Amoebas are very simple unicellular organisms that live in water and reproduce asexually via mitosis. Knowing these scientific facts is not necessary to enjoy Amoebattle, but it will make you appreciate the little details that make Grab Games’ real time strategy title such a joy to play. While the cutesy graphics might deter some players, trust me when I say this game is no walk in the primordial park.

In fact, despite being a DSiWare game, Amoebattle has enough depth and charm to make it rival several other RTS titles out there. As you progress through its twelve missions, the game gets more difficult as each one gives you more things to master. The first few levels hold your hand as they teach you how to control your amoebas, but the later missions mercilessly test your newly acquired skills.

Your guide in game is a humorous little robot named AMI that walks you through the basics and mission objectives. The colorful graphics and soothing music do a good job of welcoming you into the world of the amoebas, though the music sounds a bit distorted and too loud at times. You’ll be doing quite a lot of exploring in each level too, so I really liked how each song made me feel like I was on a mysterious scientific discovery – a fun one.

Controlling your amoebas is just a matter of tapping your screen. The game offers different ways to select your units either by double tapping them or by lassoing them with your stylus. You can also hold down the shoulder buttons to bring up a sub-menu that gives you more grouping options, such as the ability to save a selection to make switching between groups quicker.

In your searching and probing, you’ll discover that their little world is being threatened by a menacing infection turning these adorable-looking creatures hostile. Battle controls are also simple to pick up and require you to tap enemy units or swipe your stylus over them to attack.

As you progress through the game, you’ll expand your amoeba selection and gain new units that differ in abilities and weaknesses. Categorized as omnivore, herbivore, or carnivore, each amoeba has its own way of attacking and recovering health. All amoebas have a health meter that recovers over time and a food meter that, when full, lets one split into two. You can have up to 25 amoebas at your disposal, and it’s always a good idea to max this number out if you have the available resources to do so.

Once your amoebas engage in battle, things can get a bit hectic, especially when you have groups of enemies coming in from different parts of the map. The top screen’s mini map tells you where an attack is happening, so you can also swap screens to tap the mini map and fast travel to your destination. You can just move the D-pad and find it yourself on the main map too. Some of the more difficult missions require you to split your squad and travel back and forth between several different combat sites, so looking at the map helped me out a lot.

During these missions, I often found myself getting overwhelmed by enemies, and had to reevaluate my current team and divide them accordingly. Aside from having them reproduce, you can also mutate your amoebas into other varieties. Mutation costs power points, which also refill over time, but sometimes you’ll have to decide whether mutating or replicating is your best option. Power points further add to your strategic arsenal and let you deploy probes to distract your enemies or special attacks that can freeze or poison them.

Twelve missions may not seem like a lot, but after realizing each one can take as long as 40 minutes to finish, I started wishing they were shorter. Some missions also have you fending off an endless supply of enemies while defending a specific target and attacking their base. These, my friends, are the ones that will test your resolve and skills on the battlefield. Save often too, because if you die, you’ll have to start each one from scratch.

After hours of frustration, I realized I only had myself to blame for my series of defeats. Amoebattle offers a great RTS experience in a small package, but excels at all the things that make the genre so good. I only wish the game offered a skirmish mode or even online multiplayer to really take it to the next level. Despite its flaws, Amoebattle is a great game that might also make you reconsider a eukaryote’s entertainment potential.

This review originally appeared on Reviewcenter.com in 1999.

Force 21 is far from your normal real-time gtrategy game. You don’t have a base where you begin — mining resources, building buildings, which in turn allow you to build certain units. No, it’s nothing like that. Force 21 doesn’t try to be that. It’s something much better.

Force 21, set 15 years in the future, has you in the middle of a war. I know that you may be thinking, “Oh, no. Not another futuristic WWIII scenario” but this actually seems to be possible. China, thriving off of its economic boom in the 1990s, has become short on natural resources and raw materials. On the other hand, Russia, economy falling from the breakup of the USSR in the 1990′s, is almost on the brink of collapsing. China, taking advantage of this, invades the Republic of Kazakhstan, for much needed materials.

“NUKE “ËœEM” is what you’re probably thinking, but that won’t happen. Apparently, missile defenses have been researched so much, that nuclear weapons have become obsolete. The only practical way to fight is by conventional warfare. China, obviously having the advantage over the tumbling Russia, was predicted to barge their way through the Russian army no problem. But the United States of America, trying to get in the middle of it, sends some forces into the area, hoping that they may dissuade China from invading. China decides to attack anyway. That’s where the game begins.

You can either choose to be the invading Chinese army, or the defending US army. Either way you decide to go, you have complete control over 16 different platoons from each army. These platoons are made up of tanks, surveillance, recon, helicopters, artillery, APC’s and electronic warfare units. In some missions, calling for air support is also permitted.

Each side has 15 missions in the campaign, with a briefing before each one, showing you the objectives. Next, you look at what units you are going to bring into the fight. You are also given approximate locations of where the enemy is. As nice as this can be, don’t set up an entire attack based on it. Always scout ahead. The enemy is prone to move around the area.

