"Thankfully, this game isn't lead-based"

As a hardcore gamer, I sometimes become annoyed with 2D platformers, simply because I feel the industry isn't moving forward. That doesn't mean I don't like 2D platformers, I just feel that most of the newer ones being released are filled with aggravating clichés that just ruin the whole experience of the game. Other 2D platformers that are released try some new stuff, but more times than not, are panned and forgotten about, simply because their new ideas just didn't work with the traditional formula of a 2D platformer. Honestly, I've really only enjoyed Mario 2D platformers (because they were some of the first, and when I discovered Kirby: Canvas Curse, I was very skeptical that I would enjoy the game at all. Even when I started playing, the first level had already bored me to death…but it was all uphill from there.

Kirby: Canvas Curse isn't your average platformer or Kirby game. Unlike in most Kirby games, Kirby simply has to spin into the enemy to gain their ability (but in previous installments, Kirby had to eat them). You must think that you use a face button to spin, right? Wrong. Kirby: Canvas Curse is the only Nintendo DS game I have played that doesn't use the face buttons at all, and favors the stylus heavily (though some microphone support would've been a nice touch). To make Kirby spin (and I know Nintendo and Kirby haters are going to love this) you poke at him with your stylus, or as the game calls it, your Magic Brush (heh).

The many abilities include an ability where you turn into a tire, and demolish anything in your path, or Kirby becomes a small ball of fire, zooming at enemies, or Kirby becomes a rocket ship that can fly almost as high as it wants to, or Kirby can gain the ability to shoot rotating electric beams from his face. Obviously, there are a lot more abilities than that (though it would've been cool if they had added some more abilities), but you don't necessarily need any of them to complete the game. They are mostly used to make the game easier to play.

“Easier to play.” Yeah, right. Canvas Curse, like I have said, is not just one of the best 2D platformers I have ever played, it's also one of the hardest, especially in the later levels (and that is an understatement). At the start, you have four bars of life, and when you get hit once, you automatically lose a life bar and any ability that you have. Later in the game, it is possible to gain another health bar via the Medal Swap system, which I will get into later.

What else makes this game so hard? Well, one of the main features of the game (that also is a utilization of the touch-screen and stylus) is that you draw little paths for Kirby to follow. However, most of the time, Kirby is constantly moving, more often than not toward edges of cliffs, meaning you have to constantly be alert, drawing bridges and arches for Kirby to cross on. This does make the game harder and can be frustrating at times, but it also makes the game way more exciting than it would've been if it was a normal 2D platformer.

Do you think that that's all you do with the touch-screen and the stylus? Well, you'd be wrong if you thought that! One of the features that make Kirby: Canvas Curse so freaking fun is the ability to poke stuff with your stylus (or Magic Brush) and have them respond on the screen in a usual fashion. For example, if you were playing Mario, you'd have to run over to a block and head butt the bottom of it in order to relish its treasures. In Canvas Curse, imagine you are twenty feet away from a block, and you decide, just for the hell of it maybe, to poke a block with your stylus. More often than not, that block will break (which can lead to pretty funny situations if there is an enemy standing on it). You can also poke other stuff with your stylus as well. Giant boulders of rock and ice will sometimes come crashing down at Kirby, forcing you to stab at them until they are reduced to nothing but gravel. Rotating spiked logs will become a dangerous obstacle for Kirby to pass, but you can make his day a lot easier by hitting a button on the rotating spiked log to make it stop its endless rotation. It's things like these that truly make Canvas Curse differentiate itself from the mountains of all the other 2D platformers on the gaming market.

Oh, but I am totally not finished! Kirby: Canvas Curse has a total of seven levels (save for the final boss world, which only has one stage inside of it), each with three stages in them. The stages all follow various themes, like the common lava levels, ice levels, etc. Even choosing your level uses the stylus! However, after beating three stages, you are forced to go into a boss battle of sorts. Unlike most games, in Kirby: Canvas Curse, you get to choose which boss, out of three, you face. One of the bosses is the son of the large, one-eyed spiked cloud from the previous Kirby games, but you face him in a manner similar to the classic arcade game Breakout. Kirby bounces around wildly, destroying anything he touches with one hit (except for color-coded boxes) as you draw rubber bands that propel him higher and higher through the level. By defeating each enemy in each section, a gate opens up leading to the next section, where you face more enemies, until you finally get to the cloud. There, you simply have to propel Kirby into his eye while making sure Kirby isn't hurt by his attacks. The second option is a cart race with the popular character and the usual main antagonist of the Kirby games, King Dedede. In this cart race, you use the stylus to make the cart go in a certain direction, aiming for various food items to gain speed. The race is separated out into three checkpoints so you know how well you're doing to King Dedede and to give you (or King Dedede) a fair chance if one of you gets too far ahead. Finally, your third option, is to face a guy called Paint Roller, who, like his name implies, likes to paint. He'll connect some dots and leave it up to you to mimic his movements. I found this very flawed, and the touch-screen wouldn't read it half the time. Also, it's nearly impossible to fail this boss battle. Anyway, when you're done connecting all of his dots, a grid shows up with a bunch of blue squares covering it. Some of the squares will switch to a yellow star, giving you a short time to tap them. You can do each of these boss battles twice, meaning you'll eventually have to do all of them down the road.

