Little King’s Story Review

Cute games don’t fly with everyone. In a misguided attempt at preserving their pride, many people will avoid a game simply for fear of being ridiculed for liking it.  Just look at Pokemon, or Animal Crossing.  Both of them addictive and polished experiences, yet ask one of your friends if they’ve played, and they will vehemently deny it.  One can only hope the same does not happen for Marvelous Entertainment USA and XSEED Games’ Little King’s Story.

Part sim, part RPG, and 100% adorable, Little Kings Story is the next entry in the long line of ridiculously charming Nintendo titles released in recent years, joining the ranks of Nintendog’s, Animal Crossing, and countless others.  This time around, you play as a young boy named Corobo who stumbles across a shining crown in the middle of a forest.  From there, you are given three advisors, who swear undying fealty to you and your kingdom.  The grizzled veteran knight Howser serves as your pool of knowledge for building a successful kingdom.  Verde, one of Corobo’s friends, acts as your Records Minister (Read: Saves the game for you).  Liam, also a friend, declares himself the Anything Minister, and gives you useful tips here and there.  All in all, these advisors offer some nice support, while not becoming too intrusive.  The goals set for you in the game are very reachable, and thanks to the wonderful control layout, the entire experience feels very streamlined.

This game was most definitely built for Nintendo’s strong casual demographic.  Though offering enough depth to be somewhat challenging, never do you feel overwhelmed by the task at hand, nor does any goal seem unreachable.  The brilliant controls make everything very fluid.  Directing your peon’s is as simple as clicking A, as little red indicators pop up to signal an action that can be performed.  Eventually, you will be able to build certain trade buildings that allow you to assign your basic servants specific jobs to complete, such as Town Guards or Farmers.  The first time you see a battalion of your knights marching their way out of a guard house, you’ll be hard pressed not to smile.  That’s because, along with the brilliant control scheme, this game also has a fantastic art style.

Actually, let me clarify.  This game has the PERFECT art style.  It’s games like this that make one forget how limited the Wii’s hardware is.  Hyper stylized games, such as No More Heroes and Mad World, are able to create awesome experiences while still looking good, even on the Wii.  Little King’s Story is most certainly another one of those titles, where the team understood their limitations and set about making a graphical style that didn’t need to be flashy.  Think of the way Square Enix did the Final Fantasy remakes.  They used a limited platform like the DS, but created a very cartoony and charming art style.  This, is turn, made the failings of the hardware totally acceptable, as it seemed to fit perfectly with the direction of the series.  That is the case here as well.

For a game that looks and plays great, it is a true shame that the audio wasn’t better.  Like The Sims, or Animal Crossing (What is that, only the third Animal Crossing reference?  I need to make more of an effort), this game features gibberish as it’s language of choice.  Dubbed ‘Animalese’ by Animal Crossing (Fourth!), this quickly becomes your least favorite aspect of the game.  I even found myself turning mute on at times, as my head couldn’t deal with hearing Liam utter another syllable.  That’s not to say that audio as a whole is a problem here.  The music is quite good, and the ambient noise is nothing particularly different from other, similar titles.  It’s just that the characters themselves could have done without voice-overs.  They are unnecessary, and actually sometimes succeed at pulling you out of an otherwise engaging experience, which is a shame.

And that’s really my largest complaint with this game.  Everything else works pretty damn well. Particularly the games sense of humor, which is actually quite clever.  This game is every young egomaniac’s dream.  Encouraging you to destroy “irritating pests that are keeping you from expanding your kingdom as you see fit” or assuring you that “no task is beyond your ability to order someone else to do,” this game is sure to be a hit with any kid that has ever tried to fry ants with a magnifying glass (Meaning all of them).  When one of the creatures you encounter throughout the game are described as being “Cute, cuddly, and insanely homicidal,” you know you’re in for a treat.  This game puts its T rating to good use, and is all the more appealing because of it.

The bottomline is that this game exudes charm from its every facet.  The art style is consistent and vibrant, and the controls make building your kingdom a walk in the park.  The story is as solid as can be expected given the genre hybrid that it finds itself in, and the humor is delightful.  The only pot holes the game encounters are the almost unbearable character voices, and an unfortunate case of invisible walls, preventing you from truly feeling a great sense of free exploration.  But despite these shortcomings, I still found myself enjoying what may be the most fun and relaxing casual excursion I’ve taken in months.  As I get older, I find myself unable to put more than a few hours into a game at any given time.  With Little King’s Story, however, I played for about seven or so hours on my first go.  That should tell you something about how polished and enjoyable a product this has shaped up to be.  And for all you guys out there, this is a title that will most definitely appeal to your significant other.  So if you’re looking to plan a romantic evening around a cute, unthreatening game, give this one a go.  Just make sure to blast your Barry White CD very, very loud.

8 Ninja Heads out of 10