From the creators of Cookie Run: OvenBreak, comes another, new, free to play game, featuring adorable cookie creatures you’ve grown to know and love. These cookies are cute, they are adorable, and in Cookie Run: Kingdom, they are trying to save a world overrun with Cake Monsters, through building, collecting resources, and battling against evil!
Cookie Run: Kingdom graphics
Cookie Run: Kingdom is a game full of cutscenes and adorable graphics. As you progress, you will be shown loads of animations, bits of story, and backstory to the kingdom and the characters that you meet and hang out with. Your main character is GingerBrave, a gingerbread cookie, who was made by an evil witch, and now must fight against the Monster Cake, to restore the world. These cutscenes are masterfully made. They look amazing, and so do the little bits of the story. It’s a game that feels just so cute!Cookie Run: Kingdom gameplay
There are two main gameplay loops in Cookie Run: Kingdom - building up your kingdom and fighting in battles. Your bit of the kingdom, where your Cookies hang out, is something that you need to constantly be using to create more resources, collect them, and develop the place you are building. Not only do you need to decorate it, to make sure that the town looks nice, but you will also need to drag Cookies around, assigning them roles to create new resources and allowing them to play on the stuff that you have put down. Developing your kingdom actually unlocks more stuff to do - and boy does this game have a lot to do! There are so many new areas to unlock, adventures to undertake, and wishes to fulfil.
Along with managing your kingdom, you can start fighting! You’ll need to set out your Squad, making sure they are upgraded to where they need to be, have different equipment, and are in good order before a battle. The game has a bunch of auto features, which are great for those who may not have a good head when it comes to strategy and using Cookies to the best of their abilities. You see, these Cookies all have different powers and class types, which can work with each other to make a brutal team. When it comes to fighting, you can also hit an auto button so that the game basically fights itself, or you can choose the moves that each Cookie makes, when they make it, and wait for the timers to tick down so you can use them again. Even in auto mode, there are times when the level becomes an area where you need to jump and grab coins - and your characters do not automatically jump - so this encourages players to keep paying attention to the action.
Defeating levels will unlock more levels, with little cutscenes between them, though some areas require resources to get too. A lot of my game has been spent letting the fighting happen automatically, but watching my squad to make sure that if they are struggling, I take the time to level them up and make sure they have everything they need to continue to fight forward. With all of the bosses and battles looming, it’s always good to make sure everyone is in good shape to continue!
When it comes to the game, there is just a lot going on! There are so many daily rewards, so many little quests, loads of locations to constantly check and play around with - despite having a bunch of timers when it comes to having to wait around, there is so much to do that I am never really waiting! I quite enjoy having so many options, though it is a bit tough to keep track of all of the little ‘!’ that show you various things that you can and should be doing. With so much to keep track of, it’s easily a game that you can lose quite a lot of time too.
As such, one of the downsides to the game is, almost, how much is going on. It’s very easy to forget about fulfilling wishes in the wishing tree or to forget to top up your resources. A game with a lot of options, and so many quests to do, can sometimes feel overwhelming as you tap through the 100th tab. But, many people do like that. The other little issue I have is the distracting overlay of names, constantly streaming in on the right-hand side of the screen, showing whenever a user has gained a new cookie. Though this might be interesting, it’s more distracting to me, and often results in a blank box (without a name) appearing over whatever I am trying to do if I tap in between loading times.
Cookie Run: Kingdom review - "Cute game with so much to do!"
Even with these little knocks to the game, Cookie Run: Kingdom is a really fun adventure, with so many options, so much to do, and a lot of adorable cutscenes. Even the music is well made and great. I’ve enjoyed my time so far with Cookie Run: Kingdom and feel that I will probably continue playing the game, unlocking literally everything there is, over time.
Jupiter Hadley
Jupiter is a prolific indie game journalist with a focus on smaller indie gems. She covers thousands of game jams and indie games on her YouTube channel, letting every game have a moment in the spotlight. She runs indiegamejams.com, a calendar of all of the game jams going on in the world, and judges many jams and events. You can find her on Twitter as @Jupiter_Hadley