Star Formation History across the Magellanic Clouds and Other Local Group Galaxies

The K_s magnitude distribution of asymptotic giant branch stars provides important constraints on the spatial variation of metallicity and the mean age of the stellar population of galaxies. Here, I present results of the investigation of these parameters across the Magellanic Clouds, M33, NGC 6822, and SagDIG, and I discuss the tremendous improvement that new wide-field near-infrared instruments (i.e. VISTA) will provide in our understanding of the global intrinsic as well as dynamical history of these systems.