Age of Empires: The Age of Kings

Control up to 5 legendary races with varying heroes and strengths in campaign or local multiplayer to dominate planes of battle one at a time in this TBS by Backbone.

Nintendo DS

Single Player

Campaign Mode is made up of 5 series of missions with said number of distinctive races, each time playing as a hero of legend. Their difficulty levels slowly rise throughout, from the tutorial campaign of Joan of Arc to the savage crusade led by Richard the Lionhearted.
Empire Map Mode allows the player to play as who they want and against who they want, in any plane of battle they've bought in the shop, starting at any period in time (up until 100 years ago) and with varying goal s of victory. Some are obvious, such as conquest, whereas in Wonder each player rushes to be the first to build a Wonder building for victory.

Multiplayer

Age of Empir es has both a hotseat and wireless mode, but the wireless mode requires 2 DSes and is essentially what you get with Hoseat mode. Multiplayer is standard TBS fare, with each of the players attempting to best the other depending on the requirements.

It's only day 2, so the player must have started on the third age.
Controls

While d-pad and face button controls work just fine, touch screen controls are also an option. They have, however, been noted by journalists to be less convienient than traditional controls.

Races

Age of Empires: Th e Age of Kings has 5 distinct races. They are:

-Mongols (Genghis Khan) - Researching is cheap; Stables, Blacksmiths, Scout Calvary, Light Calvary, and Horse Archers are at discount prices; Knights, Cavaliers, Paladins, Crossbows, Arbalests and Hand Cannoners are at premium prices.

-Franks (Joan of Arc) - Income bonus of farming; Stables, Castles, Knights, Cavaliers, Paladins and Monks are at discount prices; Camels, Horse Archers and Scorpions are at premium prices.

-Saracens (Saladin) - Income bonus of mining; Stables, Markets, Archers, Onagers, Light Calvary and Bombards are at discount prices; Knights, Cavaliers, Paladins, Longswords, 2-handed doppelgangers and Champions are at premium prices.

-Britons (Richard I) - Income bonus of mining; Archery ranges, Churches, Crossbows, Arbalests, Crossbows, Longswords, 2-handed doppelganers and Champions are at discount prices; Camels, Horse Archers, Ona gers and Bombards are at premium prices.

Japanese (Minamoto Yoshitsune) - Income bonus of farming; Mills, Mines, Spearmen, Pikemen, Crossbows, Arbalests, and Hand Cannoneers are at discount prices; Camels, Knights, Cavaliers and Paladins are at premium prices.

Library

Combat in action. Minamoto's the clear victor here — heroes are powerful.

In Age of Empires: The Age of Kings there is a surprisingly large library of information, divided into the following categories:
-Civilizations
-Britons
-Franks
-Saracens
-Mongols
-Japanese
-Heroes
        -Richard I
        -Joan of Arc
        -Saladin
        -Genghis Khan/Temucin
        -Minamoto Yoshitsune
-Units
        -(list of units in the game)
-Buildings
        -(list of buildings in the game)
-Technologies
        -(list of technologies in the game)
-Ages
        -Dark Age
        -Feudal Age
        -Castle Age
        -Imperial Age
-Miscellanius
        -(list of miscellanius overviews and facts)
-Great Conquests
        -The Crusades
        -The Genpei War
        -The Hundred Years War
        -The Mongol Expansion

Shop

The shop allows players to buy extra units and maps with points that they earned in campaign and skirmishes. It has a select few maps which are different from the others in that you start off with a certain number of units and are unable to buy any more. Bonus items range from 100-300 points.

Reception

Age of Empires: The Age of Empires was received well by most sources. It has an impressive score of 80% on both Metacritic and Gamerankings. Journalists noted that the lack of Wi-Fi was a disappointment, but it had all the addictive strategy gameplay of similar DS titles. Some noted that its AI seemed a bit poor. Many decided that the infinite replay value was in the same league as the megaton hit Advance Wars: Dual Strike from 2005.