Little King's Story

[Falcon_BlizZACK]

haha, that was like having Dizzee Rascal narrating!

 

Wassup Darling, dis is like Little King's Story innit Aye!

 

Game looks like fun.

 

Thats such a discriminatory comment. wtf.

[Retro_Link]

Thats such a discriminatory comment. wtf.

Wtf back! exactly who am I discriminating against?!

 

There's nothing wrong with saying he reminded me of Dizzee Rascal! and it was a refreshing change to have someone so enthusiastic and charasmatic talk about the game.

Edited March 21, 2009 by Retro_Link

[Tellyn]

When I said childish I didn't mean like childish as in cartooney graphics, but the way the guy was representing the game looked like he's trying to go after the winnie the poohe crowd. Which is definently a kiddy game.

 

To be fair, they're not aiming the game exclusively at people such as ourselves who read internet forums and look into review scores, videos, screens, details, etc. before we go out to buy a game. They need to take a different approach with selling the game to the 'casual' crowd.

 

Wtf back! exactly who am I discriminating against?!

 

There's nothing wrong with saying he reminded me of Dizzee Rascal! and it was a refreshing change to have someone so enthusiastic and charasmatic talk about the game.

 

Agreed, PR guys usually sound like they're reading from a script.

[Hero-of-Time]

Apparently this snippet is from the review.

 

For soundtrack fans NGamers says this:

"Kooky tunes and classical greats - the most listenable soundtrack since Mario Galaxy."

 

Awesome!

[Falcon_BlizZACK]

Wtf back! exactly who am I discriminating against?!

 

There's nothing wrong with saying he reminded me of Dizzee Rascal! and it was a refreshing change to have someone so enthusiastic and charasmatic talk about the game.

 

He didn't sound as inarticulate as what you wrote. Can't a Black person just be professional and do their job without being compared with some crooked music artist? :/

[Hero-of-Time]

Edge have scored this in this months issue, giving it a very impressive 9/10. This game can't arrive soon enough!

[Retro_Link]

Jean Claude Van DAMN that's a good score!

 

May have to look into getting this then!

[spirited away]

Edge have scored this in this months issue, giving it a very impressive 9/10. This game can't arrive soon enough!

 

Read that review earlier today and it's piqued my interest considerably. Great to see that it's recieved such a positive critical reception.

[flameboy]

Edge have scored this in this months issue, giving it a very impressive 9/10. This game can't arrive soon enough!

 

Have to say hasn't been on my radar at all but now it is after reading that review 9/10 for EDGE is a great score...

[Nicktendo]

Have to say hasn't been on my radar at all but now it is after reading that review 9/10 for EDGE is a great score...

 

Consider it bought!

[D_prOdigy]

It was a near-cert for me after the NGamer score, but that settles it. Can't wait for another Wii game with some substance. Overkill and MadWorld are all well and good, but they're not exactly the deepest experiences imaginable.

[flameboy]

That's the thing thats got me interested seems to have a lot of depth to it. Like how it has an Animal Crossing vibe to it almost but more focussed and with a purpose to it...

 

This is the current mathematical equation going through my head for this game;

 

Animal Crossing + Pikmin + Final Fantasy CC; My Life as King = Little King's Story

 

Think each of these games shares various trends and ideas with LKS.

[darksnowman]

Jean Claude Van DAMN that's a good score!

 

May have to look into getting this then!

 

Now I want to watch the Fresh Prince of Bel Air as well as get my hands on Little King!

[Hero-of-Time]

In this months ONM they gave it 92%

 

I was checking Gameplays preorder chart and its number 4 but its a dark day when a game like this is getting beat by Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum 2009

[flameboy]

Think this game looks awesome...Hopefully EDGE's review will be online before it hits for all to read and enjoy.

[D_prOdigy]

I think I might try and bring myself to hold off on a pre-order with this. I'm hoping that my luck is with me and it will see a price drop before too long like with other certain recent Wii games... but knowing my luck it will end up selling incredibly well, stay at full price and/or go out of stock everywhere rapidly...