After all that is done, you are now in the game. You will find your units sitting nice in pretty in front of you. If you have ever played a RTS before, then you already know the basic commands. The only frustrating part of the setup of the game is that you can’t just click on a tank, or any other unit, and order it to do something. If you want to move just one unit around, you must separate it into it’s own platoon. While this is not a big thing to do, just a drag and drop, it gets quite annoying when, in the heat of the battle, you need to move just one unit around. Unlike most RTS games, you just can’t see anything on the map by clicking there. Your point of view is what the commander of the platoon would see. An interesting twist in the game is that requires that you do more recon than in other games.

Now, the grits of the game. The sound is quite good, but the voices of the units get repetitive real fast. The sound detail and quality make you feel like your there, but to take advantage of it, you’ll need a good set of speakers. The graphics in this game are absolutely superb. The detail of each unit is incredibly realistic, which add to the total realism of the game. Explosions are well done, not cheesy looking like a lot of games do. One of my only complaints with the graphics of this game is the distance that you can view off into the horizon. There always seems to be a layer of fog, limiting your visibility range. Sloppy work there takes away from the playing experience. I mean, if you were sitting in a tank, on relatively flat land, I would think that you would be able to see a little further than a couple of hundred of feet. Other than that, kudos to Red Storm on the realism.

The replay value of the missions is not the best, as the missions are mostly the same time after time, the only difference is the exact location of the enemy units.

The single player experience may be the best part of the game. Due to the unpopularity of this game (caused by a bad release date) there is a very small multiplayer base to play against. This is too bad, because this is the kind of game that’s really fun to play with a group of friends. The fact that there is hardly anyone to play with is very odd, seeing as how both Mplayer and Microsoft Gaming Zone support play for the game.

Overall, Force 21 has enough to satisfy both the people who like to sit down and play a realistic war game and those who just want to blow shit up. The ease of play is what really makes this game work. Also, I found absolutely bugs in this game, which is becoming more and more rare these days with companies over hyping games, then throwing crap programming in a box just to get it out.

Turn to page 2 if you want to see how the game ends. We also have a cool game demo available for download.

Lighthouse Interactive released images of three of the ships from the upcoming oceanic real-time strategy game Easy India Company.

Pictured are the Cutter, the East Indiaman and the Flute.

East India Company is a PC title and is scheduled for release across North America early next year.

Game summary:

In the 17th century, European powers created East India companies — nations within nations that conquered cities, local towns, and villages to establish large commercial centres. In East India Company, you will assume the role of Governor Director of one of the East India Companies or other rival companies. There are eight nationalities to choose from: British, Dutch, French, Danish, Portuguese, Swedish, Italian or Spanish – with the goal of bringing new colonies and wealth, such as: tea, spices, gold, diamonds, and other precious cargo back to Europe, but you must dominate the other rival empires along the way. With mighty fleets and armies at your command, the power to choose between diplomacy or war is yours.‚ Starting modestly, you will build your fleet, establish connections to far away countries, and keep the rivalling nations at bay. Choose from an array of ship classes, types of transport, and military vessels: the Cutter, East Indiaman, Flute, Frigate, Ship of the Line or Xebec. Create different fleets and assign them to specific trading routes. Controlling well situated ports and upgrading them is one key to success.‚ Conflicts and wars are inevitable. When hostile fleets engage each other, the spectacular naval battles are fought at a real-time tactical level. Devastating broadsides are fired with a deafening roar and cannon balls tear through enemy ships and their crew. At a tactical level, you have direct command over your ship and give independent orders to each of your other fleets. Create a trading empire that will rule above all others!

Game features:

Fight!

• ‚ Declare war on rival empires fought at a real-time tactical level
• ‚ Command ships and fleets independently
• ‚ Wage war on the vast open sea
• ‚ Sink your rivals’ ship or board them to take control in bloody hand-to-hand combat

‚ Manage!

• ‚ Hire and manage your own crew
• ‚ Buy guns and ammo
• ‚ Repair and upgrade your ships at port
• ‚ Buy and sell goods
• ‚ Establish profitable trading routes
• ‚ Open diplomatic relations or declare war
• ‚ Negotiate tense political situations‚ 

Rule!

• ‚ Lead the most powerful company in history
• ‚ Take over colonies and expand your empire
• ‚ Build a powerful fleet to rule the seas
• ‚ Conquer strategic ports
• ‚ Accomplish tasks ordered by your company or the Crown

Multiplayer (Internet or LAN) Features:

• ‚ Supports up to 8 simultaneous players
• ‚ Player statistics tracked on the EIC game server
• ‚ Raise your ranking by thwarting your opponents
• Head-to-head missions are a true test of strategic skill

This article originally appeared on Reviewcenter.com in 1999 during an explosion of real-time strategy games.

After many battles, a former kingdom has been divided into many small principalities and earldoms. The king’s troops were pushed back into one last royal province, and the rulers of the other provinces waged terrible, destructive wars against one another. The whole land fell into a state of chaos and now the former royal capital itself is under siege by the armies of the rebel lords. You belong to the last remaining group of loyal king’s men, and have been commanded to go to the king in view of the imminent attack.

