GameSpot: "Dawn of Discovery for the Wii has a delightful visual style, with vivid colors and simple but appealing designs for structures and ships that makes furnishing the world all the more pleasurable, such as creating a charming clockwork miniature. You can zoom in close to get a good view of the market carts going to and fro along your roads and zoom out far enough to look down upon entire islands.
Lovely clouds drift across the sky, your ships glide happily across smooth blue seas, and the idealized world of Dawn of Discovery is an enchanting place to spend time. The jaunty music befits the visuals and evokes the adventurous spirit of settling on a new frontier. There's plenty of voice acting on hand, too. Most of it comes from your two advisors, the bookish Cornelius Devenport and the bold Evelyn Bellard, who do a fine job of nudging you in the right direction without being overbearing about it, and should you grow tired of their hints, you can always turn them off.
It doesn't have the era-spanning historical scope that many games of this type have, nor does it bring anything new to the table. And despite a somewhat misleading statement on the back of the box, there's no meaningful multiplayer of any kind here--the second player can't do anything more significant than point at the screen, honk horns and shoot off fireworks.
But the flaws here aren't enough to overshadow the pleasure of building your cities, sailing the seas, and discovering what awaits over the horizon. The brisk pace and accessible city-building mechanics make Dawn of Discovery a game that should appeal to the adventurous spirit in just about anyone."
Digitally Downloaded writes: "Often the Wii was criticised for its perceived lack of quality third party games to play, but it's not the case at all. The Wii had some excellent third party games to play, it's just that some of them required a little digging to get to."
Anno: Create a New World is a pretty rare beast: a sim game with a story mode that's accessible to newcomers yet has sufficient depth to appeal to veterans. Whether you're a longtime simulation game player or just curious, you should definitely go pick this one up!
The popular building and strategy series Anno weighs anchor on the Wii, a decade after the original game made a name for itself on the PC.
It's the fourth game of the series and the year is 1404 (the PC version of the game is called 'Anno 1404', while the US title is 'Dawn of Discovery'). King George's lands have suffered greatly from drought and famine, thus he sends his two sons - William, the peaceful one, and Edward, the heavy-handed one - to explore new territories in the Orient, where they can grow all the food they need.
