bien. Voici en tout cas un titre qui éclaire encore une fois la DS, cette fois-ci vers un rôle de plate-forme rêvé pour des adaptations de jeux PC dits "sérieux". La miss n'a pas fini de nous étonner.

A very good translation of the AoE series, and a thoroughly good game. With the non-Nintendo RTS shining on the DS we encourage you to grab this game, it’s the perfect companion for a long journey, to pass the time before Wii and even just to relax for a few hours after a tough day.

While not the first choice for some people, the tweaks to the system in Age of Empires works for it, not against it. Non-jaded fans will be happy with the change of pace (so much so that it feels like an entirely new game), and new players can prepare themselves with an inviting system that offers them the time to think out each move. Aside from the control problems and lacking multi-player due to the turn based switch, Empires works fine on the DS.

Age of Kings is a very solid and fun game, and manages to be a pretty good history lesson too. The control isn’t perfect, sometimes requiring a little more tapping than you might like, but it sure beats playing with just a D-pad. With its lengthy campaigns, replayability, and solid multiplayer, strategy fans will keep coming back to this one.

Age of Empires: The Age of Kings is een erg goed uitgewerkte turn-based strategygame geworden die tot de nok toe gevuld is met historisch accurate content en de typische sfeer van Age of Empires heel goed weet vast te houden. De gameplay kan zich behoorlijk goed meten met die van andere toppers in het genre, zoals Fire Emblem en Advance Wars. De historische settings, de base-building en de verschillende tijdperken en technologieën geven de game een geheel eigen karakter.

Real-time strategy on the DS? Hrm … probably wouldn't work all that well. The lack of a mouse to move around the battlefield swiftly and control all those units would be a pretty frustrating setup. It's a good thing that Age of Empires' immigration to the DS came complete with a genre switch, then. The Age of Kings retains a lot of similarities to its PC forebears, but with a console-friendly, turn-based setup.

Gamers had high-hopes for touch implementation on the Nintendo DS. There were visions of a library choc full of highly-intuitive, highly-enjoyable games that gamers and non-gamers alike would be able to pick up and play. To some extent this idealization came to fruition in the form of games like Meteos and, well, Meteos. By and large, use of the touch screen has been gimmicky at best for third-party titles (see Castlevania seal tracing) and almost an afterthought in the majority of first-party fare (see menus in Mario Kart). Perhaps the genre most ideally suited for use of the DS’ highly touted and yet oft-ignored touch abilities are strategy titles, more specifically turn-based strategy.

Though Age of Empires borrows many elements from the PC version of AoE II, it condenses these concepts into a smaller, simpler, safer system. Most of the core options are still there, so you're still able to pick from several different civilizations, including the Monguls, the Britons, and the Franks. AoE veterans, though, are bound to notice a few changes. Armies are now grouped up as single units; one lone character on the map can represent, say, a hundred berserker warriors. This takes some of the more intricate strategies out of the equation--no more splitting up squads on the fly for fancy pincer maneuvers--but there's still plenty of strategic weight to throw around.

It's recently become apparent to me, as a hardcore PC strategy gamer, that I'm simply going to have to start paying more attention to the consoles. That's because, while the PC still dominates real-time strategy, many of my most enjoyable turn-based strategy experiences over the last few years have happened on handheld systems put out by Nintendo.

Overall, though, Age of Empires: The Age of Kings turns out to be merely adequate. There's some pretty glaring problems that simply overshadow the good areas of the game. Hopefully a sequel will straighten these out, because there is the potential for a truly great game here. There's some tough enemy AI at work, and some lovely scripting in the campaign mode, but I just wish it'd been in a better package.

Age of Empires: Age of Kings isn’t quite the home run (or perhaps stand-up triple) that Advance Wars was with regards to the genre of turn-based strategy, but it’s a good strategy game for the morning commute or a rainy afternoon with a few friends. This AoE may not be the seven-course meal of development, technology and military domination, but it’s a filling little snack.

Though Age of Empires is competent in every regard, there's nothing here to get excited about - even if you're a huge nerd for the PC series.

Immediacy gets lost in translation as the PC’s empire building real-time strategy Age of Empires moves to the Nintendo DS, where it takes up residence as a turn-based game. Although Age of Empires: Age of Kings remains as fun and challenging as its PC counterparts, the genre shift doesn’t come off without some rough patches. Kings now emphasizes hardcore, Advance Wars-style strategy, but loses its frantic pace and sense of having actually built something, let alone a society; inventions and civilization improvements occur daily, and buildings take 24 hours (one turn) to erect.

Age of Empires II sur DS est une agréable surprise. Sans tutoyer les sommets du genre, il démontre malgré tout que la portable de Nintendo se prête particulièrement bien à la stratégie au tour par tour. En insérant dans un système de jeu simple (mais pas simpliste) certains éléments et mécanismes de son illustre modèle, le jeu propose un challenge intéressant doublé d'un mode solo bien mené. Reste que pour mater Advance Wars DS, il faudrait aussi proposer des tonnes de contenu, une ergonomie sans faille et une lisibilité parfaite. Autant de points sur lesquels Age of Empire pèche encore. Les amateurs sauront faire fi de ces quelques défauts pour profiter du jeu, mais peut-être pas tous les joueurs.

Apart from these minor quibbles, Age of Empires: Age of Kings is a noble, if distinctly old fashioned, effort to capture the magic of a classic series in the palm of your hand. Amazingly, it even gives the sublime Advance Wars Dual Strike a run for its strategy money. The epic main campaign alone will keep you battling away for weeks and there are wireless multiplayer scenarios for up to four players to try out too. It might be a bit too hardcore for the casual DS crowd, and certainly a bit long in the tooth compared to most modern strategy titles, but gamers wanting to wage war on the move need look no further.

De transformatie van de Age of Empires serie naar de DS is in principe geslaagd. Het is een uitgebreide game, met een goede gameplay, mooie graphics en herkenbaar geluid. Het idee van de Empire Points waarmee je maps en units kunt unlocken is erg leuk. De campaigns zijn goed uitgedacht en bevatten elk een verhaal. De game zit verder nog vol met informatie over de units, beschavingen, gebouwen etc. Groot nadeel is dat de game vaak crasht waardoor je abnormaal veel moet saven en soms een bepaalde actie gewoon niet kunt doen omdat de game daar constant op blijft bevriezen. Het is echt te hopen dat dit voor de Europese versie gefixed wordt, want eigenlijk mag een game niet zo onstabiel zijn, hoe leuk deze ook is.