Some may argue it should only be placed in the “God Game” genre, but I think of Populous as one of the best, very early examples of Real-Time Strategy. Published in 1989, three years before Dune II, four years before Warcraft, and five years before Command and Conquer, Populous had strategic depth but also made players think on their feet to respond to what the computer was doing in real time. I remember fondly my college days where I was raising and lowering the LEGO shaped landscape so that my followers could create large dwellings in order to reproduce and fuel my divine wrath towards the opposing deity and his followers. Amazingly, this icon of my early PC gaming days has returned in the form of a strategy game on the DS. I am admittedly looking at the game through rose colored glasses of nostalgia, but it is one of the top retro games I have played on the DS.

I’ll be the first to admit that there are some minor issues, but Populous on the DS brings back nearly everything I enjoyed and remembered from my past while adding a few new bits and pieces that improve without breaking any previous magic. The game consists of two (or more) opposing deities who have very little direct control over their followers. Instead, you are able to raise and lower the landscape in order to create level ground so that your followers can build housing and thrive. The larger the tract of flat land, the larger the home (reflected in increasingly more elegant buildings) and the faster your followers grow in strength and number. Followers provide each deity with power to fuel their interactions in the world. At first, a deity may be hard pressed to raise or lower large tracts of land, but as their power grows, deities gain access to disasters (and a few blessings) that can rain havoc (or benefits) down on enemy followers (or your own if you’re particularly grumpy I suppose.) Players take on the role of one of several types of deities, based around traditional elements like Earth, Fire, Water, etc… all of which have fairly unique abilities like earthquakes, volcanoes, or tidal waves. Once a deity gains enough power, they can even call for Armageddon, which erases all housing and releases all the followers. The followers gather together and combine to make a mega-follower and the two (or more) champions of each deity fight it out for supremacy. This is usually a foregone conclusion as one only wants to start Armageddon when you have the numerical advantage.

Pretty much everything I remember from my old days of the game is here, along with some nice bonuses. The original Populous had only one type of deity and thus everyone had access to the same powers. Having a set of options that depend on your choice of deity theme is a welcome bonus. In addition, the game supports up to four deities at the same time, something even the sequel, Populous II, didn’t support. Unfortunately, each player needs their own copy of the game to play. The other major addition is a sort of real-time “Where’s Waldo” game, where lots of little worshippers wander around an island and the player is required to find only all those of a specific type. This mode can also be played multiplayer. The controls seem to be pretty good, and the stylus makes a good interface to the game, but it doesn’t feel “tight” and can be just a tad imprecise at times.

There are a few things I miss. Although there are many different types of worlds to play in (a dozen or so, including one 8-bit themed one where the houses are actually various Nintendo consoles instead of buildings) I do miss the Lego world and some of the more colonial themed ones (Western Cowboys & Indians, Log Cabin colonists, etc…) The other big missing feature is the ability to speed up the game play. On the PC, there was a speed setting so that slowdowns in game play could be jumped through. There are times, typically in the late game, where things are going well, and you just want to gather enough power for a big disaster or even for the final Armageddon and it might be a few minutes of waiting before you have enough on hand.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed another crack at the game and expect to keep Populous in my semi-regular rotation of strategy games. It makes a nice 5 to 10 minute bout of work to beat an opposing deity and I still have a few more levels to go before I’ve beaten the sort of ladder-challenge series that serves as the game’s campaign mode. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys real-time strategy, as its simple controls and lack of micromanagement makes it an ideal candidate for handheld gaming.

Kid Factor: This is a very simplified real-time strategy game, so if that is something of interest, I’d say go for it. The controls are pretty good, but you need to be proficient at the stylus to do well. The violence and destruction is quite tame for video games, with no blood or dead bodies littering the landscape. The whole gods and demons theme may be a bit off-putting to some, but the game has very little story so it shouldn’t be a concern for most folks. I’d say it is best for middle school (tweens) or older as there is some thought involved and the controls aren’t overly simplistic.

Tags: Game Reviews