Haven't you always wanted to potter round an ice kingdom as a massive giant and help a race of small people with very square chins build houses? No? Just me, then. Well, 'A World of Keflings' lets you do just this, putting you in the (very big) shoes of a friendly giant, doing your best to help out the local Keflings - small people with a penchant for hats, who will shower you with love for building them a factory. Simple things, they say, please small minds - and there's no minds smaller than a Kefling's.
A World of Kefling's begins with your Xbox Live Avatar bursting out of a big block of ice that it had somehow got frozen in (now, we know it's been the coldest winter for 90 years or something, but not cold enough for your avatar to freeze inside your Xbox? Those things kick out loads of heat...). This startles the local Keflings (Kefkimo's - little Kefling eskimos) somewhat, until they realise you could be of use to them.
Raaaaawwwwrrrrrr!
So begins Keflings - you'll find yourself harvesting various resources with which to build houses, schools, factories, theatres, lumbermills, looms - the list goes on and on. You don't have to do it all by yourself either - the little Keflings are more than happy to lend a hand by popping on the respective hat for the job and getting down to work. All you need to do is grab a Kefling and take it to a tree and it'll start chopping wood. Or plonk them in front of a big pile of ice blocks, let them pick one up, and then pick them up again and plonk them next to the Work Hut and they'll start carting the ice cubes there. If there not working fast enough, or if you're just having a bad day, you can boot them across the map - and then they'll walk back for more. Put a Kefling in your Work Hut, and you can start making things to build new buildings - like entryways, platforms and igloos - and as you build more and more buildings, you'll unlock 'blueprints' for new buildings, which contain the instructions for each building.
Building the buildings couldn't be simpler - pick a blueprint, which will then appear in the top left corner, showing you what pieces need to go where. Then, you just need to pop to your factory/work hut/wherever and build the relevant pieces and assemble them. Buildings often need to be activated by putting a specific item or a Kefling in them - for example, a school needs a text book or two, a lumbermill needs a Kefling to work it, and a house needs 'love' (big red hearts) put into it to make new Keflings.
But Keflings is far more than a gather resources and take them somewhere, then build something from them and take them somewhere else sort of game. There's a story, filled with crazy characters, from the King with his fantastical and extensivous vocabulary, a princess that threatens to 'punchise' the King's face if he doesn't talk properly, to a eskimo that talks like a dog, and a giggly witch - the characters are as colourful as the game world, and often make you laugh. As you progress through the game, you manage to piece together the various gates that connect the three Kefling worlds - there's an ice, desert and forest kingdom, and each one has unique Keflings and buildings.
Once you reach the forest kingdom, you can make cannons to fire your keflings around in - all whilst playing a little tune.
Even with the Kefling's help, you might find managing a whole kingdom a bit of a handful - which is why you can enlist a friend to help. A second player can easily drop into your game, both online over Xbox Live and offline in local co-op, and lend a hand building your splendiferous castle - or you could just hang out together and having a dancing contest. The d-pad lets you select various 'emotes' which range from dances, to guitar solos to pulling a scary face - and more unlock as you progress through the game.
Why thank you, princess.
All in all, 'A World of Keflings' is a nice, relaxing game, with added local co-op for two players (we wish it did at least 3 though) and funny characters and story, making it well worth the 800 Microsoft Points (about £6.80) asking price.
Format Reviewed: Xbox 360
