An amusing and compelling rts game for the ds

User Rating: 8 | Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings DS
When you think about it, rts games are perfect for the nintendo ds. The stylus is wonderfully suited to replace a computer mouse, and pretty much the only problem is controlling all the action on the small screen. Revenant Wings succeeds at making a compelling, amusing game.

The way the battle system works is the melee, ranged and flying work in a rock-paper-scissors way. Melee is strong against ranged, ranged is strong against flying, and flying is strong against melee, and vice-versa for the weaknesses. There are also elemental strengths/weaknesses, so there is plenty of strategy involved.

All the action is on the bottom screen, the d-pad is used to view around the area and the stylus is used to select units and order them to attack or collect treasure. The handy 'x' button is used to select all units, if you need all of them to attack. The small screen can be a hindrance, because of the fairly big areas, and for left-handed people trying to control all the action can be annoying(using both the d-pad and stylus at the same time).

The graphics are absolutely beautiful, with all the greens and blues and beautiful areas to explore. The sprites aren't nearly as impressive, but they get the job done. There are also nice cut-scenes.

The game isn't completely perfect though. As I mentioned before, controlling the game can become irritating for left-handed people when things get hectic, and the game can get repetitive. But if you need an rts fix on the ds, this is your game. Helps too that the story isn't half bad.