[killer kirby]

I think I might try and bring myself to hold off on a pre-order with this. I'm hoping that my luck is with me and it will see a price drop before too long like with other certain recent Wii games... but knowing my luck it will end up selling incredibly well, stay at full price and/or go out of stock everywhere rapidly...

 

I hope it sells fucking well, so it stays at that price, knowing that a third party game can be loved by both casuals and hardcore gamers as well as it being third party company, I hope it get's everything it deserves.

[Ike]

I think I might try and bring myself to hold off on a pre-order with this. I'm hoping that my luck is with me and it will see a price drop before too long like with other certain recent Wii games... but knowing my luck it will end up selling incredibly well, stay at full price and/or go out of stock everywhere rapidly...

 

Yeah I was thinking that as well, it's already dropped in price and it's not even out yet! But I decided to go ahead and pre-order it last night because of the amazing reviews it's been getting. I used £2 GAME reward points to bring it down to around £25 so that's not too bad.

[Mike]

Got a review copy of this yesterday, and played the first five minutes or so, so not really enough to judge it properly. I'm definitely enjoying the music so far. One thing I don't really like is how you walk through NPCs, and it can be difficult to face them correctly to talk to them. I'm going to have a longer go later on tonight, and report back.

 

EDIT: My girlfriend and I have been playing this for two or three hours now, just beaten the third boss. Definitely enjoying it so far; if you liked Pikmin, you'll probably like this (although I do prefer Pikmin, to be honest). Great music, graphics and gameplay, and very easy to pick up.

Edited April 17, 2009 by Mike

[Hero-of-Time]

I want this game to sell well, I really do! While I wait for the game to get released I will do my part and type up the excellent review it got in this months ONM. ( checked their website and the review still isnt up! )

 

Here it is....

 

What with the likes of MadWorld, The Conduit, and House of the Dead currently spearheading something of a hardcore Wii takeover, it's easy to forget that the house of Nintendo was built not by guns 'n' gore but on cute 'n' cuddly. Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong, Animal Crossing, Pikmin, Kirby...there's a time and a place or a more adult-orientated action, but these are the games that a true Nintendo fan holds dear above any others.

 

So what with the Wii taking a recent turn for the bleak and bloody, it's great to see a game like LKS come along and remind us why picked Nintendo over Sega, Sony or Atari back in our formative gaming years. Beautiful character design; charming narratives; eccentric dialogue; huge, magical worlds to explore; polished, inventive and accessible gameplay; and a hefty challenge that bellies a game's cute stylings. It's rare that a game ticks all of those boxes in this day and age ( especially one not made by Nintendo themselves ), but we'rehappy to report that LKS has come out of nowhere and blown our socks off. A real surprise package, there's a good chance that you won't play a finer videogame this year, first party or otherwise.

 

A gorgeous, bizarre hand drawn intro sets the scene. A lonely lad kicks around his bedroom, when a family of rats dash across his floor. He follows them out of the house and into the woods where they lead him to a golden crown hidden in the trees. He puts it on, at which point four mysterious subject materialise and pronounce him as their long awaited king. It's here that the gameplay kicks in.

 

LKS is essentially a clever mix of Pikmin, Animal Crossing and Command and Conquer. You start off in a modest little shack with just a handful of followers. Venture outside and toss some of your meager citizens, Pikmin-style, into any one of the holes in the ground that you come across and they'll dig up some treasure. Take the treasure back to your right hand man in the 'castle' and he'll convert it into cash which you can then spend on building a farmhouse. Direct a citizen inside and they'll become a farmer capable of digging at cracks in the soil, uncovering yet more bounty. This loot can then be used to build a Guard House, where you can train your subjects up as soldiers and then lead them into the surrounding areas to start exploring and expanding your kingdom.

 

As your realm expands, citizens will start dropping 'quests' into a suggestion box in the town square, asking you to throw out trouble makers or take on 'guardians' causing chaos in a peripheral region of your domain. To gain control of their territory you'll obviously have to give these guardians a pasting. The combat works exactly as it does in Pikmin. You toss your soldiers at your foes and let them get on with it, while you watch for signs of a counterattack, at which point you recall them and take cover.

