I’d heard about A Kingdom for Keflings about four months or so before its official release onto the Xbox Live Arcade. I have to admit it, when I first saw the title in motion I was intrigued. In fact, I’d even say that my initial response was excitement. At the time, there had really been nothing all that incredible released on the Xbox Live Arcade Marketplace. So seeing something that immediately caught my attention was downright unheard of. That is, until things like Castle Crashers and Bionic Commando came out. Now, well, A Kingdom for Keflings just doesn’t seem all that awesome.
But the release date came and I figured I’d buckle-down for the purchase. Checking in at 800 points, this game seemed worth it to me. Surely I’d get my 10 bucks worth out of this thing…
Not so much. Look, don’t get me wrong, A Kingdom for Keflings rides in on a great premise and with a lot of heart, it just falls well short of lasting and worthy of attention. In the game, you play a giant who is tasked with helping a race of small people, or Keflings. You help them by building homes, schools, town halls, guilds and workshops (to name only a few things) in order to work your way up to building them, wait for it, a kingdom. Saw that coming, right?
You’ll find random items scattered throughout the land that will help you in your quest. Sheers, boots that make you walk faster, whatever. It’s all for one purpose, building a kingdom. Here’s where the game falters in terms of replayability. Sure, you can build your village however you like. You can paint the roofs just about any color, you can decide the layout of you buildings, you can even walk around giving your Kefling citizens a swift kick to the ass... but that’s it. I mean, unlike most games where you build kingdoms, there’s no looming threat of war. There’s nothing to build towards. You’re pretty much building for the sake of building. And that kind of attraction only lasts so long. It was at about three hours in that I found myself bored. That’s not good.
Most of the buildings in the game seem like little more than a stupid check point. They serve no purpose other than to be another thing to build. Three buildings in particular annoyed the hell out of me. The stonecutter, the lumber mill and the witch’s hut. They shape rocks, make planks of wood and transform crystals into gems. Why can’t you just collect rocks, wood and crystals? No, they have to be transformed in order to build some things. Just pointless.
Another point is the music. It’s remarkable at first. The music is spirited and thick with plenty of fine points of goodness throughout. Mostly guitar medleys that reward the listener. You’ll wander your kingdom happy and loving it for a while. But like the gameplay, the music wears thin pretty quickly. It’s like the same five songs over and over and over again. Really, the last time I was this annoyed with a playlist was when I worked retail over the holiday season (anyone who has done it knows what I mean). Just another point that wears on the player and lowers the enjoyment of the game.
Really, I can only recommend A Kingdom for Keflings for those with a lot of patience. There are some rewards to be had throughout the experience, but it’s not enough to drive you to want to play the game. You’ll be done and bored within a matter of hours.
One last point; you can use your NXE avatars here. That’s right, giant versions of your avatar will roam the land and build crap. Definitely a selling point during the release of the NXE. But hey, listen to this… I’m playing last night as myself. I save the game and when the menu closes, BOOM, I’m no longer my avatar but one of the game’s giants instead. I can’t get my avatar back. The only way I can play with my avatar again is to restart the game entirely. No thanks.
January Gaming Guide 
