Little King's Story

Does XSEED's Pikmin-esque game do more than toss peasants around?

Little King's Story arrived on UK shores to almost no fan-fare, which is a shame as this brilliant game was released in Europe almost two months before it's American July 21st release. Maybe if the US had seen the game first a few positive reviews might've broadened its appeal on this side of the pond. Alas, it will have to do with being championed by The Wiire.

No one said that 'running of the bulls' is part of being King.

Little King's Story is, for want of a better term, a real time strategy/RPG. I use these terms loosely however as the game is an RTS in the broadest possible sense of the genre. Suffice to say LKS plays unlike any other game on Nintendo's console (editor's note: think Pikmin!). You take control of a young boy who, after finding a magical crown (that he's led to by rats who storm his marionette theatre, go figure), becomes the young ruler of the kingdom of Alpoko. Here you meet a bizarre line-up of characters that introduce you to your destitute, crumbling kingdom and inform you of your duties as their new king. So far, so JRPG.

Alpoko is, in the beginning, nothing more than a ramshackle old hut being used as your castle and a couple of fields. You are informed by Howser, your Head Knight and Chief Advisor, on how to accumulate gold (known as Bol) so that re-construction can commence and you can build Alpoko into a kingdom worthy of, well, a king. The following resource harvest will be no stranger to anyone who's ever seen an RTS and is a measured introduction to the game's control scheme and play mechanics.

Unlike other RTS/God-sims you do not create buildings that then spawn characters for you to control, nor do you have the ability to control your subjects directly.  You control the movements of the titular king at all times, playing the game with him as your avatar. The control scheme is easy enough and mercifully doesn't utilise any of the Wii's occasionally haphazard motion detection functions.

Not all mushrooms are good mushrooms, unlike what other video games say.

The control system in LKS is one of it's many plus points. Playing the game for the first time, and recognising the RTS mechanics in play, you almost automatically expect a point-and-click control system to be utilised. However, this is not the case.

The Nunchuck's joystick moves the King around, the A button is a general confirmation/action button and the B button recruits villagers in the kingdom and orders their retreat from battle or whatever job they're attempting in the field. In fact, only building construction is done automatically and even this process must be manually selected and processed by you, once you have enough Bol to pay for it.

Your subjects are all listless layabouts by default. As the King it is your job to recruit these NPCs to your Royal Guard, which is achieved by walking up to any villager and pressing the B Button on the Wiimote. Your Royal Guard follows you wherever you go and can be expanded as the game progresses. You begin by being able to have 5 villagers follow you, but this number soon rises into the double digits.

Your little team will be, in its initial state, completely useless. It is your job as King to assign your villagers jobs. By earning Bol you can build new structures in which to train your villagers new skills, and assign them a new job. This is done by selecting one of the NPCs in your party and sending them into one of the many training buildings you will have built (barracks for soldiers, farms for farmers, workshops for carpenters, etc). With these skills you can explore new territory and earn more Bol to build even more buildings so your villagers can learn even more skills. Rinse and repeat.

Beware of chickens at night; you don't want to ruffle their feathers.

As the King you do not physically interact with anything in the world yourself, this is left to your NPCs. Your subjects won't do anything of their own volition however, you must tell them to do whatever job it is that requires completing. This is achieved by literally throwing members of your Royal Guard at objects in the field to make them act. Tree in the way? Throw a lumberjack at it! Crack in the ground? Throw a Hardworking Farmer over there to till the ground. Need a staircase building? Get a Carpenter on it. All actions within the game are achieved this way, so it's a good idea to have a variety of NPCs in your party at all times so you can deal with anything the environment throws at you.

Combat is dealt with in a similar fashion. Enemies, called UMAs, appear at random throughout the world map, usually when digging or harvesting for resources. As usual, you direct/throw a member of your team at the enemy for battle to commence. When the enemy is preparing to attack they will start to steam, which is your indication to order your Guard to retreat to avoid damage. All battles go this way, with different NPCs offering different attacks (Hunters have arrows for ranged attacks, Grunt Soldiers just storm on in). The King himself has a very weak attack close-range attack, but you will not last long if you try and act as an active member of your battle team.

If a member of your team takes too much damage in battle they will die and leave the battle. This being a Nintendo game though means death isn't such a grisly business. When you return to your kingdom you must pay a penalty (a small amount of Bol) for every lost team member, but this team member will then be resurrected and wash up on the shores of a nearby beach fully healed and ready to go. The King unfortunately does not have much fortitude and after taking damage three times it's game over.

Get used to being surrounded by little people awaiting your orders.

Eventually you'll feel your little kingdom is getting a little over-crowded and some expansion will be in order. This is achieved by exploring local territories and defeating their Guardian, usually a larger version of that area's UMAs. Once this guardian is defeated UMAs stop appearing in that area. This allows you to build in that location and expand your kingdom. As you build more houses, you will attract more villagers and create new training houses for different jobs and classes.

The game is beautiful to look at and pulls a surprising amount of graphical power out of Nintendo's little box. Xbox 360 and PS3 owners won't be bowled over, but if you're an exclusive Wii owner then you'll be pleasantly surprised. The game's bright, colourful, cartoon-ish visuals are an absolute treat. The cut-scenes that sporadically intersperse the game are rendered as though painted and a lot of the maps are styled as if drawn in crayon. This is more in tune with the fact the whole game may just be one child's dream, but it's gorgeous to witness either way.

The visuals and style are misleading however as LKS is a complex and engrossing game, though never seeming too difficult or overwhelming. After returning to a save game after playing the game for a while it was surprising, after a period of time, how many new units, buildings and territories your little kingdom has taken under its wing. The only exception to this ease-of-use rule is the Boss and Guardian battles, which are unbelievably hard.

Cut-scenes have a brush stroke look, complementing the fairy tale-tone.

Each Guardian has an attack pattern that must be observed and only a very small window in which to actually cause damage. It is not a rare occurrence to spend up to twenty minutes just fighting one guardian. On my first play-through there was more than one occasion when the Guardian had wiped out my entire Guard and I was left to fight with only the King's almost useless close-range attack.

Brilliant learning curve. The game progresses smoothly while leading players deeper into realms of strategy-oriented gaming.

Intuitive controls. Regardless of the missing pointer, anyone can master the controls in mere minutes.

Entirely original gameplay. While Pikmin in nature, the RPG-like layers of the game brings a fresh experience to the world of gaming.

Too many units. Having so many lackeys can get confusing at times.

Unclear bosses. Boss fights aren't often very clear, and can be quite difficult.

Haphazard aiming. Tossing citizens around often results in throwing them at the walls next to your intended target.

I could not recommend this game highly enough to anybody; it is a marvellous achievement in every sense of the word. Though the game is a Wii exclusive, it is not subject to the usual idiosyncratic control systems most Wii titles are marred with. In fact it stands to reason this game could have been multi-format control-wise, but alas we are not that lucky. An excellent game for RPG, RTS or fans of brilliant games everywhere. All hail the King!