''Ant Nation'' is a real time strategy

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

from

Konami , commonly known as Konami, , is a Japanese multinational entertainment company and video game developer and video game publisher, publisher headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo. The company also produces and distributes trading card ...

for

WiiWare WiiWare was a digital media entertainment service operated by Nintendo that allowed the download of games and applications developed for the Wii video game console. These games and applications could only be purchased and downloaded from the W ...

and

Nintendo DS The is a foldable handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens worki ...

. The WiiWare version was released on July 13, 2009, in North America and the Nintendo DS version was released on September 8, 2009.

Gameplay

In both versions of the game players train a colony of

ants Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of ...

to become tough enough to survive various challenges. In the Nintendo DS version, the ants are a genetically engineered species bred to defeat a colony of invading alien ants. The WiiWare version is a

sandbox game A sandbox game is a video game with a gameplay element that provides players a great degree of creativity to interact with, usually without any predetermined goal, or with a goal that the players set for themselves. Such games may lack any objec ...

while the DS version features an expanding mission structure. Players subject their ants to various dangers such as lightning, fire and heat rays from a

magnifying glass A magnifying glass is a convex lens—usually mounted in a frame with a handle—that is used to produce a magnified image of an object. A magnifying glass can also be used to focus light, such as to concentrate the Sun's radiation to create ...

to build up their resistance before sending them off on missions to collect food and defeat other insects.IGN Hand-On: Ant Nation
/ref> While in the WiiWare version the player controlled a swarm of up to hundreds of ants, the DS version is based around a

rock-paper-scissors Rock, Paper, Scissors (also known by several other names and word orders) is an intransitive hand game, usually played between two people, in which each player simultaneously forms one of three shapes with an outstretched hand. These shapes a ...

unit mechanic that sees players creating groups of ants with specific resistance to certain dangers. The WiiWare version contains a bonus mode that involves trying to kill all ants in the level using items such as hammers, lasers and bug spray.Nintendo Life review
/ref>

Reception

Nintendo World Report called it "a slow-paced, disturbing affair with little variety", and

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

called the campaign mode shallow and mundane and that game could only briefly entertain "the desperately bored or the blind", while Nintendo Power gave this game one of the lowest rating ever; 2.0.IGN review
/ref>

References

{{reflist 2009 video games Art Co., Ltd games Konami games Nintendo DS games Real-time strategy video games Single-player video games Video games about ants Video games about insects Video games developed in Japan Wii games WiiWare games