[Editor's Note - "Seth" is currently 12 years old.]

I never thought I’d be a king at 12 with four wives and a kingdom spanning more than half the world. Little King’s Story allows me to be just that. A small, timid boy named Corobo finds a magical crown that gives him mighty powers of persuasion. Soon after, his three friends become his ministers and advise him on how to be a king.

As king, you must direct your nearly useless carefree adults to run the kingdom. As you gain more riches, you can order buildings to be constructed, allowing you to put your adults to work as hardworking farmers or grunt soldiers. After exploring, a letter is sent to you telling of a cow with a skull for a head, and your war adviser tells you to go and crush it, believing it to be a guardian, a creature of great power that prevents you from expanding your kingdom. After doing so, more land is opened up for you to expand and build into.

Every area that is not currently owned by either you or another kingdom is overrun with monsters. These creatures, called UMAs (unidentified mysterious animals), are the main enemies in the game. I often went off on crusades to the untamed lands to collect money and slay UMAs. Every area has its own special UMAs, ranging from dragons to giant turnip-headed people to mushrooms. Most UMAs — like the mushroom people and the turnip heads — would stick themselves into the dirt and look like any other giant plant. I felt quite surprised when I would attack a mushroom to collect money only to find myself surrounded by UMAs!

Each area that has UMAs in it also has a guardian. Guardians are UMAs of immense power that prevent you from expanding your kingdom. Guardians can only be fought after the specific guardian’s quest has been accepted from the mail. Because of the guardian’s great power and resilience, I would lose many of my men during melees. After every victory against a guardian, your kingdom grows to encompass the once UMA-infested land.

After taking over a couple of areas, you are soon sent a challenge from a rival king who believes you to be weak and pathetic. By defeating him and taking his territory, you meet a princess that want to be your queen. After saving her and defeating the rival king, the citizens celebrate the victory for a while. On the next day, you receive two more challenges, requiring you to take action against the false kings. After you defeat every king, you meet a new princess you want to become your queen.

Controls in Little King’s Story are very similar to Pikmin. You control large amounts of characters you send to fight or work. It allowed me to control small armies of 30 to 40 men and crush all who opposed me without playing a large-scale strategy game. This made it fun and different. The tutorial was thorough and accessible throughout the entire game, making it much easier to play.

I thought the story was excellent because of the innocence and silliness of the notifications, such as the many fan letters and challenges I received. Overall, I thought Little King’s Story was a great game, and I recommend it to anyone wanting to try something new and unusual.