Intro
CookieRun: Kingdom is, suffice to say, an odd game. Not just this, but all its developer’s (Devsisters’s) prequel games and spinoffs – CookieRun: Ovenbreak, JellyPop, Infinity, and CookieWars – share this same oddness. Now, fundamentally, these games center around one thing – living gingerbread cookies with big personalities taking on huge goals. These cookies can range from normal little guys with white frosting and gumdrops all the way to ancient heroes of legend, with the power to topple armies with a chocolate sword. This range is no different for their endeavors – sometimes they can be a candy-crush style match 3, while other times they could be fighting tooth and nail (or, I guess, dough and crumb) to defend their glorious kingdom from cake monsters. However, today we’ll be putting all the variations of CookieRun aside to focus on its best asset – Kingdom! An amazing game that’s 100% worthy of your time – here’s why!
Gameplay
The gameplay of CR:K is, to put it simply, diverse. On the one hand, you have a fighting team of cookies, which you use to fight your way through hordes of cake monsters in the hopes of stopping “Dark Enchantress Cookie,” the main antagonist. This fighting team can be used in a ton of different modes, ranging from guild fights to arena scuffles. However, on the other hand, CR:K is hugely composed of “Base Building” gameplay, wherein a player places buildings in his or her kingdom, growing the amount of products which they can make, sell, or otherwise utilize. These products, although doing nothing on their own, can be used to make more buildings or more products, which in turn complete quests, which in turn get you cookies, creating a kind of addictive never ending cycle. This self-perpetuating gameplay cycle makes it such that, not only is the game never stale, but there is always room for growth/expansion, and one almost never hits an unclimbable wall
Gacha
A “Gacha” system, in case you’re unfamiliar, is one in which the playing of the game and subsequent advancement in the game relies heavily on the luck one has when pulling from a lotto of sorts for units, weapons, or whatever else. In CR:K’s case, this means rolling for costumes, treasures, and mainly, the lovable cookies. These cookies, as mentioned before, contribute to CR:K’s “Fighting aspect,” wherein rarer cookies do more damage, have more health, or just perform better on a team. Some of the cookies one must roll for, such as the Ancients or Legendaries, come with extremely low drop rates, going as low as 0.054%, meaning, in order to get them, one needs to roll … a lot. This constant thrill/luck aspect of CR:K, that “What if this is it?” feeling, is a great motivator for playing the game, making the player want to log back in every day, and roll their dice, just to see if today might be the lucky day they get Pure Vanilla cookie, their favorite Ancient Healer. It’s because of this same addiction, that feeling of luck, that many often give in and break open their wallets for this game such that they might get their favorite cookie. Although this may seem bad, it’s truly a hallmark of game design if you think about it – the devs were so clever in not only their devisement of this system, but how likable they made their characters, such that people would be willing to pay just to meet their favorite line of code. While I don’t think you should pay-to-play when you begin your journey, I’d definitely advise you to keep on rolling!
The Devs
In plenty of the games I play, the devs simply do, not, care, about their audience/player base. They will let the game go several months or years without update, with the fans receiving no news on progress. They will give the fans no gifts or rewards for their years of gratitude and devotion to the game. They will simply disregard their audience as talking credit cards. CookieRun: Kingdom? Not a chance. Updates? Most recent one was January 19th, 2023. Gifts for players? Don’t even get me started. Just going into New Years and new updates, players are loaded up with bursting in-game mailboxes, overflowing with crystals, rainbow cubes, cookie cutters, and treasure tickets (All types of in-game currencies). On top of these mailbox gifts, players are even able to find codes on the devs’ twitter account, which they can plug into an online code redeemer to receive massive abundances of goodies straight to their kingdoms. And of course, these devs, reducing their audience to just consumers? Yeah, when hell freezes over! These devs are constantly dropping videos and status-updates on everything going on at headquarters, cracking jokes, giving sneak-peaks, and, overall, interacting with and appreciating their audience. Playing CR:K, you can be assured you will be treated rightly and justly.
Conclusion
CookieRun:Kingdom, although an odd game, filled with way too much lore to spoil here (The Soul Jam!), is amazing. It has amazing ideas – cookies fighting against others in all-out battles to see who remains at the top un-crumbled. It has amazing gameplay – duel wielding the responsibilities of keeping up a steady offense whilst making sure a steady home/kingdom life is maintained. It has amazing devs – real people who laugh and cry with you, care about you, and, perhaps most importantly, lavish you in goodies. If you have any doubts about playing CR:K, I pray you, erase them from your mind right now. It is an amazing game, which is 100% worth your time. Most importantly, always remember – Dark Cacao is and always will be the best cookie around.
