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ROMper ROOM: Hold entire empires in your hand

By Joseph Szadkowski (Contact) | Sunday, December 28, 2008

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Nintendo DS owners can conquer the world with a little help from the gods in Age of Empires: Mythologies (for DS, THQ, rated E10+ for players 10 and older, $29.99). Based on Ensemble Studios' PC-based real-time-strategy-game franchise, the action is squeezed down into a pair of hand-held-size screens but remains as potent as ever.

In a robust series of solo campaigns, the player controls characters and resources in three civilizations, Egyptian, Greek and Norse. Through a story told in eight missions for each, he takes turns versus a computer-controlled opponent to dominate a landscape and destroy any opposition.

A player must balance food, gold, and construction and military units to not only successfully attack enemies and defend his positions, but also meet statistical requirements to "age up" to more advanced time periods and take advantage of new technologies.

Human, myth and hero troops are trained and dispersed to stop threats or invade on a gridded map. They can include archers on chariots, a well-developed bunch of light and heavy infantry, and cool creatures. Instead of being locked into more realistic historically based skirmishes, like many of the strategy games, minions such as dragons, scorpion men and sphinx now walk the battlefield.

The wild card in the action is access to the mythical gods, a well-crafted group for each civilization, which quickly can turn the tide of battle. Imagine harnessing a tornado unleashed by Egyptian god Horus or creating an earthquake to destroy legions with help from the Greek war god Ares.

The game excels with slick visuals and battle sounds, culture-specific gibberish and orchestration. Statistics meld into animated battles, highlighted by those mythological creatures, on the DS' top screen. Its lower, touch-sensitive screen holds the map and hot points for administering to a civilization. The player will find a combination of button control and stylus to be the most effective for navigation.

The inclusion of skirmishes and scenario battles, varied multiplayer options (including simply passing the DS around), and wireless, single-card play and WiFi matches give the game nearly infinite life.

Learning time: The game is mired in strategy as it mixes resource management with troop placement and attack planning. The player is exposed to a full roster of famed mythological creatures and gods as he works through campaigns.

Unfortunately, no encyclopedia exists in the game to shed light on the legends it could have been a fantastic resource for a student. What the game offers is plenty of narrative text that should at least make the player curious about the origins of legends such as Perseus or the female pharaoh Hatshepsut.

Age range: The tween who loves an intelligent fight will find a nice variety of missions and multiplayer matches to appreciate. Developers even allow players to save their game right in the middle of a campaign so the weary can rest their eyes and brains. The cartoony violence of the battle is not graphic.