Super happy fun times at the castle!

I sat down with Ken from XSEED and he gave me a small sneak peek into the world of Little King's Story. Though the details thus far are sparse, we definitely have a better grasp on the flow of the game then we did before the show. For anyone disappointed there was no Pikmin announcement from Nintendo this year, check out LKS instead -- it has all the elements of the former game while combining in some Animal Crossing socialization.

Take the role of a young King as he builds his kingdom up. At first, he'll only have a small dubious shack to his name. The first order of business is to get enough materials together to build a grand castle suitable for royalty. From there, it's up to this pint size royal to begin expanding his territory and become the biggest king a little tyke like him can be. While he couldn't do it on his own, he'll have plenty of companions to aid him in his reach for the biggest crown in this world.

Hearts for yous! And yous! And especially YOU!

The king's helpers come in a variety of job classes: soldiers, carpenters, miners, hunters and more will be available to make a rounded party. Though at first he'll only have a limited variety to choose from, a dozen jobs varying from interesting to wacky will unlock as the game progresses. Each helper has its own name, and it's important not to treat them as disposable; the longer a unit stays with the king, the more experience it will gain and the more proficient and hardy they will become. We decided to test out our team, a mixture of soldiers, miners, and others, on the first boss of the game.

It turns out the rival king was a total souse! He was drunk by the time we arrived and frequently belched out fire and even vomited towards our party at one point -- eeeewwwww. The boss strategy was interesting: stay out of his attacks while you aim your fleet of minions towards the boss. The soldiers pounced on him, distracting him and temporarily ceasing his attacks while my miners got to work disassembling the stone juts surrounding the very liquored opponent. Once their job was done, it was time to send in the carpenters to chip away at the tower/throne he was sitting on. Sadly, the party wasn't very hardy and thanks to numerous, poorly aimed launches the party was quickly wiped out for a game over.

It was cute, but I'm not entirely sold on the game yet, as I didn't see enough to form any firm opinion negative or positive. However, with the release date a short seven weeks away at July 21st, it won't be too long of a wait before we begin seeing additional details and footage of the game and I can get a better grasp of how I feel about the title.