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Play Overview
Little King's Story (2009) is a real-time strategy game that simulates life in a fictional kingdom. You play a timid boy who finds a crown that gives him power to make people follow orders. You slowly expand your village by gathering resources and gaining inhabitants.
Play involves issuing orders to citizens to direct them to tasks like in Pikmin games: build, gather and expand the kingdom. Each different person has different skills and must be used effectively. You can soon add buildings, training facilities, granneries and the like to grow your population. These followers steadily increase in strength and ability as you train them up. They can have a variety of jobs: soldier, carpenter, peasant, farmer, and hunter. The more people you have the more you can do.
It's a novel game that offers a fun city expansion and farming experience. But it's the humour, unusual characters and social commentary that make this really stand out. Although it seems like a kids' game, there is darker more counter-cultural side to the world: class and the meaning of nobility are recurring themes, what the purpose of science, art, religion, television. Even the fear of armageddon gets a look in.
As the game progresses you start to realise that your soldiers can permanently die, which results in funerals and other villages wearing black. This is underlined by boss encounters where you abuse your enemies (in one instance knocking them around to lose weight). You find notes in a maze detailing the life of someone with depression and anxiety that includes their untimely death. Morality is questioned by your minions more and more, and you become unsure whether you are so much the hero, rather than actually a villain.
Like The Legend of Zelda Link's Awakening, reality itself frays as you continue. The boss encounters in particular become increasingly bizarre and on the edge of sanity. By the end it seems that the game was actually about something different all together. Perhaps our character coming to terms with the loss of people in his life (deceased grandfathers and alcoholic uncles) before finding the crown.
Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Little King's Story 2 years ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 2 years ago.
Play involves issuing orders to citizens to direct them to tasks like in Pikmin games: build, gather and expand the kingdom. Each different person has different skills and must be used effectively. You can soon add buildings, training facilities, granneries and the like to grow your population. These followers steadily increase in strength and ability as you train them up. They can have a variety of jobs: soldier, carpenter, peasant, farmer, and hunter. The more people you have the more you can do.
It's a novel game that offers a fun city expansion and farming experience. But it's the humour, unusual characters and social commentary that make this really stand out. Although it seems like a kids' game, there is darker more counter-cultural side to the world: class and the meaning of nobility are recurring themes, what the purpose of science, art, religion, television. Even the fear of armageddon gets a look in.
As the game progresses you start to realise that your soldiers can permanently die, which results in funerals and other villages wearing black. This is underlined by boss encounters where you abuse your enemies (in one instance knocking them around to lose weight). You find notes in a maze detailing the life of someone with depression and anxiety that includes their untimely death. Morality is questioned by your minions more and more, and you become unsure whether you are so much the hero, rather than actually a villain.
Like The Legend of Zelda Link's Awakening, reality itself frays as you continue. The boss encounters in particular become increasingly bizarre and on the edge of sanity. By the end it seems that the game was actually about something different all together. Perhaps our character coming to terms with the loss of people in his life (deceased grandfathers and alcoholic uncles) before finding the crown.
Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Little King's Story 2 years ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 2 years ago.
Kids not old enough for this yet? There are lots of games similar to Little King's Story. Here are some similar younger-rated games:
Play Style
Benefits
This game is good if you want to:
Age Ratings
Rated for younger players in Australia. Rated Parental Guidance (PG) for Mild Themes, Violence.
It's worth noting that although this is clearly a fantasy game not set in the real world, there are implied dark themes that fall outside the ratings. Madness and immortality of the main character. Permanent and disturbing deaths of characters under your charge, and the violent treatment of seemingly innocent enemies.
Skill Level
12+ year-olds usually have the required skill to enjoy this game.
Costs
Game Details
Release Date: 22/04/2009, updated in 2016
Out Now: PC, PS Vita and Wii
Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds
Players: 1
Genres: Role-Play, Strategy (Adventure, Collecting and Fighting)
Accessibility: 1 feature
Components: 3D Third-Person
Developer: Onion Games (@OnionGames)
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