Little King's Story received a port onto Steam, GOG.com and the Humble Store on the August 5th, 2016. The port was later updated in February 2017 with performance fixes, after the source code was entrusted to hacker Durante of Dark Souls fame to fix some of the bugs that had held the PC Version back.
Major Differences from Wii Version
The following differences occur between the Wii version and current PC version of the game. Changes may vary depending on PC performance:
- Many models and textures have been reworked into high-definition.
- The lighting has been made brighter and more dynamic.
- Some scenes have altered camera angles.
- Almost all HUD animations are missing for menus, sub-menus and the like.
- The font has changed slightly, now being thinner and appearing from the middle before spreading outwards. Some formatting has also been changed, such as the throne menu and construction signs having their text much closer to the top of their boxes than the middle.
- Some sprites, such as Life bars, have been updated. Others, such as the various Job Class icons, have not.
- Fade and transition effects are missing, most noticeable when the Worrywart Soldier and Huge Earthquake cutscenes start to play, as they do not transition as smoothly from the in-game footage as the Wii version.
- Sound effects are missing, such as Kampbell's maracas, despite the Sound effect still being present during the Jumbo Champloon fight when he lays Concodores.
- Loading Mist has been removed. This allows the player to see too far, showing the exact moment when terrain is loaded in and out and allowing the player to see into the void during regular gameplay. This is most noticeable in a few instances:
- During the in-game cutscene after beating any King, where the camera pans onto the Castle, the player can see an incompletely loaded Tiptoe Kingdom in the distance.
- During the Long Sauvage fight, the player can see much more of the surrounding environment than intended by the original game, including where the sea stops loading and enters the void. This also affects the visual effect when Corobo's citizens construct the human tower to become taller than Sauvage, as the "sky" (in reality, a disguised loading mist) no longer correctly increases in lighting with each citizen.
- Due to the zoomed out camera, Jumbo Champloon's arena shows areas of New Island outside of the battle loading in and out constantly.
- The caves in Long Sauvage's fight do not work properly, causing a situation where Corobo is forced to lose citizens to an instant-kill beard attack. Xseed Games have confirmed that they cannot fix this bug.
- Graphical effects are missing. For example, some obstacles like pots no longer break into a cloud of dust upon being broken, instead just popping out of existence.
- Corobo's sceptre no longer emits stars, even when attacking.
- Sometimes TV Dinnah's quiz clues will fail to show up, leaving the player to guess the answers.
- The start-up animation of Jumbo Champloon's chicken laser attack lacks GFX, meaning the laser comes out without warning. The laser is also missing GFX, no longer making an impact with the floor and instead looking more like a long, nebulous rectangle.
- The TV that Corobo enters the Primetime Kingdom in no longer glows as much, allowing the player to see the moment the citizens disappear.
- The lights on the Sobamanjaro fight no longer flash, with only the red light glowing.
- Several physical animations have been altered for unclear reasons.
- The God Memos are no longer animated.
- The electric beard hair during the Long Sauvage fight no longer spins, and instead stays put. However, the original hitbox is still present, causing Corobo and his Soldiers to appear as if they have been damaged by absolutely nothing.
- The lances that rise out of the ground during Jumbo Champloon's fight no longer have smoke bubbles to indicate where they are about to rise from, and the lances have been incorrectly flipped 90 degrees, causing them to pop out of the ground on their side.
- The scrolling bar on the HUD moves at almost half the pace. This has several knock-on effects.
- During TV Dinnah's opening cutscene, the text does not display in full before being cut off, with only the first few words displaying. Strangely, it scrolls at the original speed during the fight.
- The Worker Onii's warning messages in the Jumbo Champloon fight do not display in time for the player to know which gate they have come from until the Onii are already halfway to Champloon.
- During the Final Boss battle, the Castle seen in the transmission from the floating communications device does not load properly, leaving several shots of Howser and the other characters where the ceiling or floor are missing. The device also sometimes has its blades stop spinning.
Reception
The PC version of Little King's Story was not very well received.
The Metacritic score for the PC version dropped by 30% from the Wii version, going from a rating of 87 to a 62. Many users reported frequent crashes, performance issues, glitches & bugs, and various in-game effects and objects failing to work properly, even with the recommended specifications and after the February 2017 patch, making the game almost unplayable for some. Fewer than 2% of players had beaten the game to the end. Others complained about the obvious port, and how "hastily made" it was. One of the Little King's Story series' most viewed videos was a scathing report of the PC version by Jim Sterling, a vocal critic of poor porting quality in the gaming industry. Many fans quickly concluded that the most optimal way to play Little King's Story remained with the original version on a Wii or Wii U system.