King of Kings (video game)

This article is about the video game published by Namco. For the video game published by Wisdom Tree, see King of Kings: The Early Years. For other uses, see King of Kings (disambiguation).

King of Kings
Cover art
Developer(s)	Atlus
Publisher(s)	Namco
Composer(s)	Hirohiko Takayama
Platform(s)	Family Computer
Release date(s)	JP December 9, 1988
Genre(s)	Turn-based strategy wargame
Mode(s)	Single-player Multiplayer (up to four players)
Media/distribution	Cartridge

King of Kings (キングオブキングス) is a turn-based strategy video game with wargaming elements for the Family Computer, released only in Japan. Kazuma Kaneko helped to design the characters for this video game; which became the inspiration for the characters in the video game Megami Tensei.

Summary

This video game is actually quite involving, with 22 different types of playable units (categorized into people, fairies, dragons and other kinds of units). Human units tend to have a weak overall defense, fairy units are often the least expensive to produce, all dragons except the lizardmen are very expensive to build, and the other kind of units are basically a potpurri of units that combine the strengths and weaknesses of the other three kinds of units. There is a campaign mode where the player does battle against a computer team led by Lucifer across four maps. There is even a multiplayer mode where up to four teams can do battle on eight additional maps.

It has quite a bit of detail for an old game. However, the length of the battles that the players engage themselves into have a tendency to become exhausting.

Game system

The players king's unit is the axis of the game while the opponent's king can easily defeat the player's chance for victory. Players must do operations such as occupation and city funding. Kings can produce other units to conduct aggressive behavior. The are several types of units including fighters and goblins. Each unit's attack and defensive powers are different. In multiplayer mode, the unnamed "alliance" exists among allies battle but an allied victory is not achievable. If the player is playing against more than one human opponent, it is possible for teams to enjoy the game alliance system.

Production system

Players create production systems by putting a King unit inside the castle to summon other units. The production unit is a system that consumes funds and also creates a certain amount of revenue each time a player's turn comes up. Players can increase revenue by occupying the town and castle. The King unit can move to the castle immediately after producing a unit. He can also advance to the attack; he is considered to be outside the castle and is unable to produce.

Unit

The possible fighter units in the game are goblins, elves and dragons. These characters are central to fantasy games and appear in the game. Each unit has set level; which is increased by killing enemy units. Levels range from 1 to 9 (with the ninth level character wearing a crown). It is very important to have a higher attack rating than the opponent. On the other hand, having a higher defense rating also helps to win battles and to create a balanced game system. Some units can use "magic" that turns directly attack enemy units with various special effects. The campaign mode is limited to the type of units than can be produced. These types start off as being less productive. However, more types of units will be added in the second half of the game.

Movement system

All units have a predetermined moving pattern. Respectively, units can only advance within its movement range that is allowed by the game. Movement is also consumed by topography; plains and roads need less power while high mountains and forests consume more. Food is consumed in order to regain movement points. All units consume food in order to keep moving. After running out of food, only a city or a monk can restore the unit's supply of food. Therefore, players need to consider maintaining the supply line during the invasion.

Units

People

King/Lucifer

Considered to be the alter ego of the player. If the player loses this unit, it becomes an automatic game over. He is able to occupy the castle of the along with the other characters.

Fighter (5 movement points)

Can be produced at night but his combat power is very low. He is the other person other than the king to fight advantageously at night. Fighters can easily occupy the streets outside the King's presence throughout the game.

Knight (10 movement points)

The most expensive human unit in the game. While he can move on easily through the high plains on horseback, he is lightly armed and his defense is a little fragile.

Dragon Knight (9 movement points)

Similar to an ordinary knight unit; except it has extra strength points against dragon-type units. This unit is almost as powerful as the King in attack and defense power.

Fairy

Goblin (7 movement points)

The least expensive fairies in the system. Specializes in moving around mountainous terrain. He is a fighter who can inflict devastating damage with the enemy on low terrain defense.

Harpy (14 movement points)

Boasts the second-highest movement points out of the fairy units. Harpies have the unique speciality to create hit-and-run tactics (i.e., causing a disturbance amongst enemy ranks). Its high mobility points also allow for all-terrain-based movement for flight. While harpies are super-effective against goblins, they are vulnerable to elves.

Elf (7 movement points)

Can navigate very efficiently in forests. Their weapon of bow and arrows allows them to have high attack power. Super-effective against harpies but weak against goblins.

Griffin (12 movement points)

A flying unit. He can move one step in all terrain. The high costs of producing a griffin is matched in its high potential for incomparable strength. They are weak against harpies in terms of defense.

Technical information

This video game comes with a Chip-on-Board PCB, 2 bonded ROMS with a combined total of 256 KB of memory, a Namcot 163 chip, and an SRAM with 8KB of information. Its iNES mapper is assigned as #19 and the catalog id of this video game is 'NAM-KK-5900'. First manufactured on October 1988 by Fujitsu, this video game came in a black cartridge with a "Mapper Crtl" mirroring effect.

See also

• Namco Anthology (volume 2), featured in this PlayStation game released in 1998