Electronic Arts releases this game on almost all platforms and so DS owners can also spend their remaining money on this game. That is not a good idea, because you won't have a great deal of fun in this hastly made hack-and-slash thing. The most eye-catching feature, playing on the side of Sauron, is certainly fun, but that doesn’t make up for the many shortcomings by far.

The tutorial makes it clear from the start that the controls are clumsy, the graphics 3D but vague and colourless, and that the gameplay brings nothing new. Even more, a bit later you discover that the game could have taken place in any world because Middle-Earth and the so many fantastic characters, peoples, background story and places are rarely used. The three available classes are named Archer, Warrior and Mage (and you can without a doubt guess their specialities). The creators could have done more, although they have to get some credit for creating some special units that disappear too soon, the Ents for example.

Talking about the controls, you can choose between stylus and buttons, but those are not consequently used. For instance, when using the stylus you’ll often have to push the buttons anyway, which is really clumsy. The gameplay will not be on your mind for long. You have to conquer control points and kill enemies to win, and you can respawn at control points or change class depending on the situation. All three classes are by the way a bit boring. Visually there is not much interesting (when more than a few units are visible on the screen the whole becomes very messy, by the way), the fighting is only good for 20 minutes and the camera is often too close to make it really exciting. On top of that your team mates are more stupid than a newborn cave troll and never do what you want them to do.

That can be solved by playing with friends, either in co-op or against each other, but how often will you be able to do that? On top of that it has become clear that every game is more fun with two, so that doesn’t really make up for something.