[//Aneurysm\\]

Kirby: Canvas Curse
Kirby is best left rolling around
By Mike S 8/4/05

Kirby is not one of Nintendo’s most famed characters, nor is he nearly as popular as the “Big 3”, but, that pink ball sure packs a punch. In his previous 2D titles, Kirby has been sucking-up powers and jumping from platform to platform. A concept that never gets old, but his latest installments have been lacking originality. Kirby: Canvas Curse has all the innovation and fun from Tilt N’ Tumble in a much easier idea. Canvas Curse is truly a game that belongs on the DS. Its formula can’t be done on any other system. Canvas Curse takes Yoshi’s Touch N’ Go to a new path-drawing lines that turn into platforms for Kirby to roll on. The sketch formula is finally incorporated with a story.

The evil with Drawcia is terrorizing Dreamland. Drawcia turns the peaceful land into a painting canvas, and letting her friends take over, but Kirby thinks otherwise. Drawcia uses her magic to transform Kirby into a ball! Now he has no arms or feet to move him forward. Fortunately, Drawcia drops her magic pen (stylus) that draws rainbow lines that turn into platforms for Kirby to roll on. Now that Kirby has a means of movement, he can save Dreamland!

We all know the DS has beautiful 3D graphic capabilities, why not use them? That question remains a mystery. CC doesn’t look any better then a SNES game at first, but once you realize the amount of enemies on the screen, and the amount of detail put into the background you see that this cannot be done on a SNES game. CC does have brilliant sprites and animations. The entire waddle-de’s and enemies look better then anything you can produce on the SNES. The textures look nice, but it’s the background that gets you. Hal has put a lot of work making the backgrounds flow well. Plus, they are awesome to look at! CC has no cut-scenes, and the story isn’t the big part to the game, so there is little text you have to read. CC sounds like previous Kirby games. The music is incredibly fast-paced techo tunes that you can end up hearing the more you get into the game. Enemies don’t talk, and there really aren’t any sound effects, but Kirby’s special powers have never sounded so good.

Since Kirby has been turned into a ball, your magical pen draws rainbow paths that allow Kirby to roll on. This idea was incredibly effective in the game Yoshi’s Touch N Go, and Hal takes that to a new dimension. The rainbow lines not only guide Kirby through his adventure, but they also protect Kirby from enemy projectiles. The magic pen also stuns enemies making them weaker so Kirby can finish them off, or, you could tap Kirby making him go into dash mode and move really fast. In dash mode Kirby is also invicible from all sorts of attacks.

Whats a Kirby game without special powers? There are over 10 different moves Kirby can mimic. Although a lot of the infamous powers are missing (Sword), we still see classic powers like fire-ball Kirby, as well as spike, spark, and my all-time favorite, stone Kirby. There are a few new powers as well. One of the more common ones is missile Kirby that allows Kirby to fly in directions that your draw your lines or the balloon Kirby that lets Kirby turn into a rubber ball and bounce real high. Most of Kirby’s enemies haven’t changed one bit, the waddle-des are as stupid as ever. Even old classic enemies like Kind Deedee, and Krakos (Which turn into bosses) make appearances.

The level design in CC is something that can’t be done on any other console then the DS. It blends classic platforming elements with new platforming elements. The levels change from world to world. One level might be surrounded by lava that rises up the longer you are in the game, then the next level might be full of slippery ice and falling icicles. There are always a few water levels-but here’s the catch-Kirby is buoyant. For those who don’t know, buoyant means that Kirby floats, so water levels turn everything around, forcing Kirby downwards other then upwards.

CC has 3 different game modes: main game, rainbow run, and the sub-games. The main game is simply going through all the levels, beating all the bosses until you finish of Drawcia once and for all. In each of the levels there are 3 hidden medals. The medals are used to unlock new characters, ink types, and songs. Rainbow Run is much different. RR is broken up into 2 formats: Time Trial, and Line Trial. Time Trial is exactly how it sounds-get to the end as fast as you can by constantly dashing Kirby. The faster you go, the more medals you earn. Line Trial is like Time Trial, except you want to use as little ink as possible. After beating the Main Game, you will unlock the Sub-Games. The Sub-Games are the same thing as the boss battles. There are 3 different Sub-Games. The first one is a race against King Deedee. Kirby and Deedee are in mine cars and you have to move a “generator” up and down avoiding enemies while grabbing fruits to gain speed. The 2nd game is Block Attack where you bounce Kirby into enemies using rubber bands instead of rainbow paths, and ends up with a battle with Krakos. The 3rd and final sub-game is called Paint Panic, and it’s exactly as it sounds. While Paint Roller draws certain shapes from the game, you have to match it up…all in one stroke. After getting high scores in the Sub-Games you end up getting even more medals with a grand total of 250.

I manage to fork out nearly 15 hrs out of this game, even more if I went for the last, almost impossible medals. The Main Game may only last you a few hrs, but playing Rainbow Run and trying to get all the hidden medals is no easy feat. As I said before, the medals unlock new characters such as waddle-des, King Deedee, and the Metal Knight. The medals also unlock different ink types that move Kirby faster, but might cost more ink. Even tunes from the levels and sound effects are unlockable. CC proves a decent challenge that reminds me of Super Mario 64, easy to beat the story mode, but hard to get the oh-so-amazing 100%. Kirby is definetly a game that will keep you busy even if it does have no multiplayer.

Kirby: Canvas Curse is one of the first great DS games. While previous sketch games fail to have a plot, CC is different even though the story is simple and has not plot twists or cliffhangers. CC sounds and looks pretty much equal. It has nice, fast-paced techo dance music that is true to the Kirby franchise and has beautiful sprites and backgrounds. CC really comes to live with its gameplay. There is so much variety to the levels that they all seem different. And for Kirby fans, special powers are here to stay. With tons of unlockables and sub-games, CC will satisfy you. After a slow increase of decent to good 2D Kirby games, it seems that Kirby is best left rolling around.

Scorecard
Story: C+
Graphics: B
Sound: B+
Gameplay: A-
Lasting Appeal: B+
Overall: A- (90%)