Age of Empires: The Age of Kings

by Majesco

• Command one of five different civilizations - The Britons, Franks, Mongols, Saracens, and Japanese
• Take control of special hero units, with historical legends like Lionheart, Robin Hood, Joan of Arc, Genghis Khan, and Saladin
• Over 65 different units to command, from bowmen and monks to hand cannoneers, mercenaries and samurai
• Construct & upgrade buildings like town centers, mines, universities and Wonders to help units learn new skills
• Research over 50 different technologies -- chemistry, ballistics, siege craft and spying

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0009R1SQY
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches ; 3.2 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: February 14, 2006
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (84 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,661 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #47 in Video Games > More Systems > Game Boy Advance > Games
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Age Of Empires: The Age Of Kings is a portable version of one of the best-selling RTS games ever! You'll command five different civilizations, as you move from the Dark Ages through the Middle Ages, with one goal in mind: Domination of the known world. New combat advisor gives you advice on campaign strategies Gain empire points to unlock maps & units and improve emperor rank Multiplayer scenarios allowing up to 4 players to battle each other wirelessly

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

123 of 129 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Nintendo DS Game Of 2006 February 28, 2006

By Reuben Gathright VINE VOICE

Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

I have logged 30 hours with this game. I do not think I will ever play Advance Wars DS again. An amazing array of units, buildings and research options all come together seamlessly. An experienced strategy gamer cannot play this game without falling in love with its meticulous attention to detail.

The missions provided with the game are very challenging. For example, the Joan of Arc tutorial provides a map where you lift the seige of Orleans by destroying 3 castles. I quickly used ranged units to destroy an English castle near the city. The english respond by sending in another eight mounted Knights! Since I only had weak ranged units they were quickly defeated. I had to restart the mission and capture nearby mills before I attacked the castles. The mills allowed me to create stronger units to fight off the surprises waiting for me later.

The ingame library provides a history of all the characters, kingdoms and units in the game.

A three phase custom game setup, provides the player with a multi-part toolset to give hours of entertainment. You get 25 victory points for every AI opponent you beat. So, if you decide to take on 3 AI opponents at once, you'll get 75 points if you win. The AI does have programming weaknesses. Keep in mind that you are playing on a battery operated computer. The processing power required for a better AI is simply not available.

The points can be redeemed to unlock more maps and special characters.

Pros:

1) Library of medieval history was fun to read.

2) Exciting soundtrack

3) Rich graphics

4) No need to use stylus!

5) Large selection of maps

6) Highly Replayable!

7) Indepth tutorial mode, no need to open manual

8) The game is an exceptional value at $30.

Cons:

1) The game did lock up once.

2) No custom map building.

41 of 41 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Updated Lockup Problem Workaround June 7, 2006

By Robert Fries

Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

From the Majesco support forums:

The save/quit issue seems to be caused by having an empire name of 2 or 3 letters in length.

To Avoid the loss of data and the Black screen issue our current suggestion is to edit your user profile.

Make sure the profile is more than 3 characters long (That's 4 or more letters or symbols)

This work around should prevent any data loss while playing age of kings.

51 of 54 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars When they work out the bugs ... March 8, 2007

By R. Wilcox

Verified Purchase

Fun: 1.0 out of 5 stars   

First of all, I'm about to send back to Amazon my second copy of this game.

When you first get it going in the DS, it's amazing! Graphics, turn-based system, and really fun. But after you complete a mission you normally want to save your game correct??

WRONG!! If you select "Save & Quit" from the options menu it actually shuts the game down, only to never work again! Out of two games I have massed about an hour of game play!

You try to turn it back on and it actually shuts down after the initial load screen. This was curious to me, especially after my second copy did the exact same thing that the first did. I went investigating. According to one of the professional gaming magazines, this is a very COMMON problem with the game. If you select "Save & Quit" it actually damages the game disc, not allowing you to play the game any longer. Unfortunately without the game developers including this little tidbit, you can ruin multiple copies of this game:

***WARNING*** - There is a known fatal error in this game. There can be times where the game will freeze after selecting Save & Quit. DO NOT SHUT OFF THE DS. Doing so will result in fatal corruption of the card and failure to boot. Plug it in, leave it on, and do all you can (mash buttons, leave for hours) to get it to unfreeze. Advice from the developers is to MAKE SURE YOUR PROFILE NAME IS 4 OR MORE CHARACTERS LONG. It appears short names cause this problem. Most players also avoid the Save & Quit option entirely, just to be safe: Instead simply choose "Save", then once saved, turn the DS off.

Good luck to those who buy!!! You may want to keep the above warning taped to your case!!!!!!!!!

45 of 53 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Great Gameplay, but random lockups spoil the fun April 2, 2006

By Eyegor VINE VOICE

Fun: 4.0 out of 5 stars   

I've been playing Age of Empires for a couple of weeks and have been largely impressed. The tutorial mode is good and the user interface is solid. Since people have covered the positives in glowing detail, I'll delve into the negatives a bit.

GIven the small real estate available, the interface is good. It would be nice to be able to zoom in a bit in order to get better control over your units. It would also be nice to be able to rotate the map.

My biggest gripe is the beta release quality. The game has locked up at least 10 times during play and about 3 times using the save and quit feature. Majesco's response to the latter problem is to save only, then power off. No solutions yet to the random lockup issue.

I'm pretty disappointed in the quality of this game. We can't exactly go out and patch the cart, now can we?

It appears that Majesco is going to have to do the right thing and replace the bad cards with more stable code.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great portable version of one of the best games ever July 14, 2006

By Gerardo King

Verified Purchase

Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

At first I didnt know what to expect but as soon as opened the box and played the tutorial things started to make sense.

It took me a few times to fully understand the pace and features of the game but once you get it you can get hooked and not stop for hours. The game may seem harder at the beggining but as you evolve in the knowledge of different civilizations and their paces the game comes together ver nicely.

Don get frustrated, try different strategies, be agrressive, explore, be conservative. There are misions and campaigns that will demand different a different strategy every time.

A must have for strategy enthuasiats.