Also, sometimes the best form of dealing with citizen's complaints are to simply remove them. If there's a problematic area of your city where people aren't happy with crime or a natural disaster in their vicinity, it's usually quicker and cheaper to simply remove their house and place another in it's spot rather than to build fire departments or police stations, rendering a fairly large part of the stratagem of the game fruitless. Of course, you're only cheating yourself if you do this, but the temptation is always there to create happiness with the double tap of a stylus.

Despite these little problems, Anno 1701: Dawn of Discovery is the finest strategy / simulation game on the DS by far. The presentation and controls are the best implementations of touch controls I've seen so on the console, the sound is crisp and clear, and the game play is piled into this cartridge by the boatload.

If you're willing to get cerebral on the move with an interesting, intelligently designed, strategy / simulation game, then you can do a lot worse than pick up Anno 1071: Dawn of Discovery.

Anno 1701: Dawn of Discovery is released on August 24th in Europe, priced at £29.99. There is no current news of an American release date.

Anno 1701: Dawn of Discovery is deemed suitable for ages 7+ due to depictions of violence by PEGI.