Review: Drawn to Life (NDS)
Drawn to Life is a platform game with a twist. Using the stylus, you can design how your character looks, the weapons he wields, and the objects they interact with. It’s an exceptionally good use of the touchscreen, but once the novelty has worn off, however, what remains is a pretty dull game.
In Drawn to Life, you are The Creator who has been summoned to help rescue villagers from The Darkness (not the band, but an evil force that manifests itself as black goo). The Darkness has overrun the village and scared away the inhabitants. As The Creator you must build a hero to restore the village to its once prosperous status, and banish The Darkness. Although a fairly interesting story, it’s handled poorly with long drawn-out conversations that you cannot skip. From the moment the game begins, it does little to excite, with bland and confusing characters that are downright annoying. Gamestyle gets the feeling that the game is primarily aimed at children, and whilst not overly cute and cuddly, the simple story and weird rat-like creatures will certainly not appeal to more mature gamers.
The story in Drawn to Life, however, is not particularly important, and the focus is quite rightly on the ability to sculpt the game’s environment. It’s a nice idea, and handled well. Your first task as The Creator is to build the hero. You can use a selection of templates, or simply go crazy with your art skills on a blank canvas. This process is maintained throughout the game, and so if you’re feeling particularly lazy you can just do the bare minimum to create the objects, which is usually just filling in sections of set designs. If you are willing to spend more time on your designs, however, there’s an impressive level of detail that you can go into to create your masterpieces, even zooming in to edit them pixel by pixel. Each level in the game (and there are quite a few) requires you to create a number of objects to help you progress. These can be platforms, sleighs, springs, rocket ships, submarines, and you are also required to create items for the village from time to time. It is a good feature, but it does have a tendency to break the pace of the game. You will be progressing through the level, and suddenly you have to stop and take the time to create a platform so that you can cross a chasm, or a spring to help you reach a higher level. The templates in place are also restrictive, and although you don’t have to follow them, the easy option is just to fill the shapes, and be done with it. It is fun at first, but you will find yourself putting less effort into your creations simply because you want to get on with the game.
The game itself plays well, if a little rough around the edges. The graphics are basic, but the animation of the main character is good, and it’s a buzz to see you designs coming to life. The levels are long, and well designed, and there’s enough secrets to unlock, and items to collect to satisfy most platform fans. You collect coins throughout the game which can be used to buy new templates and power-ups for your hero, and it won’t be completed quickly. There’s a bit of variety in the gameplay, with some side scrolling sections mixed in with the platform parts, but apart from the drawing aspect there’s little to make this game different from the dozens of platformers that have come before it. If anything, it’s below average, with the boring characters and bland story doing little to retain interest. There’s no challenge, and the game quickly becomes a chore to play rather than a pleasure.
Drawn to Life is a great example of a game which uses the DS very well. Being able to create the look of the main character, and the environment around him, is a great feature, but unfortunately it’s the only exceptional aspect of the game. Once the novelty of this has worn off (which will happen quite quickly) the rest of the game is pretty standard and offers nothing new. It will have more appeal to younger gamers, and the more creative people out there, but if you’re after anything other than a solid platform game, you should probably look elsewhere.
Rating: 6 / 10
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