Joystiq impressions: Age of Empires: Mythologies

by Zack Stern { Oct 6th 2008 at 11:30PM }

Age of Empires: Mythologies follows the style of the DS Age of Kings, turning the PC real-time strategy into a portable, turn-based title. We checked out the game a the Nintendo Media Summit and found a lot of depth in the transition. While you'll only choose from Greek, Norse, or Egyptian armies, there's still ample Age of Empires inside.

Gallery: Age of Empires: Mythologies

We initially rushed into battle without a background playing the original DS Age of Empires. While a little confusing at first, the game easily evokes Advance Wars; we moved a handful of units around the grid-based board to attack enemies. Each unit has benefits and drawbacks compared to others; for example, our normally-weak spearmen easily hacked through powerful cavalry enemies.

Unlike Advance Wars, Age of Empires requires more resource management and building maintenance like the PC original. While going to battle – or often before – we used one unit to create farms built structures that generated fighters. We even developed new weapons and upgraded units through research tracks. While the rush of real-time is missing, Age of Empires still retains a lot of depth.

Up to four players will be able to compete online or locally if each person has the game. And two people can locally play against each other with only one copy.

Strategy gamers should look for Age of Empires: Mythologies soon, with a tentative release date of November 14.

Tags: age-of-empires, age-of-empires-mythologies, joystiqfeatures, nfms08-hands-on, nintendo, nintendo-fall-media-summit-08, nintendo-fms-08, thq

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

&rew @ Oct 6th 2008 11:36PM

Ensemble, just call it 4 so the fanboys can have their closure.

J.Goodwin @ Oct 6th 2008 11:47PM

Griptonite is doing this one, not Ensemble.

How stable is THQ these days? I wonder if Microsoft is considering bringing Big Huge Games in house.

Shmil @ Oct 7th 2008 12:32AM

I would kill, and I mean literally kill, for a Starcraft DS

brian @ Oct 6th 2008 11:49PM

i don't like the advanced wars appeal to it.

would it have been so hard to make a normal rts? it's not like that wold be hard to play with a touchscreen.

the ds is the perfect system for a rts, even among the home consoles.

iofthestorm @ Oct 7th 2008 2:41AM

It really is. FF XII Revenant Wings was amazing. I had been a bit skeptical before about how an RTS would work on the DS, but it worked pretty well.

wickedpheonix @ Oct 6th 2008 11:56PM

Yeah - this isn't AoE at all - there's no such thing as a JRPG AoE and that's definitely what this looks like. It's disgusting IMHO.

And besides, they left out the Atlanteans! WTF?!

Yourself @ Oct 7th 2008 12:44AM

A... JRPG? Really? Where in god's name did you get that from? If anything it looks more Civ than AoE, but I didn't exactly see any dungeon-crawling or MP meters.
If I recall, the first DS AoE was very well received, so maybe I'll check it out this time around. I like a nice balance of turn-based and real-time strategy.