Pocket Kingdom - More Strategy Then Roleplaying

Pocket Kingdom is a strategy game. You need to understand that before you purchase the game so that you don't buy it for the wrong reason. The only interactivity in the game comes from browsing through menus which enable you to setup your kingdom and your teams of characters. The main map is simplistic and moving around it only involves pointing your kingdom in a new direction and accepting to pay 100 "loot" (Pocket Kingdom's monetary unit) to move to the new destination.

The allure of this game as a "MMORPG" is slightly false. You don't delve into a rich storyline, following the same characters the whole way. It is strategy. You setup a team of characters by equipping them and changing them into different units then forming the team into a party and assigning battle tactics to them. Then you choose who to attack and you attack. wash-rinse-repeat.

The sound in the game as with all N-Gage QD games comes from the back speaker so it is difficult to hear. Not to worry though, the sound isn't the game's forte. The music is good on occasion but mostly repetitive like the gameplay.

The graphics are hand drawn sprites. This graphical style works well for the game. A simple interface and graphic style for a simple game.

Okay okay, all the negative things from this game asside... Pocket Kingdom is VERY addicting. You start the game WITHOUT the ability to play online. Read that sentence a couple times. You must first perform a few battles offline (yes the game has an offline mode) before you're allowed by your Pocket Kingdom assistant to engage in battle online. And for good reason too! I rushed to get my game online as fast as possible as most people do, and the first online battle I encountered, I lost miserably and lost four of my best characters with my best equipment. Read the cons below. When a character dies (called being "owned") in the game, they are gone forever along with any and all equipment they were carrying. This feature does suck but it forces you to learn from your mistakes.

So spending some time offline to learn the "rank up" feature and more about what combinations of characters work well together will actually save you headaches later on.

Once you learn that you can buy a soldier and turn him into a number of different units through "rank up" the fun really begins. Most stronger units cannot be bought but are rather created from weaker units after being combined with a special type of emblem. The emblems are created by four different types of items. So it could take forever to learn how to get the best units. Especially since combining items to get emblems doesn't always work and you end up losing four items.

This game does not lead you by the hand. It is cold and dry. If you do not learn what to do, then you will lose your battles, characters, and items.

And for some reason this harsh reality makes the game THAT much more rewarding when you beat the crap out of somebody online.