Lil Kingdom – a Tycoon style game, build an enchanting & thriving underground castle
by Paul Wilks
May 22, 2012 12:18 PM –
Install
Lil Kingdom is a gorgeous looking tycoon-style game from GluMobile. Very similar to games like Tiny Tower and Dream Heights, you have to build a multi-level building, occupy it with residents, find them jobs and keep them happy. With beautiful graphics, highly addictive gameplay and featuring baby dragons, it’s both engrossing and adorable.
Price: Free, In-app purchases
Tested on: HTC One X, HTC Desire HD
Content Rating: Everyone
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Very impressive graphics!
- Great sound!
- Addictive gameplay!
- Brilliant medieval theme!
Cons
- Can be hard to accumulate coins.
- Often horribly unresponsive.
Features:
After Zynga decided to get in on the tower-building action with their game Dream Heights, it would appear Glu Mobile have done the same with the brilliant Lil Kingdom. The game has a strong medieval castle thematic, and instead of building upwards you build downwards, underground.
Gameplay itself is essentially a carbon copy of Tiny Tower in lots of ways. In both you have to accumulate levels and there are several ‘types’ to choose from. Each resident have strengths and preferences and you have to gradually fit them up with their favourite jobs. You often have to ferry people from the lobby to their desired level and you have to collect silver coins and (the harder to come by) gold coins. As a freemium game you can of course buy these via in-app purchases. Similar to Tiny Tower however, there isn’t too much pressure to do so, with a little patience you can play the game for quite some time.
There are some subtle differences that are pretty cool however. You can make a Dragon Hatchery which can produce baby dragons for you. These friendly dragons roam around the castle and can periodically fill stock on different levels. You are assigned regular tasks from the castle’s resident princess. She is, however, a slight diva and will demand you bring her sandwiches, etc. with just a very short time limit. She will reward you collectible items for each job you do for her.
Watch on Mobile
The in-game graphics are breathtakingly good. Full of subtle animations and movement, the levels have genuine depth to them and appear 3D as you scroll down. Everything is very detailed from the little roaring fires to the way the residents fall asleep when their waiting for stock to refill- it’s just brilliant. The sound too compliments this well; the door bangs with every visitor, the lift hums and creaks, the Princess thanks you for your efforts and even the music isn’t too annoying.
I think my favourite thing about the game is the way you can gain residents. While some just walk in and head straight to a vacant resident level, often Knights will bang on the door with someone over their shoulder saying things like “It is I, your CHAMPION! I caught this blaggard cutting purses! I thought your dungeon could use a new CITIZEN!” Quite cute really.
The only main problem I found with the game is that some tabs are irritatingly unresponsive. When you’re tapping on the door to open it, I found myself having to tap on it several times to get it to respond and it’s the same when you’re trying to restock. I notice, however, the tabs for buying credits responds every time. This issue aside the game is very polished and stupidly addictive. If you have enjoyed games like Tiny Tower, or enjoy tycoon games that are actually playable, this is a must-have.
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Lil Kingdom – Beautiful graphics
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Lil Kingdom – Door knocks when you have someone visiting
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Lil Kingdom – Gorgeous 3D effect when moving up and down
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Lil Kingdom – The princess
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Lil Kingdom – Menu
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Lil Kingdom – New resident
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Lil Kingdom – Lobby area
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Lil Kingdom – Elves improve your workers
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Lil Kingdom – Elevator moves up and down
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Lil Kingdom – Princess rewards
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Lil Kingdom – Collectibles
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Lil Kingdom – Citizens screen
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Lil Kingdom – Domestic level inhabitants
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Lil Kingdom – Settings
Fun Factor:
Lil Kingdom is lots of fun and is always busy. I sometimes found with games like Tiny Tower you were waiting ages for things to happen; people to arrive in the lobby or special requests to perform. Lil Kingdom is far more active and there are people banging on your door all the time- you never have to wait more than a few seconds. This, combined with the amazing graphics, gameplay and sound make for a thoroughly enjoyable game that has fun written all over it.
Addictive:
Highly! It has that ‘one-more-level‘ factor about it where you just want to build a little more and, with such frequent tasks to perform it’s incredibly hard to put down.
Graphics:
The graphics are amazing. They are bright, visually imaginative and beautiful. For a comparison, they reminded me heavily of those you find in Muffin Knight, which was one of the highest scoring games we’ve ever reviewed here at AndroidTapp.
Accelerometer, Vibration & Sound:
The sound is rich and detailed, full of quirky little noises and sound effects. The music too isn’t particularly oppressive but you can turn it down/off if it annoys you.
Tags:
3D,
3D Games,
Android App,
Android Apps,
Android Game,
AndroidTapp.com App Review,
Dream Heights,
Freemium,
Glu,
Glu Mobile,
Lil Kingdom,
Tiny Tower,
Tycoon,
Zynga
Categorised in: Casual
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