If you’re not familiar with NinjaBee, you’re doing yourself a huge disservice.  Since practically the 360’s launch, they’ve been putting together fun, quirky games for Xbox Live Arcade (and later PC and WiiWare), and to people who pay attention to such things, have amassed a small but fervent fan base.

In 2008, NinjaBee added A Kingdom for Keflings to their library, a relaxing city-building game where, alone or with friends, you took the role of a generous giant that helped the mostly simple-minded Keflings build a kingdom to call their very own.

This year’s sequel, A World of Keflings, takes the no rush, fun-and-easy gameplay from the first game and evolves it.  More goal-oriented missions are available in the Story Mode, including new environments for the Keflings to populate, like ice worlds and deserts.  Also added is local multiplayer, a much requested feature according to their team, that allows people to build up their kingdoms with friends sitting next to them rather than only online.

For those less interested in goal-oriented gaming, the capacity to construct a sandbox kingdom of you own design is more encouraged than ever, as the sequel is adding even more decorative items for construction than the first installment.  And layout of you kingdom is also more forgiving, allowing you to push whole buildings out of the way should you need more room, rather than demolishing and reassembling them from the bits.

The Keflings themselves are also getting an upgrade.  The AI has been made smarter, so a Kefling that runs out of work in their designated location will search nearby for more work, rather than stand around foolishly looking for something to do.  Also, Keflings left to a profession for a while will level up, causing raw material harvesters to harvest faster, and carriers to carry bigger loads quicker.

All-in-all, A World of Keflings is looking to be a great improvement on a game that was pretty darn good to begin with.  I worry that the game isn’t likely to attract any new fans into its fold, as it’s not likely to appeal to the blood-and-guts, kill-everything-that-moves crowd, but fans of the first one and people on the fence should find something new to enjoy.  Besides, the violence game crowd gets enough games in the year--this one doesn’t have to be for them.

                                                               Overall Demo Hawtness:

                                          8/10 - Even more fun in the kingdom with your Kefling friends