9 KINGS

Hubert Spala
5 days ago
4 min read

Sometimes you just need to admire a dedication to a bit. Even if it borders on obsessive. 9 KINGS is a game that really loves the number 9. Everything sort of circles around it, from the number of playable kings to the starting plot and the number of monarch-specific cards. Then you look at the achievements and bam, it's nines all over the shop. It is a funny self-imposed restriction that, admittedly, adds a sprinkle of charm to the title. Now I sort of feel like I should watch the movie '9' before getting into the spirit of the game, for good measure! But, making light fun of this numerical obsession, I must say - 9 KINGS is quite a crafty little game.

Stop me if you heard that one before - it is a card-driven roguelite with meta-progression, made in pixel art. Wowie, I am sure you're wiping your forehead from the sheer daring of the developers! How very bold, how nouvelle! But putting that aside, it is actually a breath of fresh air. Because it's ain't a deckbuilder. It's not a turn-based combat as a hero armed with a set of cards. It's a bit of a decision driver, active-participation auto-battler, where, for the most part, you play a single card every 'round' and hope for the best. It's a nifty formula, because it feels like an essence of a core loop - the most simplified way to do this while still retaining quite a solid bit of strategic feel. I applaud the gameplay here, and I'd like to explain why.

At first glance, it all feels hilariously basic. You have just a few cards. Play one on a plot. See the wave of enemies you must squash. Rinse and repeat. Each King represents a particular tribe, and each tribe has its own unique gameplay vibe. King of Blood loves sacrificing stutt to empower units, while King of Greed is a big money maker that also uses all that gold to beef up your forces. Simple enough. But the more you play, the more you start realizing how crucial that one singular decision every round actually is. Should I lay down a new unit to stem the tide? Maybe raise a support structure, aiming to capitalize on its growth in the future? Or perhaps smash an enchantment on a unit, improving its performance?

Everything is clean, clear, and straightforward - you will not get any confusion about what does what, and a quick hover over any unit or structure gives you all the key data you need.

There's a lot of subtle planning that can be employed here and, to my happy surprise, a hefty depth of gameplay options. You can go wide, you can go tall. Make an ultimate single unit of death or a widespread army of countless minions. Focus on powerful towers or even beef up your own personal castle attack to deal death to the enemy hordes. Utilize powerful decrees to get a significant leg up or crystallize a strategy focused on a particular little combo. One game, I had a Pagoda of the King of Blood leveled up the wazoo, with perks and decrees that allowed me to spam 80+ Imps on turbocrack. The little fellas hit like a truck and virtually teleported. I wiped every wave in seconds. Another run, I had a unit of humble Archers so beefed up with enchantments and supporting plots that a wave of their arrows decimated enemy forces on deployment. And yet another game, I littered the ground with ballistic mushrooms, which poured such an ungodly amount of projectiles at the enemy throngs that I couldn't even see them. So yeah - it's pretty darn great.

Potential to make some broken beyond reason builds is very much there, and so far, every King, every tribe, every god damn card felt like it can be a part of something powerful. That's... honestly quite a feat. To not have filler, to never feel disappointed that you are getting those flakey cards that 'do nothing'. With enough dedication and a bit of luck, you can work with anything and get a lovely surprise when it clicks into a monstrous engine of destruction. Add to that the flexibility of the play! You're not limited to your own kingdom cards - after defeating a wave of the enemy monarch, you can take some of their cards, opening up a humongous mash-up of combos. Sprinkle unlockable perks, powerful decrees, and no run will ever be the same, unless you really work hard to replicate one. Kudos!

You are never locked to your Kingdom cards and can fish for some awesome additions to your humble deck to create fantastic combos.

So, what's the snag, what's the issue? Well, not much to be honest. I'm having a blast with this game! The rounds are short. 15-20 minutes tops, so you can sneak in a cheeky play in any little morsel of free time. Yay! And since each game, won or not, gives you some experience to the chosen king, leading to new unlocks of perks, there's always a bit of an incentive to just enjoy a round. If I had a single nitpick, it would be, funnily enough, the difficulty level. Which feels both too easy and too opaque. There are multiple ways to enjoy - from humble Peasant up to a King, but... I never failed. Not once. Not a single game in which I was wiped. At worst, I lost a life or two. At the highest difficulty - King - I felt perhaps a little pressure to make better decisions and optimize each turn, but that's about it. I know there are more special difficulties ramping up into impossibility, basically Endless Mode of sorts, but even the devs say it is kinda sorta 'personal challenge until it's no longer realistically doable'. And the opacity? I might be blind or dumb, but nowhere in the game I've seen any explanation of what the various difficulties actually change. Not a clue!

But in summary, 9 KINGS is a pretty great game. A balancing act of high-class design, with a hefty variety of options, combos, and gameplay shenanigans. And even if it might feel a bit on the easier side, the sheer joy of finding out a new way to crank out something overpowered is still very much present! If a mixture of cards, auto-battler, and tacticurn decision making sounds like fun to you, I assure you - you'll have a blast with this crafty game.