In this version, you're a secretive Crusade badass - and that's pretty much all you need to know. Strike one against the DS game: while it's a standalone experience, Altair's Chronicles lacks the same character development of the console game.
It's a prequel, utilizing the same lead character and his acrobatic, assassin abilities. The Nintendo DS rendition of Assassin's Creed isn't a port or a sequel of the 2007 Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game. This game, however, isn't quite as polished as it could (or should) have been. We may never know for sure if the same internal group handled Assassin's Creed: Altair's Chronicles on the Nintendo DS, but it seems to share a lot of the same similarities as the Brothers in Arms conversion. Gameloft is, admittedly, a hit-or-miss development team, but when it squeezes out a hit on the DS system it's a pretty noteworthy one: last year's Brothers in Arms DS turned out an impressive handheld rendition that worked the system's strengths and weaknesses into a fun and intense action game. The company at least had the forethought that it would be, so it put itsGameloft studio on a Nintendo DS rendition of the franchise. Love it, hate it, indifferent about it: Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed was a hit last year on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.