Little King’s Story: Will it be Worth the Wait?

Little King’s Story for the Nintendo Wii isn’t going to be released for a few months yet, but it’s already gaining a lot of attention. (See GAMESPOT Preview.) Rising Star Games has been talking about this game for a while. It has a really unique ’storybook’ style to the game, and seems a perfect match for the Nintendo Wii videogame system.

Little King’s Story begins with a young boy named Corobo who is shy and doesn’t have many friends. (Sounds like a gamer maybe? Smile.)  Corobo stumbles upon a mysterious, powerful crown while walking in the forest near his village. He soon discovers that the crown grants him the ability to charm any person, and make them follow his orders. Suddenly, Howzer, the bull-knight appears informing Corobo that he is now King of the village and that he must not take this responsibility lightly. Returning to his sleepy village as a King instead of a shy little boy, Corobo begins a quest to turn his small hamlet into a noble, fantastic kingdom. Very cool.

In a move rarely seen in the games industry, Little King’s Story is the result of the combined efforts of some of the biggest names in Japanese gaming. Known collectively as the Samurai Six, the Wii-exclusive title features executive producer Yasuhiro Wada (creator of the Harvest Moon series), producer Yoshiro Kimura (director on Chulip), director Yoichi Kawaguchi (main programmer on DragonQuest VIII), character designer Hideo Minaba (character designer on Final Fantasy XII), game designer Norikazu Yasunaga (game designer at Cing, developers of Hotel Dusk and Another Code) and monster designer Kazuyuki Kurashima (monster designer on Super Mario RPG). That’s quite an impressive team.

“With such a legendary team of designers behind it, Little King’s Story promises to be one of the games of the year,” says Yen Hau, product marketing assistant, Rising Star Games. “Our focus is on bringing the very best Japanese games to Europe – and we’ve worked incredibly hard to ensure that our gamers will be able to play this ground-breaking collaborative title ahead of its native release. Mark 24th April down in your diaries now – and cross out the following few weeks: Little King’s Story will be the game to play this spring.”

This is another “must-have” title for the Nintendo Wii.  The game is set for release on April 24th 2009 in the United States.  (It will be released first in PAL markets – aka Europe.) The game seems like it will be worth the wait, though.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and let us know!