I don't know what it is about being a pink blob of goo that eats other creatures that has been so appealing for so long, but that pretty much sums up Kirby. He's pink. He's a pink blob of goo. He eats creatures and then takes their powers. This is the simple design that on paper sounds rather odd, but has created so much fun over the years for Nintendo's legion of fans. Kirby's latest adventure, titled Canvas Curse for the DS, provides more pink goo fun and adds a new artistic wrinkle to the Kirby mix.
With Kirby's first appearance on Nintendo's new handheld unit, it should come as no surprise that it makes liberal use of the touch screen. In fact, the game uses the touch screen and stylus combination exclusively. Rather then control Kirby directly, however, you must use the stylus and "paint" with broad strokes a patch for our pink friend to follow. Kirby will roll along and obey the laws of gravity until he encounters a painted line, and will then proceed to follow this paint stroke in the direction that it was placed. These lines only last for a short while, and you only have a limited amount of ink before Kirby must be placed in a safe location to allow you to replenish your supply.
Enemies and other pitfalls are scattered throughout the levels that you must help Kirby traverse. Luckily, a simple poke with the stylus will stun the enemies long enough for Kirby to roll by and knock them out completely. Certain enemies, as in previous Kirby games, will provide Kirby with some unique abilities. By taking abilities, Kirby can turn into balloons, rocks, rockets and even spit fire and lightning!
Once again, the game design sounds rather simple: draw lines to push the character around and avoid spikes and enemies en route to the exit. However, this seemingly simple game is not only quite difficult, especially at the later levels, but it also surprisingly addictive. "Just one more level," I found myself muttering silently as I drew out a safe path for the amorphous pink hero to follow.
Unfortunately, "just one more level" quickly evaporated, as the main game can be rather short. There are a total of twenty-four separate stages, broken down into three per level, for you to complete. Each stage has its own unique theme, ranging from under water to outer space, and seemingly absolutely everything in between. Fortunately, the game is so much fun that I had no qualms about going back through every stage after I completed it to find any special medals I may have missed. These medals, scattered across each stage, allow you to acquire different bonuses such as new styles of paint or increased life.
After completing all three stages in a level, you then get the ubiquitous boss stage. These are essentially little mini-games which have their own unique aspect to them and vary significantly from the main game. In fact, after passing a boss stage, it is unlocked as a mini-game that you can replay to earn more medals. One of these boss stages is a pinball type game where you must draw lines for the paddles and, of course, use Kirby as the pinball. Another requires you to connect the dots on a series of patterns as fast as possible. This one frustrated me, as the touch-pad didn't seem to always recognize that I would hit a dot and would deduct points and penalize me because it of its own shortcomings (however, admittedly, there were numerous times in my rush that I did miss the dots.) The third boss stage involves a mine-cart style race against the boss, where you must use the stylus to move your cart up and down on the screen and collect food power-ups to make your cart go faster and reach the finish line first.
In addition to the main game, after you beat each level you unlock the levels in the "Rainbow Run". These give you a portion of each stage that you can play either in "Time Trial" or "Line Trial" modes. Time Trial, as you might expect, pits you against the clock. The faster you clear the stage, the more medals you earn. Line Trial gives you only a certain amount of ink and requires you to use as little as possible to clear the stage. The less ink you lose, the more medals you earn.
As I said before, this game is so simple and yet so much fun. While the action differs from what Kirby fans may be used to, it still features enough of our pink gooey hero to appeal to old and new fans alike. This is one of the better games I have yet to play on the DS platform, and while I wish it was a little bit longer, I cannot complain too much … except that those last few levels are deviously difficult! If you've already got a DS, you owe it to yourself to get this game, and it might well be worth picking up one to give a shot.
I've been playing games ever since I was a wee lad. My favorite games as a child were the classic Pitfall and a game called SNAFU, which was a sort of puzzle game along the lines of Tron Light Cycles. I've had most of the major console systems since the early days and have a wide range of tastes of games and I'm always eager to give a new one a try.
