Play Populous DS (EU)(M5)(XenoPhobia) Online

Populous DS takes that old-school god game vibe and squeezes it perfectly onto the tiny DS screen. You start off with this little patch of land and a handful of followers—then it’s all about terraforming hills, summoning disasters, and slowly watching your tribe grow into a proper civilization. The stylus controls actually work surprisingly well for flinging lava or raising mountains.

What I love is how chaotic it gets when rival tribes show up. One minute you’re carefully sculpting the perfect valley, the next you’re dropping earthquakes on some poor village because they built their huts too close to your sacred ground. The DS version keeps the spirit of the original but makes everything feel snappier, like they trimmed the fat without losing what made Populous special.

It’s one of those games where you lose track of time because you keep thinking "just one more tweak" to your little world. The screen’s small, sure, but there’s something weirdly satisfying about playing deity on the go.