Populous DS

The main goal of the game is to help your civilization grow and prepare for the inevitable clash against the opposing worshippers in the final battle: the Armageddon. Every match has a certain duration that is indicated by a timer, which will automatically trigger the Armageddon once it runs out. During this time, the player will prepare their worshippers and help them become stronger by performing various miracles. Miracles are spells that require a certain amount of psychic energy to be cast: psychic energy is farmed through worshippers.

The most basic of miracles, and the most important, is terraforming, which can be used to even the terrain to allow the worshippers to build more houses, which they will use to farm more energy for the player to use. Other miracles can either be used to aid the growth and stats of the population, or to hinder those of the enemy. The different playable characters have a set of different miracles with certain usages and effects that allow for different playstyles and strategies.

The player takes the role of a deity whose role is to lead their followers build a prosperous civilization in order to defeat an opposing deity and its worshippers. The player will be able to aid their followers through divine intervention, using abilities such as terraforming to manipulate the shape of the land of the map to make its civilization grow in numbers and strength.

Populous DS received "mixed or average" reviews from critics, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.