shinikaru

I should preface this by simply saying: Buy it. Little King's Story is about as much fun as I've ever had on the Wii. A clever mix of Harvest Moon, Pikmin, Sim City, and Heroes of Might and Magic make it a fairly unique experience.

The game comes off fairly unassuming at first; an old knight has been searching for you, the "true King" most of his life. He props you up in a shanty-like Castle and begins to run down the core game mechanics. Overall a fairly boring tutorial (Design Fail 1: I don't want to read your tutorial. I especially don't want a feature called "The Classroom," where I can read up on ALL of your extended tutorials.). Once you break into the real game, you find yourself roaming your Kingdom and beyond while recruiting a team of Villagers to follow you. You soon gain the ability to turn these villagers into different classes, such as a Soldier, Farmer, or Carpenter. Each class provides a benefit, usually unique to itself. Carpenter's can build things, such as bridges to further your Kingdom's expanse.  Soldiers are crucial to beating large UMAs (Unidentified Moving Animals). As you progress through the game, you'll gain more specialized (and hilarious) classes.

I think where Little King's Story shines most is in it's pacing - there is the carrot on a stick factor that is driven home so hard here that it's nigh impossible to stop playing. You're always looking forward to the next expansion, defeating the next UMA, unlocking a new class, and more. This is supported by the awesome "Suggestion Box" - the game's Mission System. It's sort of like taking Jobs in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance - there all usually preempted with some funny explaination and story, a slew are optional, and the goals are clearly lined out. In a really open game, sandboxy game like this, it's great to always know what your next task is.

My only real complaint then about Little King's Story is Citizen Manipulation - the designers clearly took a few cues from Pikmin - much like Olimar's tossing of the Pikmin, the King sends his subjects at whatever he's facing (via the Analog Stick on the Nunchuck). This leads to some pretty frustrating events and needlessly difficult boss encounters. It makes you wish the designers would've taken a cue from New Play Control Pikmin and let players use the Wii Pointer to direct their citizens. The only real benefit of the Nunchuck/Analog setup is you can play Little King Story like an old Tony Hawk game - completely melded into your couch exhibiting as little body energy as possible (a lot of people said that about Twilight Princess too!). Anyhow - the option would've been appreciated!

If this sounds like something you would be into, I can't recommend it enough. For me it's an experience much like playing Civilization 4 - I know once I start playing, I'm going to have to fight every fiber of my being to eventually pull myself away. And every once and a while, that's a really awesome thing, especially when it comes from a Wii game.