Topic: Majesco Announces Age of Empires for DS

[Karl Castaneda #2]

Take the famous franchise on the go with Nintendo DS!

MAJESCO ENTERTAINMENT AND DIGITAL ECLIPSE BRING 'AGE OF EMPIRES' TO NINTENDO DS    

  16 Million Fans Can Now Conquer the World While on the Move!    

EDISON, N.J., May 13, 2005 - One of the most successful game franchises  for Windows PC comes to the Nintendo DS handheld system as Majesco  Entertainment Company (NASDAQ: COOL), a provider of diversified products  and content for digital entertainment platforms, and Digital Eclipse, a  division of Foundation 9 Entertainment and a leading developer of  interactive entertainment, introduce Age of Empires(r): The Age of  Kings.  The standard-bearer for real-time strategy games on the Windows  platform, Ensemble Studios' Age of Empires property has sold more than  16 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling games for  Windows franchises of all time.  The Nintendo DS game is scheduled for  release this holiday.    

"Age of Empires has set the gold standard for real-time strategy games  and its global audience continues to grow," said Ken Gold, vice  president of Marketing for Majesco.  "Our portable version provides an  exceptional game experience by taking advantage of the new DS features,  and we are excited to have such a high-profile and well-regarded  property spearhead our DS lineup for the back-half of 2005."    

Age of Empires: The Age of Kings boasts turn-based strategy gameplay - a  first for the franchise - as players move from the Dark Ages through the  Middle Ages with one goal in mind: domination of the known world.    

Features of the game include:    

Command one of five different civilizations: the Britons,  Franks, Mongols, Saracens, or Japanese;    

Control special 'hero' units such as Richard the Lionheart,  Robin Hood, Joan of Arc and Genghis Khan, whose special 'hero' powers  affect the entire battlefield;    

Lead over 45 different types of units into battle -- from  bowmen and monks to hand cannoneers, mercenaries and samurai;    

Players' can construct and upgrade buildings to help their  units learn new skills and create resources for their civilizations;    

Research over 50 different technologies like chemistry,  ballistics, siege craft and spying to advance civilization into the next  age;    

A new Combat Advisor offers advice on certain campaign  strategies and provides an assessment of the battle's outcome;.    

Multi-player scenarios allow up to four players to wirelessly  battle each other;    

By gaining Empire Points, players can unlock maps and units to  improve their Emperor Rank;    

Includes the music and sounds from the best-selling PC  version.

[jasonditz]

Turn-based?! I love turn based games and all, but AoE is not going to lend itself to that easily.

Majesco would've been better off licensing Civ: CTP or something like that.

[RABicle]

Yeah it's sounding a bit underbaked and it really could and should be real time. But otherwise this could be huge.

[Polemistis]

*gasp* Only 5 civs!?
Mumma mia, this game dosn't sound like it will be anything like the original game

[Ledgehammerous]

I was really excited about this until I realized that there are only five civilizations, and my favorites have been excluded.  No Byzantines?  No Persian War Elephants?  No cilted Kelts, er, kilted Celts?  

Nevertheless, I've always hoped that we'd start seeing strategy games like this on the DS.  With the touch screen an' all, I think the DS lends itself comfortably to the genera.