December 22, 2010

A World of Keflings XBLA Review

Posted by: Cybermario @ 1:27 am Share in Facebook

It was a pleasure to kick keflings in the first title and ninjabee games spoil us, giving us an amazing sequel to keep kicking keflings to our wits end, A World of Keflings has arrived and the improvements in this title are remarkable. I downloaded the game and could not stop playing until 2am, the storyline and gameplay are just great.



Storyline
Yes we got one! Compared to the first title, now there is a nice and fun storyline. You are frozen and theories such as an abandoned alien experiment or leaving your fridge door open may be the reason to why you ended up there. As you break free from your frozen prison you meet Bob and the Kefkimos. As you advance in the game you rescue Doug from the ice, and he is so impressed that he ask you to let them become your lackeys to help you build the kingdom, and to learn some of your awesomeness.


Here you meet a lost Kefling Princess and learn there are gates to travel between kingdoms. This is when your adventures begin as you must help her return to her kingdom. There are a total of 3 kingdoms for your exploring pleasure. The kingdoms consist of; the Ice Kingdom, the Forest Kingdom, and the Desert Kingdom.


Escaping from the ice, how you ended there anyway?


Improvements
The amount of improvements in this game are noticeable and welcomed. Having three different regions to travel through as the story and quests advance, give the game a great diversity and breaks the monotony from the first title after long gaming sessions.


Having quests integrated in the storyline and not as one exclamation mark over the mayor makes the game much more enjoyable compared to the first title. This time though, it’s not just the mayor, but many of the different keflings you meet asking you favors and offering rewards by completing the quests. Completing the quests are entertainment and they dont feel like a chore for the player.


build cannons, make keflings fly and compose music!


Buildings and backgrounds have a new and stunning look, and the music is both catchy and relaxing. The same relaxing pace from the first title can be found in A World of Keflings, thus making it a winner.


Unlike before, now keflings level up and don’t need a building to improve their abilities. You are also given the chance to name the keflings. This time you improve your abilities by using magic potions and not by finding stuff around the maps. You can’t get every magic potion so you need to be careful selecting your new abilities.


One of the new improvements are the Nursery and the Sculptor. In the first title these were not very useful unless you wanted to decorate or add random stuff to your towns. These 2 buildings have a major role in the game as sculptures and trees are required to build houses and many other buildings (even the castle.) This in itself was a smart move, kudos Ninja Bee!


Lackeys make building much faster as Bob and Doug (among others) help you carry pieces to site faster and even help you finish some of them. This saves time and makes it less of a chore to make long trips to different workshops.


Autosave is a hell of a feature in a game like this, in the first game you could forget to save, build a lot and a shortage take it away in a blink (yeah happened to me) this is a more than a welcome feature in this sequel and a good asset that saves time and headaches.


The Desert Kingdom, one of three zones to explore!


Gameplay
Just like A Kingdom for Keflings, the game has the relaxing gameplay we love and the way quests and storyline advance keep it interesting. You don’t feel bored to play it for long periods of time. Just like before the achievements are there from start to finish. Once more, the game is a great stress reliever and entertainment title for the player.


The way the game works make me think future DLC could be delivered as new kingdoms with new quests and storyline, and why not, more achievements.


This is a title you cant missout on if you like City-building games. Happy kicking… err… I mean gaming!




~Mario
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December 21, 2010

A Kingdom for Keflings XBLA Review

Posted by: Cybermario @ 12:32 am Share in Facebook

Few games give you a chance to use your avatar and the pleasure to kick your resource gathering workers to your wits, is there something better than that? (probably orange mocha frappuccino) that game is A Kingdom for Keflings released Wednesday 19 November 2008 for Xbox Live Arcade.





This is one city-building game, the story is simple, as a giant you have to help the Keflings build a kingdom and that’s it but the charm of this game dont come from the lack of storyline but the very special and relaxing pace the game has to offer.


You can pick a giant or your xbl avatar, personally i love to use my avatar and i think it was one of the main attractives when the game was out back in the day, nothing like a storm trooper kicking keflings uh? this is a little something the pc version lacks but do not make the game less fun to play.


The keflings gather resources for you, rock, wood, cloth and crystals, hese are the raw materials to start building the kingdom, you can grab a keflings and assign them task very easy, many times you will find yourself kicking them as they tend to go harvest a different area of the map and not that one you need to clean.
as they harvest, items for your giant will be discovered, these will aid you to walk faster and carry more materials.


assigning task to the keflings is easy



Relaxing Pace?
As stated before the game have a charming and relaxing pace you cant but love, specially after a long day at work or after a gaming session with 12 year old kids yelling at you in Halo, a kingdom for keflings scenery, music and gameplay offers this unique experience to the players.


Up to 4 players can join in multiplayer



Rewards
the stress relief is nice but the game also offer a nice bunch of achievements that can be unlocked up to advanced stages of the game, keeping the player interested for a time, this include 2 multiplayer achievements and must say i am impressed how after 2 years people still host games and join games making it easier to complete the achievements, kudos for that.


There are 2 map packs in the marketplace, dont have these myself so that will be a different review ;)


Kicking Keflings becomes a habit :)



Downsides
the same relaxing gameplay people love is also what make people feel the game is boring and this stack with the lack of a storyline, quests are nice but not enough to keep people interested.


Do not recommend to play the game for long periods of time (like playing it for 2-3 hours in a row) as monotony will be obvious and the charm will go away.


and unless you care much for the layout and how the kingdom looks (like me) the game may be boring after you complete the game.


Overall A Kingdom for Keflings is a nice title, if you like games like Sim City, Civilization, etc, im sure you will like it, if blowing up stuff is your thing the title may not be so attractive for you, still.. who knows you may like it and get addicted to kick keflings.




