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| Kirby: Canvas Curse Cardcaptor Yoshi Review Over-view: The pink puffball's first forage onto the DS. An evil witch has turned Kirby into a pink ball (as opposed to the usual pink ball with legs and arms), and only you and your magic paintbrush (DS stylus) can stop forest fires...er, save the world from becoming one giant painting! Adventure through 20+ levels in Story mode, race for a top time in Rainbow Run, or just play some addictive mini-games! Graphics: 9.0/10 KCC's graphics are clean and crisp. It is reminicent of older GBA Kirbies, as it is still technically a bright happy colorful 2D side-scroller. Everything is sprite-based, with none of those stinking polygons SM64DS used. But it's artistic style works very well here on the DS. Sound: 9.5/10 Kirby games have always been famous for awesome music, and this is no different. The usual perky and sugary tunes are out in force on KCC, but I find them very addictive and suiting. Some you won't be able to stop humming! As an added plus, many retro tunes from earlier Kirby games have been added and/or remixed in-game to suit those hardcore fans. Controls: 9.8/10 In this game Kirby is controlled exclusively through use of the stylus. Kirby moves forward freely by himself, but you can change his (its?) course by drawing lines on the screen, directing him where you wish. You can also tap Kirby to make him dash, or tap enemies to stun them. Once enemies are stunned, just ram them with Kirby to defeat them, or steal their power. And they are all activated by a simple tap of the stylus. The method of control in KCC is top-notch: it's simple, yet you can do many things with it. My only complaint is the lack of any button use whatsover: not to navigate the menus or anything! I personally would have liked to have, say, the A button use the ability so that Kirby could still dash when he has an ability. Challenge: 7.3/10 Kirby: Canvas Curse isn't a particularly challenging game, but it does get hard at some points (read: auto scrolling of death!). However, once I traveled through a level with Kirby, I didn't find myself sweating hard with any of the other 4 characters. Plus, the final boss is a letdown, difficulty-wise. But some of the non-story tasks in the game are quite a challenge, like achieving an A rank (or better!) on the hardest minigame level! Replay: 8.8/10 KCC has a great deal of stuff for you to do, but once that's complete you won't really want to replay anything. First of all, the main story mode (where you play through 7 worlds and 22 stages) is quite lengthy, as you must complete it with all 5 characters to unlock everything, but since the stages are the same everytime, it gets slightly tedious once you get to, say, the 3rd or 4th character. The meat of the game is the medal system though, in that there are 250 medals total in the game, and you need almost every one of them to unlcok everything. With these medals you can buy such things as health boosts, new characters, and different music. Another mode is Rainbow Run, but this is simply a time attack mode, where you race through levels as fast as possible, or drawing as little as possible, for medals. Finally, once you make some decent progress in the game, you will unlock minigames for you to play anytime, which are very addictive and fun to play over and over and over and over...for high scores and...more medals! Gameplay: 9.3/10 KCC plays out like a traditional 2D platformer. It is almost exactly like every other Kirby game on the darn planet except for the ability to draw lines with your stylus. However, that's not a bad thing. The levels are varied enough to keep it interesting, and they're about the right length. There are 5 different characters to play with, and they are unique enough to require a different strategy for each level. For example, one is blinding fast, but has low health, while another is really large, but has excellent health. The mini-games are also completely different and stylus-based- one has you destroying rooms of enemies as quickly as possible (but without gravity!), another pits you against King Dedede in a race, and another has you draw pictures (connect the dots!)! The gameplay in KCC is solid and the control scheme makes it unique. **Story: .3/1 Kirby has been stripped of his arms and feet (although you really have to look close to see the difference), and you (yes, you) have come in control of the magic paintbrush, the only thing stopping the evil witch Drawcia from taking over the world! ...yes, cheesy, but it does the job. Final Fantasy this ain't. **Multiplayer: 0/1 Unfortunately, KCC has no multiplayer whatsover. Which is really a shame, considering the minigames are good 2P potential and Kirbies could have possibly raced through stages a la Yoshi's Touch a Go. But alas, there is no multiplayer. Graphics: 9/10 Sound: 9.5/10 Controls: 9.8/10 Challenge: 7.3/10 Replay: 8.8/10 Gameplay: 9.3/10 **Story: .3/1 **Multiplayer: 0/1 Overall Score: 9.0 Final Word: Kirby: Canvas Curse is a great game and probably one of the DS's first real killer apps. |