I know I’m a bit strange, but when I was little (when the other kids on the block wanted to be firefighters and such), I wanted to be a myrmecologist (one of those super cool awesome scientists who study ants). So, of course, I immediately gravitated toward the Ant Nation games at the Konami booth. I saw two versions, one for the Nintendo DS and one for WiiWare.

While both versions have many elements in common, the basic idea behind them is different. The WiiWare game is designed to be a more action-packed ants versus the world game; the DS version is designed to be more of a bizarre real-time strategy game of ants versus ... another world?

The DS version has more of a story behind it. Apparently evil alien insects are invading Earth. “The Professor” decides the only way to stop them is to train a group of genetically altered ants to fight them off. He assigns you to help guide the ants and train them.

The DS version is a simple level-based RTS: You build up your colony with egg chambers and larval lairs for workers and soldiers before going to take on the enemies. Like most RTSs, proportions are important. You need workers to bring back resources, but you’ll quickly run into trouble without enough soldier ants.

Wwhat really makes this different from other ant colony simulators besides the levels with different mission objectives? The training. You know the saying “no pain no gain,” well, this game takes it to heart. You’ve got to hurt the ants you love by blasting them with heat to give them not only XP (making a stronger ant for a stronger colony), but also imbuing them with the heat element.

Fire (heat) ants can cross lava while untrained ants and ants of other elements (heat isn’t the only thing you can train/imbue) will simply stare across. Fortunately besides multiple ways to train ants (several elements plus several levels of intensity (damage) for each), you also get several options for how to direct them. Solider and Worker ants are directed separately, but you can also choose to only send ants of a certain element using “go here” flags.

The WiiWare version didn’t have a story mode, and the challenges you face are only from this world. It appeared to be a more classic ant colony simulation but with the training and modern graphics. Either way, both games looked fun to play, but I’m not expecting them to be sleeper hits. These games will likely appeal to people like me who loved the premise of SimAnt but got bored by the lack of variation in the game.