IGN Review of Little King's Story

Amidst all the licensed rehashes and mini-game cop-outs, many Wii owners – usually the Nintendo "lifers" that have been through thick and thin with the company – are holding out for those truly innovative, truly unique Wii-exclusive titles. We get them once in a blue moon, with games like the upcoming Demon Blade, No More Heroes, Madworld, or Zack & Wiki, and they become must-play experiences that last the system's lifetime. I'm not the first to review Little King's Story, and I won't be the most raving, "greatest game of all time" compliment-fest compared to others out there, but at the end of the day I'd still have no problem putting a game like Little King's Story right up there with the other system-specific greats. What we first saw with a promising little title called Project O has grown and thrived into a game that truly feels at home on Wii, and while it's missing what I would consider to be a few key elements on the system Little King's Story is one I hope to see played and enjoyed by Wii owners, and given its rightful sequel down the line.



Little King's Story is a mix of many different elements from many different games, all wrapped up by a pretty strong Japanese talent base. Envisioned by the creator of Harvest Moon Yasuhira Wada, Little King's Story is a mix of life-sim, strategy, RPG, and town building game, grabbing the best element's from Wada's own works and combining them with the likes of Pikmin, games like Black & White, and even a touch of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles for that softer, playful vibe. Really though, it's the mash-up of Harvest Moon and Pikmin that defines the Little King's Story design, and that's some great groundwork to base an adventure off of.



The general premise around Little King's Story is pretty simple, but taking from its inspiration the game opens up fairly quickly and allows for some great customization and depth to explore. You take the role of a young boy named Corobo who falls into a mysterious world and instantly becomes king. While weak yourself, Corobo has infinite charisma and is able to command members of his kingdom to perform tasks and further the influence of Alpoko – the town – and eventually take over the known world. Grabbing hold of a villager comes with the tap of a button, and various training areas will transform them (stats and all) into a new role, such as soldier, farmer, or carpenter. After a short introduction the game opens up freely, and it's up to you to keep citizens happy, go out and dig for treasure or battle beasts, generate income, and build the town. It's a very "go at your own pace" feel, but with more side quests and story elements just a screen away the game begs to be explored.



The gameplay feels pretty fresh, as you'll constantly be upgrading your village, growing the population, furthering the available classes, and hitting up side and main missions, but it's really the style and presentation that pushes this game into being such a desirable experience. The game is funny, constantly poking fun at games or giving nods to classic industry favorites (Princess Apricot, for example, who is an obvious name play off of Princess Peach), and the humor that surrounds the playful nature of taking over the entire world with an army of villagers (slaves?) at your disposal is enough to generate serious smiles. Everyone from the cow-riding Howzer to the religious extremists or lazy villagers around town add to the soul of the game, and it all comes together very well. The voiceover work is well done, the visual style is great on-screen, and the cinemas - done with a sort of pastel presentation – fit the game's youthful design well.



It isn't all fun and games though, as Little King's Story does have some downsides. I've mentioned it in previews and on podcasts, but the lack of pointer control in a game that's inspired by the likes of Pikmin is just a huge oversight, and one that really proved to be a continuing distraction for me. With a crowd of villagers behind you players might assume that being a king is easy, but with the actual commanding of the troops being archaic and slow that isn't the case. Sending a villager off to attack or perform a task means using the analog stick to point the King directly at the object and then sending them out like a bullet or fireball. If the villager hits, they perform any applicable task. If they don't, they come running back. We saw an amazing difference between the controls in the original Pikmin and the "New Play Control" version, and seeing what could be done with pointer precision – and the fact that Little King's Story doesn't make any use of Wii-specific tech such as motion or IR during core gameplay – makes King's Story feel like a step backwards. It's a Wii-exclusive game, so to miss out on a core concept that would truly set it apart from games found on other platforms is a big misstep in my opinion. Pointing directly at objects is not only natural, but is expected on a system like Wii, so while the game is certainly playable and fun (very fun, I might add) it feels like we're now waiting for a "New Play Control: Little King's Story" to truly get the game's full potential. Huge oversight.



The other real downside comes with – oddly enough – the presentation. While there's an impressive visual design and a truly beautiful world to explore, it isn't perfect, and the faults do shine through at times. The style itself looks great, but the game has almost too soft of a look, acting as if the lens has smeared Vaseline on it or just a blurry filter to try and soften up the visuals even more. This doesn't come through on most of the videos and trailers out there, but some players may be surprised to see that while King's Story has a beautiful visual look, it's also a bit foggy and lacks resolution. The graphics just aren't as crisp as they could be, and that's a totally separate issue than the soft, playful style. On the audio side of things the voiceover work is entertaining and a bit over the top at times, and while the music is well composed and oftentimes humorous in its own right there's also a lot of public domain songs in there. They work in their own right, but a more original soundtrack would have given the game a feel all its own, and Yoko Shimomura could have been let loose and simply rocked this game's audio design. One listen to her "best of" album Darammatica is proof of that.



And while there are obvious places that I wish would have more effort, time, or follow-through the game is still amazingly rewarding and a beautiful piece of work for Wii's library. There's constant innovation and imagination happening in the world, be it in the form of "you hate to kill them" baddies or entertaining boss fights to the subtle humor in the side quest generating "town comment box," and everywhere in between. Conquering a new section of land grants you a celebration the following day (of course with a reason to party the villagers are too lazy to do real work), the subtle design concepts like having people grow old as they take damage and eventually crap out is a nice playful touch, and there's just so much life and soul in the game it rivals titles like Animal Crossing normally produced only by Nintendo.



©2009-07-21, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved