Featuring touch-screen controls that use the dual-screens, players manipulate five elementally-imbued gods, each with their own unique miracles within an extensive single-player campaign. In the multiplayer wireless mode, up to four players can unleash earthquakes, tidal waves and raging volcanoes onto rival players’ lands...

Based on the original PC classic, Populous DS brings the classic game, which pioneered the God simulation genre, to the DS. For those that remember the original, this will make a welcome addition to your DS library and for those who are too young to remember what all the fuss was about this release offers all the game play that had a generation glued to their PC screens.

The game's pretty simple to pick up and play - with a helpful tutorial on offer for those who have no idea what the game is all about, or for those that need their minds refreshing.

The game's pretty simple: Flatten the land so that your people will build houses and worship you. The more people worship you the more power you have. This power can then be used in a variety of ways: to rally your people together to attack the enemy or to rain down mighty powers to lay waste to the other populations. And, when you're convinced you have enough worshippers, you can start Armageddon, with the winner being the last race standing.

You can play against the computer, or up to three other friends via the DS's wireless capability - which actually makes this heaps more fun as you ground your friends faces into the dirt.

While the graphics and sound are nothing special, I'm very grateful to Rising Star Games for bringing back an old classic and reworking it for the DS. While this has aged a little, there's enough interesting game play here to provide a few months of entertainment.

7

Nick Smithson