14 DAY TRIAL // 
Seeing as how the winter holidays have prompted a slowdown of new game releases, we decided to look at a lightweight downloadable title, Swords and Soldiers, coming from development studio Ronimo Games, the company that brought us De Blob.
The title is a quirky "real time strategy" game, but don't expect to be building bases like in Command & Conquer games or StarCraft, as the title requires you to use resources like money or mana to create new units and take down the enemy.
The campaign mode takes you through three different civilizations, the Vikings, the Aztecs and the Chinese, each with different fighters, units and powers that they can employ in the matches.
You'll be controlling units ranging from mad viking warriors, to Aztec shamans or Chinese monks, and even fast ninja monkeys, all rendered in a great cartoon visual style.
Each campaign has 10 stages, requiring players to amass an army and attack the enemy base, infiltrate a small number of units deep inside enemy territory or withstand an overwhelming attack for a certain amount of time.
The stages force you to fight against enemies from your own faction, as well as from the other two, so you must carefully form a strategy for the problems you encounter.
Once you create a unit, it immediately starts marching towards the enemy, so you need to make sure that you have enough gold to create a sizable attack force before going on the offensive, and that you have enough mana to issue certain spells or attacks to increase your chances of winning.
While the opening Viking civilization is pretty easy to play, things get really hectic in the later stages of the Aztec and Chinese ones, forcing you to restart the respective stages multiple times.
Still, the gameplay is quite solid, and will no doubt entertain you, especially with the hilarious plot that combines the three factions.
Once you mastered the campaign mode, you can set up skirmish matches, choosing your own civilization, the one that you want the AI to control, the difficulty as well as the sorts of terrain that will be in the map.
If you want to prove your strategic skills, there are a few challenges available, unlocked when you complete certain events in the campaign mode.
But while going up against the AI is interesting enough, Swords and Soldiers also has a great multiplayer mode, allowing you to face off against friends on the web in order to see who commands the best army.
This is where things can get really competitive, as the online matches can easily be won or lost depending on the civilization chosen.
This is a point where Swords and Soldiers shines, as each faction is very different, but each has lots of strong features, from the Viking lightning to the Aztec poison bombs or the Chinese cloning option.
Micromanagement is at its finest in the game, so while the title may look all cute on the outside, it will require strategy skills worthy of any StarCraft or Command & Conquer title, the classic Real Time Strategy titles.
What's even better is that Swords and Soldiers also has support for achievements on two of its platforms, Steam and PlayStation Network.
Speaking of platforms, you'll be able to enjoy this game on quite a few devices, including the Nintendo Wii, being available for download on the WiiWare online service for 1,000 Wii Points, the PlayStation 3, available on the PlayStation Network with support for 3D, or the PC and Mac ones, through the Steam online service.
In conclusion, Swords and Soldiers is a great little strategy game that will keep you satisfied until more hardcore experiences will start arriving.
Its difficulty curve is a bit steep, especially towards the end of the campaign, but due to the great multiplayer, you'll be fighting against friends as soon as possible in this demanding strategy game.
