Akimi Village is a welcome change to the slew of action, shooting and fighting games which pour onto games consoles these days. For once, I didn’t spend the past couple of days shooting aliens, fighting ninjas or adventuring through a tropical rainforest, instead I spent it building a village on a floating island freeing little Akimis from the evil gloom which has taken over their land.

You play either a young boy or girl who wakes up in a mysterious land and is informed by a tree-dwelling creature that you need to save the island from the evilness which has infected it before he can send you home again. The storyline is simple but the writing is cute and quirky, occasionally bringing a smile to your face. The graphics are similar; they’re basic and cartoon-like, but work well with the game as a whole, amusing and interesting, although occasionally somewhat jumpy if there’s lots of actions happening on the screen at once. The sounds are as would be expected, some nice background music and in general the buildings and creatures sound effects aren’t too repetitive to distract from the experience, with the exception of the casino which has a somewhat distracting slot machine noise which repeats every ten seconds or so, although it’s not so annoying as to detract from the overall experience.

The game relies on simple mechanics whereby your character directs small creatures, known as Akimi, telling them what resources to harvest, transport and what buildings to work in. Your character uses unlockable blueprints to build new buildings using resources gathered by your Akimi and converted in existing buildings.