Recently I was finally able to get Kirby Canvas Curse. The game got tons of great feedback when it came out years ago, and is still placed in a lot of top 20 DS games lists. That surprised me, especially given how many great DS games there are now. It's a good game despite not feeling like a Kirby game. But hey, if you were sick of going around sucking up enemies this could be for you.
Gameplay is pretty simple- Kirby is rolled into a ball and you have to navigate him through each stage while defeating enemies and solving some puzzles here and there. You draw lines on the touch screen which act as bridges, walls or platforms so he can keep going. Tap Kirby to propel him forward and if there's a gap in the floor, draw a line over it so he doesn't fall. It's easy for the first couple of worlds, but later on the difficulty spikes up a bit and you'll need to be fast with the stylus. You can tap enemies on the screen to stun them, and once Kirby touches them, they're toast. Some have powers that Kirby can use, most of which you'll be familiar with if you've played previous Kirby games (flame, needle, rock, etc.). After you clear three stages in each world, you'll get to face one of three boss challenges. Each one's different: one puts Kirby in the roll of the BreakOut ball, another has you racing and collecting food, and the other simply has you connect the dots. And once the worlds are done, there's the final boss. Though there are also special tokens you can collect in each stage that net you a little something special at the end too.
Unlike any other Kirby game, Canvas Curse is refreshing, but doesn't feel like a Kirby game to me. There's no flying, eating enemies, or animal buddies. Kirby stays in ball form the whole game. It took me a little while to get used to controling him exclusively with the stylus, but I got the hang of it after a few stages. When you draw lines, you can go a good length before using up your ink and needing it to refill, so go nuts with the bridges. Sometimes it got annoying when I needed Kirby to go in a different direction, especially on small platforms, because you need to draw a wall and propel him toward it so he goes the other way. 'kinda wish there were more boss fights than just the 3 main ones too, but it's not that big of a deal. Also, make sure you collect every star when you can, because the game doesn't hand out 1ups very often.
The graphics look good still today, and there wasn't any slowdown when I played. Some of the later stages have just plain beautiful designs, often looking like abstract art. There were times when I'd let Kirby stay still so I could enjoy the scenery. Likewise for the music- a lot of it's memorable, something I haven't said for a Kirby game since Kirby's Dreamland 2 over 10 years ago.
If you can find a copy of Canvas Curse and love Kirby, it'd be hard to not recommend it to you. Just keep in mind what the gameplay's like and give it a half hour or so before deciding if you don't like it. With all the hidden tokens, it should keep you coming back for a while.Get more detail about Kirby Canvas Curse.
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