September 5, 2008 - While we wait for Nintendo to grant us a new Pikmin game, XSeed is prepping what looks to be a suitable substitute in Little King's Story. Part real-time strategy, part Harvest Moon-type life sim, the game puts players in charge of a small town and tasks them with growing it into a vast kingdom. There are giant monsters guarding neighboring areas, and as they are defeated the size of your empire will increase. We got an extended look at this Story recently, and came away eager to play more.

One day a young boy finds a crown that grants him the power to lead and, basically, control the people around him. A knight named Hauser has been searching the land for a leader, and when he senses your new abilities he finds you and becomes your advisor. The game runs on a daily cycle, and Hauser will provide you with daily reports about things like money and unemployment. He'll also send you news headlines while you're out and about in town. At the start your bank account will be $0, so you'll need to gather a few townspeople for a good old fashioned treasure hunt.

BERJAYA
The water color art is beautiful, but it's relegated to the cut scenes.
You have direct control of the king with the nunchuk's analog stick. The remote represents your scepter and by pressing the B button you will raise your in-game staff and call your citizens to follow you. The Z button will reveal nearby objects that can be interacted with or attacked. Around the town you'll find holes in the ground that may hide treasure. Pressing the A button will send your subjects to interact with an object in the direction you are facing. So you can send them into the holes to dig out the gold. Or they may have to destroy a fallen log that blocks your path. Once you've stuffed your pockets with money you can start building job houses and assign specific tasks to your citizens.

Job houses are where you send people to learn a trade. The first two structures you can build are farm houses and soldier houses. Farmers can cultivate cracks in the ground. Any citizen can be sent to attack monsters, but soldiers will deal the most damage. Soldiers can't dig, though. Later on you'll be able to train archers, carpenters, and more. Job types can be changed at any time. It takes a full day to build a house, so you can either wait it out or go to sleep and wake up the next morning. Sleeping is a good way to replenish the king's health.

You'll begin your reign in an old, run down shack, sleeping on a bed of hay surrounded by cobwebs. But as your kingdom improves, so will your crib. Eventually you'll have a castle fit for a king. When it comes time to build a town square your subjects will hold festivals there each time you defeat a boss and expand your territory. It's actually rather gruesome -- the beast's head is stuck on a pyre and the citizens dance around like pagans wearing masks. The square will also be where your mail box is, and subjects will drop off notes for you. They might give hints as to what you should do next or lavish you with praise.