Contrary to
popular belief, you can teach an old dog new tricks. Kirby is an odd, somewhat
repetitive series has that has been inhaling gamers for more than 10 years.
Its gameplay mechanics haven’t changed much in that time – navigate the
platform-heavy worlds, swallow a few enemies, utilize their powers and before
you know it the game is over.
The same was
true for its Nintendo 64 iteration and the same may also be true when Kirby
lands on GameCube. It is not, however, true for the Nintendo DS version –
Kirby: Canvas Curse. This adventure takes Kirby to new worlds, features new
enemies and new challenges. Been there done that, you say. We all have.
Nonetheless, you have never played a game like this before.
Kirby:
Canvas Curse is a touch-only adventure. In other words, there are no buttons.
You can press them but they won’t do anything except pause the game. This
presents an interesting question: without buttons, how can I make Kirby jump,
hover, and roll?
Taking a cue
from a kiddie game starring a certain green dinosaur, in Canvas Curse the
stylus is your friend. It’s an ink pen that can be used to guide and protect
Kirby at all times. Unlike the dinosaur, Kirby has the ability to move and
attack whenever he pleases. To move forward simply tap Kirby once. Tap him
twice and he’ll roll faster, allowing him to destroy enemies.
Kirby is
vulnerable to attacks when he’s not attacking himself. You can reverse this by
tapping enemies to stun them. The stun effect doesn’t last very long, but you
can tap them repeatedly to ensure that by the time Kirby touches them, they’re
the ones that disappear.
Enemy powers
are taken automatically if the enemy has something to take. Once one is
acquired, tap Kirby twice as you would for a normal attack and he’ll start
using his new powers. Be warned though: the powers only last for the duration
of the level and will be taken away from him if he receives damage.
I suppose
the game would be pretty boring if that was all there was to it. The most
challenging part is learning how to balance these easy, touch-screen moves
with the ink drawing feature. Draw on the screen at any point in the game and
it will leave behind a rainbow-colored line. This line acts as a wall when
Kirby touches it. When he touches a wall he bounces back and moves in the
opposite direction.
Figuring out
how to bring balance to this madness – that’s where the game is most
brilliant. You don’t have access to the directional pad so you can’t just
change direction at will as you would in other games. You must paint the town
with lines, swirls, circles, etc., whatever’s necessary to get Kirby through
to the goal.
Here Kirby
is leveraging the ink’s power as a bridge. Other times he’ll need to use it as
a bridge/laser shield to protect him as he cross a laser beam. As long as
Kirby is touching (and not bouncing off of) the line he’ll roll across it from
the point you started drawing at to the point where you finished. He follows
your path, giving you another subtle way to direct him home.
Kirby is
almost always moving so you don’t have a lot of time to think before you act.
There was a small amount of panic in me at first because I just couldn’t draw
the line straight enough or big enough to guide Kirby before it was too late.
Plus you
have the obstacles (blocks) to think about, and only half of them can be
penetrated by tapping the screen. The other half have weakness to a Kirby
power-up or a bomb switch or a specific block that must be struck to eliminate
the rest. Meanwhile enemies are approaching, the floor is caving in,
cannonballs are being shot at you – needless to say it hasn’t been a good day
for Kirby. For me, however, it has been a very good day.
A day,
unfortunately, is all you’ll get out of this game. The 24 standard stages,
while very challenging, are not very long. Each stage has three sections, and
some of those sections can be completed in under 30 seconds. You won’t beat ’em
that quick the first time through – it’ll take at least a solid hour before
you begin to get the hang of the controls. That first hour was the most
stressful time for me, but it was also the most fun because I had the pleasure
of learning to do something new.
Kirby is one
swell guy.
Shortness is
a disappointing quality that’s hard to redeem, but Canvas Curse has several
extras – including eight bonus stages – that help to fill the void. These
stages are unlocked with coins. To obtain coins you either have to find them
in an existing level, or beat the fastest time and/or complete the line trial
in the Rainbow Run mode. Rainbow Run is unlocked after the first three levels
are completed. You can play through portions of the level a second time; the
challenge comes from the time limit, or the ink usage limit (Line Trial) which
prevents you from drawing lines freely.
These
challenges are great, but they’re not the only reason to keep playing. There’s
so much to this game that you’ll finish it long before you become a master. It
has the same appeal as a classic arcade game: no matter how times you beat it,
it’s still fun to run through, mess around with the gameplay and see how much
further you can take it. As a developer Nintendo could take it a lot further,
most certainly.
I’m not
going to tell you to keep your touch screen smoking "till next time" – only
Bowser’s that cruel. Problem is, this game rules. So I’m going to keep playing
it anyway.
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Gameplay: 8.8
First let me
clarify that this game would have scored a 9.0 (possibly higher) if it had
been longer.
What Kirby
lacks in length it makes up for in replay value (almost). The gameplay is
original and is unbelievably fun. The descriptions that I give or the hype you
read in a press release are a small sampling of what’s in store for gamers.
You don’t even have to be a Kirby fan to like this game. The spin moves
brought Sonic the Hedgehog to mind, which is ironic since Sega just announced
a new touch screen-enabled Sonic game for the DS.
Nintendo DS
doesn’t have a lot of games yet. It might not ever have a lineup comparable to
the Game Boy Advance. But when a game like Kirby: Canvas Curse – a game that
is unlike any of its predecessors or competitors – comes along, it’s clear
that the Nintendo DS is the superior console.
Graphics: 8.5
It’s not the
prettiest game on the console, but its artistic style is pretty unique. All
the levels look great. They have more visual depth, more detail, and more
polish than the previous Kirby games. The level designs range from
traditional, Kirby-inspired worlds to levels that look like they were drawn
with crayons. (On purpose mind you, and they came out looking great.)
Sound: 6.5
Somewhat
annoying, but easy to ignore. The music is hyper more than it is quirky; the
sounds are just plain repetitive.
Difficulty: Medium
Concept: 9.5
It’s too easy for
us to lose faith in a successful genre when all we get is the same old thing.
Kirby: Canvas Curse breathes new life into the 20-year-old action/adventure
genre by creating innovation in a two-dimensional environment. Just think of
what would happen if they did this with every genre in 2D, and later in 3D.
It’s been said before but now I’m convinced: the days of the conventional game
controller are numbered.
Overall: 8.8
My favorite
videogame memories are all the same. They all revolve around new games with
new mechanics, a new controller, a new console, and usually new graphics (not
that aesthetics matter much).
Up until now
Kirby wasn’t one of those games. Of course, up until now Kirby hadn’t done
anything major that hadn’t been done before. Canvas Curse is one of the most
unique and innovative games I’ve played all year, including the games I played
at E3. Nintendo said they wanted to create new kind of games with a new
control style that anyone could learn. For Kirby: Canvas Curse, that mission
is complete.
