Age of Empires for the DS is not only one of the most addictive games on the DS, but is one of the best.
Like in other Age of Empires games, you are put in control of one out of a selection of nations. In this installment, you'll be able to control the Franks, Britons, Mongols, Saracens, and Japanese, each one having it's own pros and cons. Each nation also has a campaign mode, in which you play as one of the five historical figures in the game as they fight in their historic battles.
The graphics are nicely done. The characters look decent, if not a bit on the odd side. Some look wierd in places, but it's nothing serious. The buildings all look as they should and most look better than you would probably expect. The envirnment could have been done better in a few areas, but is still passing. Evirnment terrain looks ok, but seems a bit dull here and there, especially the water.
The gameplay is what's going to keep you coming back. Age of Kings for the DS doesn't stick with the real time combat, but goes with a turn based style. This helps new players to not feel as if they must rush their way though everything to keep up with the computer, but at the same time allows veteran players to encounter a new stratigic challenge. As in the previous Age of Empires games, you have a variety of units to choose from, all of which being better or worse against another. However, the type of unit and placement will either win you a battle faster or cost you more dearly than in previous games. Each unit has a specific amount of spaces it can move depending on what it is and what terrain it's moving on. So it's best to think before moving a unit, much like chess.
Seige is also different. You can either choose to burn the town center to the ground and everything around it, or you can destroy the Town Center by itself and take control of buildings around it, much like in Rise of Nations. Building your town is different as well. You can have up to four choice buildings around each town center. Depending on what buildings you wish to build will either hurt or help you in the long run. Resources must be found and harvested in this game. Once you find a resources, either food or gold, simply build the correct thing overtop of it, and it'll generate an unlimited amount of resources.
Sound is largely the same as that in the PC version of Age of Kings, but is a bit fuzzy in a few small areas. The villagers' and a few soldiers' speech is a bit off, otherwise the sound is good. Each building has the sound that it did, and is very well done. You won't be hearing the same in-game music for each nation either, as each one has it's own theme.
Multiplayer is good, although online would have been a nice addition. If one of your friends has the game, and a lot of spare time, it's worth playing. However, since games in Age of Kings can go on for so long, you may not get to finish it depending on how much time you have on hand, and of course, you cannot save multiplayer games as you can single player.
Even after you beat all the campaign modes in the game, you'll come back over and over again to play the Empire Map, which is basically a skirmish, and the multiplayer. There's even a Library where you can read about the various nations, units, buildings, and ect in the game.
Age of Empires: Age of Kings for the DS is not only one of the most addictive games on the DS, but is one of the best overall. It manages to combine elements from stratagy games of different types, along with it's own, the create on of the best games you'll find on the DS to date. If you have some extra money to spend and are looking for a good DS game to keep you entertained for long after the game is completed, don't hesitate to pick of Age of Kings.