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> Results: Kirby Canvas Curse
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When Nintendo needs a character for a unique game, they often call on Kirby. His stature as a ball with arms and legs makes him easy to shoehorn into just about any type of game you can think of. For Kirby Canvas Curse, the pink sphere loses his arms and legs and becomes a sort of parapalegic rolling dot that can be directed but not controlled directly. Through use of the stylus, you can draw paths for Kirby to follow, ultimately leading to an end of level goal or boss encounter. The whole thing is like a platform game in some ways but completely new and different in others. No matter how you pigeonhole it though, it's clear this is one of the best games of 2005.
The control is precise and easy to learn. Early levels feature simple challenges where enemies are featured as the main obstacles. You tap each enemy to stun them and then direct Kirby to hit them. Sometimes this results in a new power for Kirby to use. Even early on the game is endearing with cute animation and significant challenge as you learn the ropes. Like many Nintendo games, the challenge is just right and the training nearly perfect for what will come later in the game. Just getting to the exit is the goal in these early levels but you also leave a lot behind to come back and collect later.  What's super cool is later levels feature many different obstacles that make proficient drawing skill a must and the game has given you ample time to earn and hone those skills. There are areas where you can't draw and must use the environment and the ability to tap Kirby for a speed boost to bounce and roll your way through. Other areas require you to draw almost constantly, causing your ink to drain to near empty and forcing you to get even more intelligent about your use of lines. It all leads to a final battle that is somewhat anti-climactic only because you've probably gotten very good at directing Kirby with an economy of movement when you arrive there. It's a great looking fight, but ultimately a little easy. When the game is over, it's really just begun. After each level is completed, you receive those levels in Rainbow Run mode for both speed runs and ink-based challenges. The currency of success in Kirby Canvas Curse is medals. After finishing the main game, you can go back and earn all the medals in Rainbow Run as well as locate all the medals in the main game you skipped over to get to the end. What's cool here is some of those early levels are now super easy given your increased skill. It makes each of them feel like a freestyle drawing display where style is as important as skill. No matter how many times you go back, it's easy to put a smile on your face when you do some particularly complex series of motions to get Kirby past obstacles that seemed impassable the first time through. That puts replay value of the game through the roof and it's increased by all the extras you can unlock with your earned medals.  The game is entirely rendered in glorious 2D. Everything is animated beautifully and the screen is always alive with color and motion. Kirby rarely stops moving as you play and the smooth scrolling screen keeps your brain from getting complacent. The gameplay tests your ability to think and act on the go but Kirby also never penalizes players too hard for mistakes. It's also a great sounding game thanks in part to the great DS sound system but also to the old-school soundtrack. The music is almost 8-bit in its simplicity but is orchestrated superbly to match the clear, clean lines of the on-screen action. There's just not a bad word to be said about Kirby Canvas Curse. It proves that the stylus can give us unique new gameplay experiences while keeping the deep, skill-based action that has characterized the best Nintendo can offer. 
For kids that can handle the Nintendo DS itself, Kirby Canvas Curse is a great choice. There's absolutely nothing objectionable in the game's content. It also features the skill of drawing lines of various lengths and shapes. One of the boss encounters asks you to connect the dots in a certain order which most kids already enjoy on paper. Kirby bounces around certain other encounters based on the angle at which he strikes lines drawn by the player. This helps kids see spatial relationships and simple geometry. Don't underestimate how much this game can help them see things spatially thanks to having to draw everything themselves.
Of course, it's not an educational game so this is just a side-effect of having a good time guiding Kirby through this world of paintings. The game is imaginative, happy and constantly forcing you to think on your feet. Kids will love it because it just makes sense in a weird "Why didn't anyone think of this before?" kind of way. They almost all love to draw too. So what could be better than drawing and having Kirby riding the lines?! Be sure to caution kids on pushing too hard on the screen of the DS and they and you will have a wonderful time getting Kirby back to Dreamland. Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us | Buy This Game Browse Amazon.com's selection of "Kirby" themed games Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: Kirby Canvas Curse |
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