Nerd Mentality

Kirby Canvas Curse

Posted by Jordan Mammo.

Dreamland. The title alone only hints at a serene vista worthy of such a moniker. Yet all is not well in this fantastical land, an evil witch has turned the world into a painting! What are the people to do? Come on, Kirby! His name alone strikes fear into the hearts of all who hear it. Armed with his amazing rainbow brush, Kirby chases after the evil witch, decimating all who cross his path in a colorful splendor.

Ok, so maybe Kirby isn't exactly the "big gun" Nintendo needs to take out Sony‘s PSP in the West, but that doesn't make HAL Laboratory's game any less spectacular. Now, I like Kirby, but it has been one of the few Nintendo franchises that I could never really get into. The games were fun, but they were never titles I felt I needed to play. Kirby Canvas Curse, however, is a different story.

Like Yoshi Touch & Go before it, Canvas Curse employs a control method that doesn't make use of the Nintendo DS's buttons at all (except to pause the game). While players are not given direct control over our pink hero, they do have many options to make use of. Kirby himself is constantly moving in one direction unless he hits a wall or some other barrier, and tapping him makes him perform a boost. Kirby can still steal special powers by rolling into enemies once they've been stunned (which can be done easily by tapping them), but the real draw here is the ability to create your own platforms for Kirby to travel on.

Thankfully, it doesn't take too long to get a hang of the controls. Players will start off drawing simple lines and ramps but by the second world many will be experimenting with Sonic-style loops and new ways to get Kirby around more fluidly. If you think something will work, it probably will. And if you don't, you should try it anyway because chances are it just might.

Just as imaginative as the controls are the level designs and boss battles. The stages do an excellent job of first introducing the basics and then continuously presenting new obstacles and traps for players to get around, like the boost stations that shoot Kirby right back into the spike pit he was just guided over. Even the stage themes come into play in interesting ways, such as Kirby needing to light torches in the forest areas to light his path.

Canvas Curse's boss fights are just as unique as everything else in the game. At the end of each world, players get to choose one of the three bosses available that they'd like to battle. It feels strange even calling these events "battles" and "fights," because they don't play out as one would expect. HAL made the right decision in taking the route they did though, as the boss fights feel more at home in this game when you consider the control scheme that's utilized. Beating the bosses also unlocks new modes in the Subgames mode and makes them available for replay.

Speaking of unlockables, it's a good thing that Canvas Curse comes loaded with a truckload of them, because the main adventure doesn't last long. The game can easily be beaten in five hours or less even on the first try. But hidden in each level are three coins that players can collect; some coins are out in the open just waiting for you to roll into them while others are hidden deviously throughout the levels. The collected coins can then be used to buy things as trivial as new paintbrushes or even new levels to play through in the Rainbow Run mode.

In Rainbow Run, gamers can either play in the Time Trial or Line Trial challenges. Time Trial is pretty self-explanatory, as players will try to get the end of each section as fast as possible. Line Trial, meanwhile, goes against everything the game encourages you to do in the adventure and asks you to make it to the end of a level using as little ink as possible. These missions are actually where much of the challenge lies in Canvas Curse, but the hard work you do figuring out the best ways to traverse the levels doesn't go to waste. With each mode rewarding players with up to three coins for high scores in each stage, don't be too surprised to find out that you end up playing Rainbow Run more than you do the rest of the game.

Just looking at Canvas Curse, it's a bit tough to figure out why Kirby is so determined to keep Dreamland from remaining as a painting, because it's easily the most beautiful rendition of the world that's been created thus far. Things could be worse, one could imagine. At least the evil witch had style. The game mixes many types of themes, yet everything always feels consistent and blends together amazingly well. The music is pretty much what you'd expect from Kirby and it fits each level well. A welcome surprise was that the menu music sounds remarkably similar to Zelda's opening tune.

This game gets an N-Philes score of A.

Try as I might, it's hard for me to have any gripes with Kirby. Sure, it's short as heck, but it more than makes up for it with all the secrets and unlockable replayable modes. Kirby has jumped, floated, and tilt 'n tumbled his way through Dreamland before, yet Nintendo has found a way to make another romp through the colorful world not only a pleasure, but in the case of Canvas Curse, a necessity. This is not just the best DS game so far; it's easily the best game starring Kirby and should be played by any DS owner wondering why there's a touch screen on their handheld.

Posted in: Reviews

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