Every once in a while, you'll get the opportunity to gain some extra lives (because I'm sure you'll lose quite a few throughout most of the stages in the game) by doing a distance mini-game. You tap Kirby as much as you can, with him gaining intense amounts of speed, as he goes down a path. Right when he reaches the end of the path, you draw a ramp for him to rocket himself and to gain high distances. The higher the distances, the more stars (Kirby's version of coins from Mario) you will obtain, and the more likely you'll earn yourself an extra life.

You may be wondering what the top-screen is for, and, like in most DS games the top-screen is used as an in-game map that is out all the time. Honestly, Canvas Curse didn't really need the map to function (like games like Resident Evil: Deadly Silence, where the map was greatly useful), but it is a nice touch anyway, in case the inexperienced gamer gets lost somewhere down the rainbow road.

Speaking of rainbows (bad transition, I know), after beating a level, you unlock that level, as well as all of its stages, for a feature called Rainbow Run. In Rainbow Run, the goal is to go through each stage as a Time Trial mode to earn Medals. I know in most game Time Trial modes aren't fun, but I actually enjoyed myself in the Time Trials, and even stopped playing the actual game for a while to do them. However, Canvas Curse wouldn't be anything if it didn't add something original to the mix. There is also something called a Line Run, where, as I'm sure you can guess, you only get an allotted amount of ink in order to get Kirby through the level. Even though it's original, I found it much less enjoyable than the Time Trials. Kirby: Canvas Curse, however, makes both of those modes more appealing by only making you go through the first part of the stage (all the stages are broken down by checkpoint poles and black doors).

As I mentioned earlier, you get the opportunity to face each boss twice in their own little mini-game. By beating a boss twice, you earn their mini-game to play whenever you want to, with three difficulty settings for you to choose from. However, this is a pretty boring feature, and is flawed by the boringness and frustration of the Breakout-clone boss battles, the repetitiveness of the painting boss battles, and the mediocrity of the cart races with King Dedede. I don't understand why they didn't just add some mini-games to the game to give it more replayability, but hopefully the developers have learned from their mistake this time.

Finally, I am going to explain the Medal Swap feature I mentioned so long ago in this review. There are three Medals hidden throughout each stage, that, if you collect them, you can spend them in the Medal Swap. You can also gain Medals by completing the unlockable boss mini-games (called Sub-Games in Canvas Curse) or by doing Time Trials and Line Trials. By doing the Medal Swap you can unlock characters, music, extra life bars, or different colored lines (some of them are pretty cool looking, too). I loved Medal Swap because you weren't able to tell what prize you were going to get by shoving your Medals into the slots, and it gives players a compelling reason to spend their playing time collecting these Medals.

One thing that I was sorely disappointed about was the graphics in Canvas Curse. Now, I know it is a 2D platformer and I shouldn't have expected much, but it could've looked better than it does. The re-battling of bosses takes away some of the game's originality in design, and some of the stages look too familiar for comfort. The lines, however, are vibrant and colorful, and some of the abilities you can gain look pretty amazing at times, which is something to say for a 2D platformer.

I didn't have that much a problem with the game's audio, but there were a couple stages that had some terrible background music, a rarity for a Nintendo game. I believe that if the developers had spent more time on the game, the audio probably would've been extremely better, as it is like with most Nintendo published titles.

The story, obviously, isn't that great, and you wouldn't even know what it was if you didn't read the back of the box. However, one thing I loved about the story was that it really made you feel involved. It includes the player in the story. The story is basically that your stylus (and I seriously mean you, the player) has turned into a Magic Brush and Dream Land has been cursed by a selfish witch named Drawcia, who has created a world totally of paint. Kirby, with your help, goes to battle Drawcia and return the world to normal.

Though the game is fairly short (the average gamer could conquer it in about five hours), you won't want to stop playing. Even after you've been through every stage a hundred times, there is still a lot that Canvas Curse has to offer to any gamer. Sadly, there are no multiplayer functions and that greatly kills the replayability the game COUL'DVE had.

Canvas Curse is the best 2D platformer I have played in a long time (possibly, the best one I have ever played in my whole life) and it really originates itself from the countless Mario clones out there. Nearly everything in the title was perfect, but if the developers had spent a little bit more time on the sound, if there were multiplayer capabilities, and if the game was a little longer, Kirby: Canvas Curse would probably be considered one of the best games ever made. Hopefully, Nintendo is smart and there is a sequel to this great gem released in the near future.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/30/07