Age of Empires: Mythologies

What's next? Age of Mythology: Empire?

When it came time for me to play Age of Mythology, an Age of Empires game where the stories and legends of the ancient world form the basis of inspiration for the units and gameplay, rather than the actual history of the period, I would ultimately conclude that the game was alright. Worth a play, but it was largely interchangeable with any other Age of Empires I had played before it.

But now there's another one, this time Age of Empires: Mythologies, on the Nintendo DS. Is this an Age of Empires game or an Age of Mythologies title? Is this a merging of the two? How would that even work? And on a handheld? You must be mad.

Well, I'm mad enough to take on a 1001 games list just to see if I could, and now that the Internet is finally stable enough to write something about these games, it's time to find out what on Earth is going on here.

Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution

Around the world, around the world.

Source // MobyGames

My time with Civilization games has been long and fruitless. With multiple paths to victory, there are multiple ways to fail, and I have seen them all it seems. Nothing I do is good enough, fast enough, precise enough. Another nation always pips me to the post, rubs my nose in it, and kicks me when I'm down.

But like an absolute idiot, I keep coming back for more. This very second I am re-installing Civilization VI because of my experience playing Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution, a "simpler" game designed for consoles and handhelds that aims to give you a considerable chunk of the full Civilization experience.

50 minutes of downloading to go, let's see how I got here.

Carcassonne

Tiles. Not cards, tiles.

Source // Microsoft

It's no surprise that I like video games. I wouldn't be going through this many of them if I didn't. I've grown up with video games, I've not really stopped playing video games, I get a lot of my entertainment from video games.

But my other big passion is gaming on the tabletop. It was once in the form of mass-market board games, then of pencil and paper RPGs, and then, a few years ago, mostly thanks to P2 (though I will admit I took the ball and didn't so much run with it, but outright blast it off to space), board and card games.

They're big business these days, we're quite defensive about them, we will fight you on your incorrect opinions - it's very much like video gaming, actually. Give it twenty years and we'll all look back with a different set of eyes and appreciate some of them a little more, though The Mind can piss right off.

That's another topic for another day because we're talking about a video game version of Carcassonne, which, according to P2, is the absolute best you can get from a board game. She's wrong, but not by much, and it's the Xbox Live Arcade that plays host to this version.

Grab your Meeples. Yes, the things that look like fat people. Just pick them up already and let's get tiling.

Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords

"We have discovered a new type of energy pattern that will benefit our economy by +1 percent."

I should have known. Why didn't I think about the title just a little bit harder? Why did it take so long for me to realise that Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords was Civilization in space? Well, Alpha Centauri is Civilization in space, but you get the point.

GalCiv II is the next frontier. We've conquered the lands, now we need to conquer the galaxy. Ignore that I've failed in every attempt to win any Civ game, even those not on the 1001 list. We're in space now. More freedom to move around without bumping into a single other alien race, right? Should be a doddle.

Rebelstar: Tactical Command

Not for the over-30's.

Rebelstar. Rebelstar... where have I heard that name before? Turns out, long, long ago, I failed to emulate Rebelstar for this very 1001 list. I was apparently really rather interested in seeing X-Com on a ZX Spectrum and was saddened by not being able to play it.

I've still not gone back and tried to get it going again, but maybe now that Rebelstar: Tactical Command is making itself known on the Game Boy Advance, I'll be more inspired to try getting Rebelstar going again.

Wait. The Game Boy Advance? There's an X-Com on the GBA?

Advance Wars: Dual Strike

GOOD!

The last time I played an Advance Wars entry on the 1001 list, I played for hours. Something about it was addicting. I couldn't put it down. But the Game Boy Advance is already a memory. Technological progress marches onward, and the Nintendo DS needs an entry in the turn-based tactics genre. It's time for Advance Wars: Dual Strike.

Dual Strike. DS. Get it? There's more to the title than that, of course. COs teaming up to pummel dinky little tanks into dust. This should be good.

Civilization IV

"Never bring a sword to a gunfight."

Has the 1001 list deemed it essential to play every single Civilization game so far? Oh no, we skipped Civilization III. I wonder where that one went wrong. Anyway, we're back to turning a bunch of early humans into a world superpower in Civilization IV, and truth be told, I've played so many Civ games for this list that I've forgotten what it was that I'm looking for in this genre of gaming.

Did I want things to be easier to grasp? Probably. Improvements in graphics are a bonus, but not an essential one if memory serves. I'm basically going into this game knowing what I'm going to get, but not the form I'm going to get it in.

Will we rise and dominate the globe, or get crushed or out-cultured by our neighbours?

Medieval: Total War

Run away!

The first time I saw a Total War title was on the BBC show, Time Commanders. Take a group of most likely non-gamers, present them a historical war to recreate in Rome: Total War, and have them command their troops to victory.