~Mario
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July 7, 2010

Ancients of Ooga Review

Posted by: Cybermario @ 7:36 pm Share in Facebook

Hello gaming lovers, from the creators of the acclaimed A Kingdom for Keflings and Kaloki Outpost X we have a new and entertainment game: Ancients of ooga, if not a sequel it is considered by many the spiritual successor of the Arcade Hit Cloning Clyde.



In this interesting title the tribe of the Ooganians has been tricked, enslaved and their leaders killed by an evil race known as Boolis, and is up to you their great spirit to help them free the enslaved ooganians and revive their leaders to regain their long lost freedom.

As the great spirit you can possess any ooganian you released from their slavery, there is a total of seven tribes, each tribe of the ooganians have different strengths needed to solve the puzzles you will encounter along 50 plus levels in the game, there’s a 2 player mode by using a second controller and a leaderboard but not a co-op mode via Xbox Live which is regretable.

The game give you a good dose of humor and the puzzles are are interesting to solve, i like how the game combines puzzle and platformer (i wish more developers could release more platformer games, we really need them) with 3D graphics that give the game a colorful and cheerful look.
and may be just me but i had a Donkey Kong Country Dejavu at first (believe me that was a good thing).

Colorful and cheerful graphics are delightful



The music if not spectacular is quite good with tribal tunes that will make the game enjoyable as some noises from ooganians and boolis can be a bit repetitive, definitely the music is one of the strong points in this title.

The game delivers a good and relaxing gameplay experience as many Ninjabee titles do (an example is A Kingdom for Keflings) something i enjoy in a game after a long day before i head to bed.

Not everything in Ancients of Ooga is as expected, you can die an infinite amount of times with the only a penalty in your score but that is not enough of an incentive to avoid a death as you advance in the game, turning it into a trial and error sometimes and this remove some challenge from the game, having a fixed number of lives and finding items to gain some more could be good.

Would be good to have a boss battle at the end of each level to add a bit of challenge and content to the gameplay experience, this could break some of the repetitive routine in the different levels, who know maybe a sequel can bring us this and more?

Nonetheless Ancients of Ooga from NinjaBee and J. Kenworthy Entertainment is a good title, i did enjoy the game and if you like the genre you should give it a try too, an Xbox Live title that will give you hours of fun.




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March 24, 2010

A Kingdom for Keflings arrives on PC with sale of Kelfing-tine proportions

Posted by: Cybermario @ 2:03 pm Share in Facebook

Orem, Utah – Mar. 24, 2010 – Whoever said bigger was better? Today Independent video games developer NinjaBee announced it has released its award-winning game, A Kingdom for Keflings, with a fitting promotion – for a limited time you can start building a kingdom for those half-sized Keflings for half the price.






NinjaBee President and co-owner Steve Taylor had the following comments about the new game:



“Keflings with a mouse?

Snow falling on tiny hats,

On my home PC!â€



A Kingdom for Keflings became available to purchase for today exclusively on NinjaBee.com for the discounted price of $9.99 USD. The special 50% off offer will last for just more than two weeks through April 7, 2010. Following the sale the game will return to its full price of $19.95 USD. At that time A Kingdom for Keflings will also be made available through other video game distribution portals.


The PC version includes four new playable giants not included in the Xbox LIVE® Arcade version, bringing the total number to eight characters players can choose from to help build up and customize kingdoms for the tiny Keflings. Featuring a light-hearted, play-at-your-own-pace style of gameplay with beautiful visuals and catchy, frolicsome music, A Kingdom for Keflings offers players a relaxing, fun experience that is unexpectedly addictive.


The popular, innovative city-building title originally arrived on Xbox LIVE Arcade on Nov. 19, 2008 and more than a year later remains among the downloadable service’s most downloaded titles. A Kingdom for Keflings was voted the 2008 Xbox LIVE Arcade Award-winner for Best Family Game.


The PC version does not include the option to play as your customizable Xbox avatar.



For more information about A Kingdom for Keflings visit http://www.ninjabee.com/a-kingdom-for-keflings-pc/.




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November 14, 2009

A Kingdom for Keflings coming out for PC

Posted by: Cybermario @ 5:26 pm Share in Facebook

akfk1

Hello gaming lovers, many of you may have played this title from the Xbox Live Marketplace, one of the popular games letting you use your avatar or a giant to have lil fellas build towns for you, well now the fun is coming over to the PC.

Our contact at Ninjabee Games tell us this will not be a Windows Live release and will not make use of the avatars just the giants, this will be a digital download but no information has been released of the portals offering the game.

Orem, Utah – Nov. 13, 2009 – NinjaBee, a division of Wahoo Studios and a leading independent video games developer, has announced its award-winning Xbox LIVE® Arcade title, A Kingdom for Keflings, is coming to PC.

“Bringing A Kingdom for Keflings to the PC audience has been a priority for us.†said Brent Fox, NinjaBee’s Art Director. “It’s been a runaway hit on XLA and we are offering the same, high-quality game on the PC. We are proud and we’re excited to finally make it available to so many of those who haven’t been able to play before.â€

The popular, innovative city-building game originally arrived on Xbox LIVE Arcade on Nov. 19, 2008 and a year later remains among the downloadable service’s most downloaded titles. Featuring a light-hearted, play-at-your-own-pace style of gameplay with beautiful visuals and catchy, frolicsome music, A Kingdom for Keflings offers players a relaxing, fun experience that is unexpectedly addictive. A Kingdom for Keflings was voted the 2008 Xbox LIVE Arcade Award-winner for Best Family Game

No official release date has been announced

At this time that is all, thanks for reading and KEEP GAMING!

~Mario




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