Friday 13 Oct 2006

When the DS was first presented to the people at E3 2004, it was a pretty crazy idea. Completely crazy some said. And then at launch, there weren’t many games that really took advantage of the touch screen to “create new ways of playing,” as Nintendo president Satoru Iwata put it. There were a couple of mini-game titles like WarioWare and Feel the Magic, but nothing that you could argue was unthinkable on another system. Yoshi Touch and Go presented possibilities but felt a little incomplete. So Nintendo left the huge task of validating that touch screen to a little pink ball of a creature, Kirby. Well, no more argument is necessary - all you have to say is “Have you tried Kirby Power Paintbrush?” This game is genius, and while it maintains the structure of a normal platforming game, it’s completely different in the way it controls. Forget about those buttons, all you need here is a stylus and you’re away. Ok, I suppose you have to press the Power button to switch your DS on, but after that it’s stylus all the way.

The plot is a bit zany, and to be honest I’m not really sure what it is. Someone wants to take over the world from this alternate 2-D universe, so Kirby enters a mirror into this place and the wicked witch casts a spell that removes his limbs, such as they were. Now Kirby just rolls around everywhere with no control over himself. From somewhere comes this Power Paintbrush and falls into your hands - now you can use this paintbrush to draw rainbows for Kirby to roll along. So you sort of play this supernatural being, altering Kirby’s world to create the path for him to go on. Kirby must make his way through seven worlds and then face the wicked witch to restore balance to the world. If I’ve got anything wrong it’s because plots are really unimportant in these platform games and it wasn’t exactly fleshed out by the game, so I didn’t really care.

The mechanics are simple and elegant: Kirby rolls in a forward direction and follows the laws of gravity. If you draw a rainbow, Kirby will roll along it in the direction you drew it. The rainbow offers some power to Kirby, so he’ll roll uphill if he’s on a rainbow going that way. You can also touch Kirby to give him a dash of speed. It’s superbly implemented - draw a little ramp and then touch Kirby and he’ll ramp into the air at the exact angle you’d expect. After a while you’re able to aim Kirby into the smallest of gaps with very little ink used. Oh yes, the ink supply of this paintbrush is limited so you have to be careful at times. It does replenish, but only very slowly while Kirby’s in the air. Once he’s on the ground again the ink supply fills up. It’s limited to a perfect amount and the levels are designed around how much ink is available too, so everything just clicks.

Speaking of levels, they are all quite varied in play style and theme. There are lots of different obstacles - things like fans that blow Kirby all around, water areas in which Kirby floats and the rainbows are used to move him downwards instead of keep him in the air, moving platforms, electrified areas where you can’t draw paths for Kirby. Also, once you’ve cleared a world it becomes available in the Rainbow Run, where you can earn coins by completing a section in a given time or using a specified amount of ink. The levels themselves contain coins that you can collect as well, and you can use the coins to unlock all kinds of things from music tracks to new stages in the Rainbow Run, and even new characters.