In my reading of a latest magazine, I had found that it had given Knights and Merchants a poor review. In the advertisements and previews I had seen, however, I found it to be a game deserving of a much higher rating. That is why I rushed to review it, to prove that magazine wrong, or at least to try.

Well, I was right. Knights and Merchants gets a four star review from me. If the game were less complicated, it would have been perfect. The game’s battle system is very complex. A setup like that ought to be its own game. When you throw in the kingdom management, the game becomes very frenzied. Otherwise, it is the greatest detail I’ve ever seen in a game. Until it, Age of Empires was the best. But in Knights and Merchants, your little people do exactly what they should be doing. My favorite was the farmer on the vineyard. He put a basket on his back, walked out into the fields, and he picks the grapes off the vines. Then, he gets back to his house, pours the grapes out into a huge well, removes his shoes, and stomps on the grapes, making wine. That is exactly the kind of game that this is. Everything makes a whole lot of sense. Soldiers and servants need bread, sausage, and wine for food, and the serfs are expected to bring everything to them. Builders require wood and stone as they are working, and they will stop until they get these things from the serfs.

Another good thing about the game is the amount of people needed. In traditional RTS games, there is one servant/peon that will do all your day to day tasks. In Knights and Merchants, serfs only bring commodities to building sites, food to hungry troops, and other things like that. Then, builders only will construct your needed buildings, which are also very numerous. For wood, you need a saw mill; for bread, a windmill and a bakery; etc. There are so many different variations in this game. However for people who don’t like these complicated games, I wouldn’t recommend Knights and Merchants, but if you want a new style of Real-time Strategy, go buy Knights and Merchants.

Download the demo free from Blast Magazine.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Interactive Magic
Developer: JoyMania
Platform: PC CD-ROM
Genre: Real-time strategy
Players: 1
Launch Date: 1998

Playability: 4 out of 5 stars
User friendly: 4 out of 5 stars
Sound: 4 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 4 out of 5 stars
Overall: 4 out of 5 stars
Ratings were determined in 1999

Ye Olde System Requirements

• PC Pentium 133
• 7 0MB Disk space
• 24MB RAM or more
• 28.8 modem for net play

By Tall Writer

The quality real time strategy military game improves on the first installment with the addition of naval forces, the new Anglo nation, and online multiplayer modes. A definite improvement of the previous GameCube title, which was a sleeper hit — with a solid base like the Advance Wars series, how can you go wrong?

Naval units include battleships, frigates, transports and submarines. These units’ impact on the game is strengthened by outstanding water graphics — some of the best on the Wii so far. The six nations and their respective storylines mix well into all the game modes. The antagonist Iron Legion and heroic Solar Empire provides the initial base for several event and characters. I don’t know about you, but it’s nice to play a game where you know the names and places mean something… or at least resemble something. For example, Kaiser Vlad meaning Vlad Tepes perhaps? Maybe Old Xylvania gave that one away.

The single player campaign missions complete very quickly, so make sure you have an online connection for the expanded multiplayer modes (three total) if you don’t strive for the high S rank in each of the 20 missions. The objective based assault mode involves capturing then defending HQ while the skirmish mode requires more strategy with points being awarded for specific targets. Co-op mode pits two players against one enemy.

Not many lag problems here as various statistics are there to spur you on to win. The win-loss ratio stat can seem daunting at first (memories of turning off my GameBoy Advance on Advance Wars 2 instead of yielding come flooding back), but you’re not likely to have a perfect season, so you might as well get down and dirty with your troops.

Yes, you can actually break command and take control of individual soldiers, reeking havoc as a cartoonish version of Rambo. Roll and dodge options help as you target, destroy and issue orders to supporting troops. You can also take control of field vehicles. A great addition to the overall content would be a special advantage bonus system where players could boost up a special individual solider (or vehicle) that’s easily accessed where you could go Rambo on everyone else. When you lose a lot of field support, it’s good to have facilities with high respawn rates, which you can achieve through high ratings (S, A, B, C)

The two major issues in this game can be solved with common sense and practice. The text commands at the beginning are helpful, but the voiceovers repeat the command in very short succession. Turn down the voice volume in the options to avoid frustration while you’re trying to learn the game. The camera/individual troop movement can also be an issue — just remember to coordinate the Wii remote and Nunchuk movements together, which can be challenging because players get used to total control with analog sticks. Otherwise, the smooth movement and controls make good use of the innovative Wii controls.

Battalion Wars 2 has a good story with various options at your disposal. Veterans of the previous installment and the Advance Wars game series have a definite advantage here, but most players should be able to pick up the mechanics and controls pretty easily. It’s a misperception to claim this title as a "warm up" for younger players in the military game genre. This sequel has high replay plus several God/tycoon elements that give players a lot of control and fighting fun.

Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Kuju Entertainment
Platform: Wii
Genre: Real-time strategy
Players: 1
Launch Date: October 29, 2007