Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter Review

Written by: Steve Martin Posted: 15th December 2009

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Drawing to life.

Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter Details:

Goto Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter Game Page

	Action
	Nintendo Wii/Nintendo DS
	5th Cell
	THQ

Out Now

Drawn To Life: The Next Chapter appears to continue the story started in the original Drawn to Life game, which I have to admit I never played, therefore some of the story cross-over has been lost to me during my visit to the Raposas' world! This time the evil Wilfre is stealing the colour from the land, and the Raposa's, the beings in this colour-fading world, have once again called upon the Creator (that's you!) to save them and to send them a new hero to help them stop Wilfre and restore the lost colour.

In case you have not realised yet, this is aimed at younger players, hence the Saturday-morning- kids-show storyline, the age old, good versus evil angle! This is fundamentally a fairly straight-forward 2D platform game, with commonly a village-like setting acting as a hub that allows the player to select the level they would like to attempt. These levels are usually unlocked by restoring colour to them, using the colour you obtain when you complete a level. You rub the stylus across the colourless level entrance like a paintbrush. Once the colour has been restored this level becomes playable, but this removes a certain amount of your available colour.

The main twist with the game is hinted in the title, you create your own hero to help save the world, as the Creator you have the power to create life in what ever form you prefer. As well as your hero, you are able to design your own floating platforms, health restoring pick-up and even your own weapons! The design interface is very simple, and reminds me of the Microsoft Paint program, with the ability to use a pen, paintbrush or fill options, as well as a large palette of colour. There are size limits to your creations to stop you from creating a hero who fills the whole screen and so on. This works really well for simple objects, but it can be tricky to create anything detailed, even with a zoom tool. You are able to change any of your creations at any point in the game, so don’t worry if you decide that you want health restoring eggs rather than hearts at a later point in the game!

Other than this unique customisation gimmick, there is little else to really highlight regarding this game. The levels are very standard and there is little challenge if I’m honest, there are coins to collect that allow you to purchase new weapons and other things from the village shop. Each level also has hidden items to find such as a missing Raposa or a pirate coin that can be given to the pirate Raposa. The enemies seem fairly unique, such as accordion fish and indestructible ghosts, but they lack any common sense making them easy to avoid. The level design is good overall, with a nice mixture of puzzle and action parts, and some different locations to explore but it all feels very familiar with nothing really new or inspiring to comment on.

Graphically the levels and the hub are good with plenty of colour (after you have restored it obviously!) and the characters and locations are nicely animated. The developers (5th Cell) graphical style from Scribblenauts can be seen, but it has been refined and looks much more alive. My favourite graphical touch is when your hero is hurt, they lose some ink and an appendage turns orange, until eventually you are left with a simple orange-shaped bag with arms and legs, which with one more hit will disintegrate!

The soundtrack is actually quite jolly and suits the games style and the target audience. The sound effects are all present and correct, maybe in the next Drawn to Life you could make your own using the in-built microphone, it is just an idea!

I also have to admit that I found the majority of the characters dull and uninteresting but that might be because I am too old and have not played the original, therefore I have no interest in them. The story elements in the game also seemed to take up a large amount of time with lots of text that may bore younger players, as I found it a little text heavy and dull at times!

Overall, this is a solid platformer with a simple but overly demanding storyline that may appeal to the pre-teenage DS owners, with a well implemented customisation element to the gameplay. As a whole it is a good package but one that will fail to appeal to older gamers.