Even though I’ve been busy on the 360 with three separate games I’m currently juggling between (Pure, BlazBlue, and Battlefield 1943), I’ve been jonesin’ for a game I could get fully sucked into for hours. I was curious about Little King’s Story because it was getting great reviews and after having sunk in seven hours already, I have to say that this game will most likely be the second game I will finish on the Wii after Super Mario Galaxy. It’s awesome!
The game takes the charming gameplay of Pikmin, but adds in a different theme this time around: you’re a king that has citizens that will follow you anywhere, and take on any occupations you want them to become. You can have footmen, hunters, farmers, etc. all in your growing “posse”, and as you travel the land you instruct them to perform tasks such as attacking enemies, digging holes, clearing the path, etc. As you explore the world, your goal is to conquer/kill bad guys (cutesy enemies) that are ruling/infesting your neighboring regions and by beating them, you can expand your empire further, allowing your towns to grow, new occupations to be learned, and more upgrades to be had. There is also a human element to the game as well, since each of your citizens has a name, can fall in love, marry and have children, and can be killed in battle.
Little King’s Story appears to be a 20+ hour game, and it contains sound story and gameplay progression not unlike the artificial “keys” in a Castlevania/Metroid/Zelda game where you learn new abilities or find new items to explore a new part of the castle or overworld map. In Little King’s Story, there is a huge world map, but you’re only limited to exploring certain areas until your empire grows large enough that you can learn new occupations for your citizens that allow you to get past the obstacles, such as lumberjacks to take out trees in your path and carpenters to construct bridges over rivers.
As you preside over your empire, you get letters from your citizens that are either fanmail or quest requests. Besides the general exploration you are allowed to do in the game, there is a main quest chain as well as various side quests that give you a more focused approach while also allowing you to amass treasure and gear (how else could you afford upgrading your empire?). This was just the type of game I needed!
Of course, there are some niggling issues such as pathing for your followers (they get caught on random obstacles if you make too tight a turn, but eventually respawn behind you if you travel far enough), and the lack of an easy way to hotkey your class groups or actual characters. I also didn’t appreciate that some of the quests I received were timed (3 days usually), since I tend to like playing through a game like this at my own leisure. But, besides those small issues, I have to recommend this game for any fan of Pikmin, or really, anyone that just wants to play a recently released deep and enjoyable game on the Wii.
