Little Kings Story

Review from Cav - Monday, 03 August 2009 @ 10:39pm

Well, it’s different, I’ll give it that.

Little King’s Story is one of those games that you are not sure if you like, but you keep playing anyway, just to see if it drops that elusive nugget of awesome that wins you over….

…. I am yet to stumble across said nugget....

.... well, maybe I have found half of the nugget....

Like Mel Brooks said... It's good to be the King

At first I thought this was going to be a breeze, as the graphics and intro seemed very ‘kiddy’. I was wrong. Dead wrong. LKS is full of World Dominance, Genocide, Alcoholism, Bigotry and Polygamy just to name a few. I was amazed that Mild Violence was the only warning on the PG rating. LKS has you playing the role of a young kid, Corobo, who claims a crown that gives him more charm than Larry Emdur after a $2000 dollar session with a dentist. With this power, he becomes king of Alpoko. His next task is to assemble an army, made up of his townsfolk, to better the land by defeating Kings from the surrounding areas. How do you do this with just everyday, common townsfolk? Train them of course! As you acquire funds through finding treasures, you are able to build houses and better your fortifications and castle, just as you would in other RTS type games. Once this is complete, you can convert your common townsfolk to a variety of classes to assist in your adventures, including hunters, woodcutters, miners, soldiers and the like, not that they aren’t handy just as plain, old townsfolk. The powers of these troops that you create can also be bolstered by equipping add-ons that are found while adventuring away from your castle, although most of them don’t seem to do much other than up that soldiers HP. One of the best things you can build in this game are Cow Cannons, which can propel you and your group to distant areas of the world map, although this option is only available after you have progress part way through the game.

As all Kings do, you have some Advisors who are there to assist you at your beckoned call. The one I find the most useless is Liam, a big lumbering, lump of a lad who claims to be the Minister of Anything. Personally I rarely consulted him. On the other end of the scale you have Verde who is a vital member of your group as conversing with her is the ONLY way to save in the game. This means you can’t save after traversing across screen after screen of terrain, to take on the task at hand. Last but not least is Howser, a sort of seasoned Captain of the Guard if you will, with a bizarre bovine fetish. Not only does he serve as your right hand man, pushing you to battle and claim the surrounding territories in the name of Alpoko, but he has contact with the commonfolk, who send on letters to the Castle, via the Suggestion Box. These letters can contain either words of encouragement or requests for tasks to be completed in the surrounding areas. He also has a running report on how satisfied or unsatisfied the townsfolk are. Being the awesome Kings that I am, I am afraid I cannot regale you tales of a revolution within my kingdom, as all was cool in King Cav’s crib!

Live footage of Cosplayers converging on eGames 2009

The WiiMote and Nunchuk control set is relatively simple to use and responds very well, this is something I cannot fault. It’s actually amazing that, as far as I can recall, you NEVER have to waggle like you are trying to mix a Midori Illusion in a Boston Shaker. Your troops will follow you, like lambs to the slaughter (well the poor saps did when they followed me) and they have two main objectives: complete their mission and protect the King. With a tap of the D-Pad, your troops will change formation, thus protecting you. When attacking an enemy, you can choose not to send a troop member if his abilities will have no effect. There are a bizarre collection of enemies known as UMA, not the ‘Bill Killing’ type but Unidentified Mysterious Animals, which put up a fight including large egg throwing chickens, possessed sunflowers and the Oni, who look like overgrown Allen’s Chicos. As with all games, while battling, you and your troops lose life when hit. This can be replenished by taking everyone back to you town then sleeping in your bed... by yourself... what? Disappointed? Well it gets better. The second option is find a natural hot spring out in the field, which you normally uncover while digging for treasure and have your army cram in as many people as you can into it so it looks like a Ron Jeremy film gone wrong. Some of these hot springs only hold a limited amount of water, so chose wisely who gets to jump in the tub.

Hey! Your Higness! Wanna play Wii Sports Resort with us?

The parts of the game that had me scratching my head in a major WTF moment were the bosses. Caught somewhere between a Drunk and a binge eater who digs pinball (which took me ages to do after finally working out the main point of the fight) the cut scenes before each fight were bordering on the bizarre. Before each battle you are shown a diagram of how to win the battle. I think you may have to be a Pictionary Master to understand exactly what half of these mean. Should you win, you return to the Kingdom to celebrate with your entire community. Should you die, you will luckily be able to start the final battle from the same space.

I am King BeerGut of BellyWhack!

There must have been a real pretty penny sunk into this game as there are quite a few bits of Classical music playing throughout it. One that stands out for me is Pomp and Circumstance (Macho Man Randy Savage’s Intro for those who can relate). I would also put money on that Little King’s Story is a slight homage to the Super Mario Bros franchise as Howser looks kind of like Wario and the first princess you rescue has the name Princess Apricot. There are also walking mushrooms found in the game as well. Co-winky-dink? Yeah, didn’t think so. Not to mention the intro video is very reminiscent of parts of Wario Smooth Moves with its scratchy look visuals. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great footage but it smells a little like ‘Poor Plumbing’ if you get where I’m coming from.

Pros

Huge amount of game time. Visually pleasing. Easy to control.

Cons

Lack of save options. Lack of direction in places. A little too drawn out for me.