The core gameplay hasn't changed much from the original A Kingdom for Keflings. Players control their avatar around the miniature world of the Keflings, aiding them in constructing a kingdom fit for a tiny king. Think of it as a cross between Sim City and Black & White. First though, you need to gather resources. And while your avatar is capable of chopping trees and mining stone, the tiny Keflings are eager to help in these tasks. Simply pick up a Kefling and drop them on a resource to begin mining. Drop another Kefling on those mined resources, say wood for example, then carry them to a workshop, and you now have a Kefling dedicated to wood carrying. Through these simple commands I was able to set up elaborate chains where resources were brought to a central location, and from that pile Keflings would carry resources to the various buildings and workshops that required them. Of course, your avatar can help carry resources, which might be a good idea since it can carry far more at once than the Keflings, but through issuing commands it's possible to make it through the entire game without lifting a single twig.

Once you have sufficient resources you can begin actually constructing buildings. Buildings are made from several smaller construction pieces built in workshops. But don't worry, there will always be a blueprint telling you which pieces are needed and how many. There's no need for trial and error, and with what seems to be nearly a hundred pieces to construct into several dozen buildings, I was thankful that everything was so streamlined. In addition to workshops for construction pieces, there are some buildings that will turn resources into more refined versions of it. For example, lumber can be turned into wooden planks, and then further transformed into carved wood. Even with all of the streamlining in construction, there's still more than enough micromanagement to keep you busy.

But this isn't a real-time strategy game, and you'll never encounter a single enemy or time limit to hinder your progress. All buildings and side-quests can be completed at your leisure, giving A World of Keflings a uniquely relaxing pacing compared to similar city building games. The Keflings are eternally happy-go-lucky, so there is no citizen happiness meter to keep track of. A World of Keflings takes advantage of this pacing to infuse even more story and personality into the game than the original. Keflings come in all sorts, with kings, princesses, pirates, scientists, robots, witches, crotchety old men, and burly Eskimo (sorry, Kefkimo) lumberjacks each lending their unique personalities and mannerisms to make their miniature plights larger than life.

The original A Kingdom for Keflings only consisted of a medieval kingdom, but A World of Keflings expands by adding new ice and middle eastern kingdoms, inhabited respectively by Kefkimos and Kefkarabians. These new areas add new resources, like ice, ore, silk, and glass allowing you to not only build new building types in their kingdom, but bring resources back to your main kingdom and construct new cross-cultural towers. A Kingdom for Keflings was a decent sized game, but A World of Keflings dwarfs it by comparison. If you rush, you can probably fully construct your kingdom in around five or so hours the first time through, but more likely you'll spend double the time just playing around in the Keflings' world.

There is one side-diversion in particular that will steal many hours from gamers: cannons. In a world without hazards, what use could a cannon possibly be? How about as a musical instrument? Placing a Kefling in a cannon makes it blast in your musical style of choice, allowing you to pick its instrument, pitch, and even tempo. Arrange a line of cannons, and you can create some truly amazing musical pieces. One player I encountered already had constructed an elaborate array of cannons to play the Tetris theme, and I have a feeling this is only the beginning. I can easily foresee the cannon musical scores becoming a Youtube sensation of their own, just as Mario Paint and Little Big Planet have become for their musical creations.

A World of Keflings has multiplayer, allowing up to four friends to build and play together online or two players offline. The game doesn't really make any changes to accommodate multiple players, so it's more likely to be used as a more interactive form of chat room than for players actually constructing kingdoms together. That is, unless you're working on the aforementioned cannon masterpieces with friends, which I highly recommend. Though special credit needs to be given to how offline multiplayer is handled, with the screen dynamically splitting and coming together as players move around the map. Each player also has a random assortment of constructible decorations unlocked in their game, and can share these with other players on their friends list to try and complete the whole set.

A World of Keflings isn't without its share of faults though. There are a handful of burly Keflings that can help you carry building pieces, and are supposed to help you by automatically putting together any building you have previously constructed if its blueprints are active. In theory this is a great streamlined design choice, but in practice it only happened twice despite the large number of identical houses and bridges I built. And one of those times it was an accident where I wanted to use those pieces for different building but happened to have the house blueprint active, so it was actually a hindrance. The other downside is that, though you can continue playing once the main quest is completed, there really isn't much to do. You can continue building, but the buildings you can make are restricted because certain crucial resources, like the hearts necessary to build houses that give you more Keflings, are in very short supply. I appreciated the option to continue playing after I beat the game, but the only buildings I really wanted to make at that point were the ones resources wouldn't allow me.

Faults aside, I absolutely adored the time I spent with A World of Keflings. The humor and personality of the Keflings is infectious, and the city building gameplay without hazards put me in an almost zen-like trance. For loyal NinjaBee fans there is a bonus treat with secret emotes unlocked if your gamertag has achievements in any previous NinjaBee game. If you enjoyed A Kingdom for Keflings, then download A World of Keflings without hesitation. The gameplay has received a nice coat of polish from the first game, and with three kingdoms to build and a cast of interesting characters there is even more to love.

Bonus: As part of Microsoft's Games for the Holidays promotion, you can unlock two bonus buildings if World of Keflings if you also buy Raskulls and Ilomilo. As adorable as it is to have those characters wandering around your Kefling kingdom, there's not much to them beyond that. Raskulls and Ilo and Milo can't be given jobs like the Keflings, and are really more for decoration. It's a bonus for gamers who buy all of the games, but those who don't shouldn't feel like they're missing out on anything.