Age of Empires: Age of Kings for Nintendo DS Reviews by Gamers

Age of Empires: The Age of Kings is very different from it's PC counterparts. This is a turn based strategy game that is based on a real time strategy game. For the most part, this conversion makes for a fun and thought provoking strategy experience. For starters, Empires allows you to play as several different historically relevant generals through differing campaigns against their enemies. A library option allows the player to brush up on some of the actual history that the game developers used to create the various scenarios you play through. It is rare that you actually learn something from a game. Turn based strategists will find the action balanced and engaging. RTS fans may find that it takes too long to accomplish certain goals. Their is a large variety of units at the players disposal. This variety allows the player to approach each level in many different ways. This only increases as you build more cities and acquire new technology by spending your resources. Secondary goals are present on each map that, when completed, give the player empire points that can be used to open new maps and units from the title screen. This is a small, yet worthwhile endeavor for completists who want to get everything out of their game. Resource gathering, fog of war and other elements of typical PC strategy games can also be found here. The DS touch screen is an ideal, if slightly inaccurate, way to position and manage your troops. Multiplayer is fun if both players know what they are doing and have completed the tutorial campaign. The only downside is that the multiplayer game takes so long that you will rarely be able to finish a map in one sitting. The biggest issue with Empires is the graphics. The problem is that they can often get muddled when a lot of units and cities are together on the map. Not knowing the type of unit you have where can make strategizing difficult. In the end, Advanced Wars is a better game,but a turn based strategy fan won't want to pass on this.

AOE:AOK does a fairly decent job of translating the AOE RTS games into a turn based strategy game. Troops are well balanced, the learning curve isn't too steep, and a wide variety of unlockables are available. This game; however; is not recommended for those with short attention spans. One single map can take days to complete if, like me, you are only afforded the opportunity to play in short bursts. While this was not necessarily a negative to me, I could see how some people may become bored with the games sometimes slow pace.
There are a couple of other issues that kept me from giving this game a higher rating. Due to the small pixel size of the DS screen, a unit sprite stacked on a building sprite stacked on a resource sprite, all of which cover the map graphics, can make it impossible to tell whats going on onscreen. At time you end up relying entirely on the upper DS "information" screen.
Overall I would recommend this game to strategy enthusiasts; but would caution AOE/RTS fans or the short attention span set to steer clear.