 

Defeat a guardian and you'll be rewarded with more cash, which you can use to develop their turf. As you continue to expand your kingdom you'll find various geographical obstacles standing in your way. You'll have to save up enough money to construct the necessary building in which to train your subjects as carpenters ( to build bridges ) miners ( to remove boulders ) or lumberjacks ( to remove tree stumps ). You can also construct buildings to train new soldier types, such as archers, wizards or veteran grunts, to take on bigger, badder foes.

 

Once you've completed a number of quests, recruitied the necessary citizen types and opened up the right area you'll go up against one of a number of kings-essentially a huge boss fight that form the backbone of the plot. Defeat all of these kings and the world will be yours.

 

That's the game in a nutshell but we've barely scratched the surface of the wider expereince on offer. From its simple, approachable beginnings, LKS builds and builds, adding even more complex elements. It's perfectly paced-you're always on the verge of feeling overwhelmed by everything that's going on but just as you're about to panic, a new element is introduced that pulls everything together.

 

Aswell as the main plot ( which should take the best part of 30 hours to work through ) there's also a lovely Animal Crossing like element going on, which is almost a game in itself. There's a huge cast of charcaters in your town to interact with, including a terrifying evangelising monkey-priest who worships ramen noodels, a dotty art gallery owner ( whose demands for new pictures to display provides an engaging subquest) and an eccentric astronomer predicting the end of the world. There are festivals to celebrate, flowers to plant, matchmaking to be mastered, weddings to attend and citizens to customise.

 

There are a few downers. There's alot of to-ing and fro-ing from the fronlines to your castle to continually save your progress, trade in your spoils and bring in different team members. The Kaboom Jump Cannons that blast you aroundyour kingdom temper this a little but it can still be frustrating. The combat gets a little repetitive-victory always comes down to you just deploying and recalling your troops at the right moment-although boss fights are to be relished.

 

For the most part, its bewitching, magical stuff. The enemy desgin is absolutely gorgeous- giant snails, killer toadstools, flying cows, psychotic sheep, cake addticed aristrocrats, fire breathing dragons, murderous turnips, pac-men on pogo sticks, obese cockerels, ravenous toads...they're all a joy to meet and you'll almost be reluctant to put them to the sword. Your subjects are delightfully nuanced too. From your moustachioed, Maciavellian right hand man Howser, to the sheer unadulterated awesomeness of Pancho the barking cow.

 

We could go on for another four pages about all the genius little touches that Marvelous have crammed into this game. There is just so much to enjoy here. It's refreshing to see a game that's not afraid to offer gamers a whopping Zelda-length quest wrapped in the sort of charm, wit and inventiveness rarely seen outside of a first party title. MadWorld and GTA might be great games, and are certainly more adult but LKS will be the one that reminds you why you fell in love with Nintendo gaming.

 

+ Beautiful Presentation

+ Fantastic Classical Soundtrack

+ Massaive Quest

+ Wonderfully Eccentric

- Frustrating back-tracking

 

92%

 

Phew! If there are any spelling errors ( bound to be ) then screw you

Edited April 19, 2009 by Hero-of-Time

[ThePigMarcher]

Damn you HoT :p

 

I was going to wait for a price cut as I have been hammered by both a leccy and water bill , but just reading that has made it too hard to resist , so I will have to fire in a pre-order now (just hope the leccy doesn't get cut off before I play it :p).

[Noku]

But I don't wanna get screwed!

 

Thanks for the review, sure buy for me this.

[darksnowman]

I was gonna wait for a price drop too... but I dunno anymore. Sounds class.

 

Cheers for typing that up H-o-T. Not sure what Seage is but hey...

[D_prOdigy]

It's a sad state of affairs when gamers are actually anticipating a price cut

 

I'd love to grab a good deal as much as the next guy, but I also want this to sell well. Either way, this is definitely my next purchase.

[Funktion]

While you guys obviously do what you want with your own money, if indeed you're interested in the game, this is one of the cases that deserves a first day purchase (instead of waiting for a price drop), if nothing more to show that we appreciate the fact that a game gets released in Europe well before the US and Japan. We are always treated like 3rd rate customers, but in this case we are actually getting the game first.