Koch bringing Carcassonne to Nintendo DS

Koch Media and Deep Silver has announced that the board game Carcassonne is headed to DS.

Some of you may have already played in on Xbox Live. It's rather fun.

The handheld version contains the main game including the River expansion and the addition of three new locations:

Story mode features numerous levels and a storyline, Quick game determines the number and strength of AI opponents for the next match, and Multiplayer contains both Single-Card Play and Multi-Card Play via Wi-Fi.

The game is expected to be released during the second half of the year.

Press release and more details are through the break.

Koch Media has secured the license for the handheld adaptation of the classic board game “Carcassonne” through an agreement with Hans im Glück Verlags GmbH of Munich, Germany.

The tile-based game “Carcassonne” from the Munich-based publisher Hans im Glück has been a family favorite since October 2000. The author, Klaus-Jürgen Wrede, named it after the French city of Carcassonne, whose array of fortifications features prominently in the game. By now, many expansions, independent board games, and a browser game are available in connection with “Carcassonne”, which received the awards "Spiel des Jahres" (Game of the Year) and "Deutscher Spielepreis" (German Games Award) in 2001. Adaptations for PC and Xbox LIVE Arcade exist as well.

“Carcassonne” for NDS contains the main game including the River expansion. The adaptation is true to the original, but with three added new locations: the Asian, Arabic, and Nordic worlds. Three different game modes are available: The Story mode features numerous exciting levels and a gripping storyline. In the so-called Quick game, players get to determine the number and strength of AI opponents for the next match. And in Multiplayer mode, both Single-Card Play and Multi-Card Play are available for Nintendo DS owners and their friends via DS Wireless Communications.

In “Carcassonne”, players place tiles to form a landscape with cities, cloisters, roads, and fields. Turn for turn, they expand the playing field according to specific rules, adding more and more terrain tiles. With their followers, players keep expanding their influence on the various areas in order to gain victory points. Followers can be used as knights or thieves, farmers or monks – depending on the environment where they are placed. For example, a game token will represent a knight in a city, and a farmer in the field. Successful captures give the player more points, but the final outcome is only decided at the very end. The player who scores the most points then is the sovereign of “Carcassonne”.

Features:

• Three new additional locations (Arabic, Asian, Nordic)
• Story mode for the single player campaign
• Multi-Card Play for up to five participants, or Single-Card Play for four friends playing with a single Nintendo DS Card.
• Easy-to-learn tutorial in the single player campaign
• Officially licensed

Deep Silver's Carcassonne for NDS, developed by Independent Arts Software, is scheduled for the second half of 2009