Back then, in 2005, I wasn't aware that it was even a playable game outside of the TV show, let alone that it was from the Total War series, whose second entry, Medieval: Total War, is on this 1001 list. What was I doing in 2005? Sure didn't involve PC gaming, though it was around the time where I heard some of my friends talking about building a PC. It sounded expensive. It seemed complicated.

Anyway, Medieval: Total War gives players control of hundreds of troops in a real-time strategy battle, and it is as daunting as it is intriguing.

Advance Wars

"What?!? Even my medium tanks are defeated??? THAT NELL!!!"

Source // MobyGames

Help. I started playing Advance Wars after lunch, and now four hours have gone by, and I'm still playing it. It's just... it's quite good this. Oh, when will I find the time to play this?

I had a Game Boy Advance. I waited until the SP model to get one, but I got one, and it was a great little handheld. Why I never picked up Advance Wars for it is anyone's guess because this cartoony turn-based tactics game has devoured my attention this afternoon. I guess I just had absolutely no knowledge about GBA games back in the day unless I knew I wanted to own something.

Well, now I only want to play Advance Wars. Why is that?

Shining Force III

Rain Thunder!

Source // Emuparadise / Baffou

The Sega Saturn has a kinda-3D turn-based tactics fantasy RPG, along the lines of Tactics Ogre and Final Fantasy Tactics, so large in scale that it was split into three parts, only one of which made it outside of Japan and onto the 1001 list.

Its name is Shining Force III, and specifically Scenario 1, aka 'God Warrior of the Kingdom'.

I have a good history with the Saturn, aka 'not a chance in hell of being able to play this game'.

X-COM: Apocalypse

Live Alien spotted.

They came from space, they came from the sea, and now they're coming through teleporters hovering above our megacities, infiltrating corporations to take over what's left of the world from the inside out.

That's the backstory to X-COM: Apocalypse in a nutshell, and it's more than I knew before going in. I know of X-COM, of course, but didn't know that it would go on to become what Apocalypse is, and what Apocalypse is is more of the same, sure, but also a whole lot more.

Civilization II

"Your attempted 'review' makes us laugh."

A while back, I said that I would never have the time for a proper game of Civilization, where I'm in control of every tiny detail, micromanaging my units across the globe. I had fun with it, but felt it was a little bit automatic, with advisors prompting me into this or that, promising me that it would mean something in the future - only I never knew what, exactly.

Why was I going down this path? Why should I build this unit? What is my strategy? I had little idea and was just following the motions until eventually wiped off the face of the map.

Fast forward to the here and now, and it's Civilization IIs time to put my knowledge to the test. What's changed? What's new? Will I still start as the English?

Well, duh, yeah.

Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together

Fight it out

I think I've always liked the idea of the tactical RPG. A kind of a mix between the combat of Dungeons & Dragons and the plot of Final Fantasy, I guess. Before we get to Final Fantasy Tactics, though - and this 1001 will get to Final Fantasy Tactics - there is the small matter of the game that kickstarted the concept, Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together.

It is a game I can say for damn near certain that I won't finish, but it is also a game I can say with similar certainty that I want to play. While the SNES original never left Japanese shores, the PlayStation port a few years later did, and so, with absolutely no idea of what lies ahead, I'm going to dive right in.

Worms

Bye bye

When we weren't playing on their SNES, I had the odd game or two of Worms on my cousins' computer, which could well have been my first introduction to the idea that video games can be serious and silly. Serious in that there is strategy and skill required to master this game, and silly in that you're hurling grenades at a bunch of worms with high pitched voices.

Whether it is or isn't a seriously silly game, Worms is the kind of title that you've probably played at some point just because someone else introduced you to it and there was just no reason not to. It's Worms - sit tight and wait for your turn.

UFO: Enemy Unknown

a.k.a. X-COM: UFO Defense

Did I mention Laser Squad was like X-COM back when I wrote about Laser Squad? I must have. I don't like going back over old posts unless absolutely necessary - probably because of all the typos I'd find - so I'll assume that I did mention the similarity.

It's an obvious similarity, really, when X-COM: UFO Defense, or UFO: Enemy Unknown, is essentially a sequel to Laser Squad - if not in terms of plot than in terms of gameplay. That means equipping your soldiers (or forgetting to) and carefully heading (or blindly running) into dangerous, alien-infested territories, only this time we've got global politics, base building and resource management to deal with as well.

Say hello to our squad. Say goodbye to half of them...

Rebelstar

Father of X-Com.

Source // Wikipedia

Like many abstractly named games, I didn't have a clue what Rebelstar was about until researching it. After researching, I sat a thought "All of that? On a ZX Spectrum?"

There is only one game that you'll probably be aware of that will help me explain Rebelstar, and that is X-Com. It doesn't matter if you think about the recent releases or the earlier X-Com classics, so long as you have that style of game in your mind, you'll know what Rebelstar is all about, because Rebelstar is X-Com. 

Not 'like X-Com', 'is X-Com'. Developed by the same guy, Julian Gollop. Rebelstar is X-Com. On a ZX Spectrum.