One of the underrated gems of 2009, this game has ties to the Harvest Moon series with Marvelous Entertainment publishing the game. It blends elements of Pikmin and Harvest moon with a fusion of rpg, simulation, and real-time strategy.
You play as a young boy named Corobo who gets a hold of a crown that gives him powers of charm and persuasion which he can use to boss people around. You inherit a small weak kingdom Alpoko, with one goal, expand your kingdom through conquest and exploration. Your tools come in the form of your charm which you use to recruit "carefree citizens". You can use these carefree citizens and train them in different jobs/professions. Grunts make up the basic military, farmers are useful for digging holes and cutting down certain trees, carpenters build bridges, hunters are good for long range attacks, and there are other professions which you get access to as you progress. The game is very balanced and you can't get through the game by relying on only one profession, you need to have a solid blend of grunts, famers, carpenters and other specialists if you want to expand your kingdom.
But you need money when building your kingdom, you get that through exploration and conquest which gives you some fat loot that you convert to cash. You can use the money to buy more houses (gives you more carefree citizens, plus methods of collecting taxes), and buildings that you use to train citizens in certain professions. You get more buildings as you advance through the game and defeating monsters in certain areas allow you expand your kingdom to different zones/towns.
My favorite aspect of the game is watching your kingdom evolve and expand overtime, defeat a monster and your kingdom will have a party in town center with a trophy of the monster you defeated in the town square. Though the game is called Little King's Story don't let this turn you off because the game has a great playful/tongue and cheek style that will attract all spectrums of gamers. The soundtrack consists of modified classical music from Beethoven.
I said that this game has elements of real time strategy but don't come into this game expecting command and conquer gameplay. The controls and rts aspects of the game are very simplistic from the recruiting of citizens to giving them orders, all done with a simple aim and click with the a and b buttons. Some will enjoy the simplicity while others will hate it.
Overall this is a fantastic game with a great visual style and gameplay that fans of Pikmin and Harvest Moon will enjoy. My real complaints with the game is that aiming and pointing the direction you want to move your forces in is difficult, this isn't really a game breaker but when your battling monsters it can be annoying and may cost you some of your valuable citizens. Another problem is that many times you send the wrong unit at the enemy (sending a famer instead of a grunt, the farmer ends up getting his ass whooped, hitting down on the d-pad allows you to organize the units you want to send in first but in combat you might forget). The simplicity of the rpg and rts aspects of the game might turn off hardcore fans of the genres, but other than that, Little King's Story is a highly addictive game with a great style, a must own for Wii owners and fans of Harvest Moon and Pikmin.
Cing one of the developers of the game went bankrupt recently, and the game had very decent sales barely hitting the 100k mark in North America, Japan, and Europe combined. I really want to see a sequel to this game ( I heard Super Little King's Story is in the works) so if anyone owns a Wii, I recommend you go out and get this game and support the people that developed this gem.
The Verdict: A-
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