Innovative platformer with amazing use of the touch screen!
Kirby: Canvas Curse is a Kirby game, and that's an argument that would make a lot of people not take this game seriously, sure the game holds no mature nature, but that's not necessary to make a good game, and whatever it is that makes a good game, is certainly found on this game!
We can consider something about the game, it succeeds on everything it tries to achieve, for instance, look at the game mechanics, not only great use the DS exclusive functionalities, but also one of the best usage of the DS touch screen still for these days! A platformer like no other for sure, you control Kirby and you have an ink meter, you can draw on the screen, and make whatever shape you like with it, in contact with the ink, Kirby will follow the track, you don't have a jump button, but with the lines drawn in the screen you can make Kirby climb onto high places, surpass dangers, and avoid enemies as you see fit, as for enemies, you can stunt them by simply touching on the enemy, just a few enemies can't be stunned, and if you successful stun someone, you can defeat it by going through it, if you go through without stunning you'll lose health.
If you think about it without further knowledge, another game comes to mind with this kind of feature, Yoshi Touch & Go, but compared to Kirby, this game has not much dept, Kirby is really more dynamic and end up being an overall more satisfying experience, thanks to the dash technique, if you touch Kirby on the screen you'll do a quick dash receiving a momentaneous boost, which can be used in cooperation with the lines you draw to achieve various stunts and perform various kinds of maneuvers, resulting in a game where you're not forced to follow the game's speed.
In fact, if you plan on getting 100% on this game, speed is one of the requirements, because the has a time trial mode, in which you're gonna have to complete certain parts of the stages in a predefined amount time, the best you do, the more medals you receive in a total of three. You also can find a line trial mode, where you're gonna have to use less ink as possible, again there's three waiting for you depending on how you do.
The difficulty fits perfectly, it's not a walk in the park, but it's not bearing impossible either, it will surely keep you on it for some time, especially if you try to get all 250 medals, chances are high that you're gonna feel like doing it.
Another good thing to see in a game is secrets, and here you have tons, unlocking stuff with coins collected, unlocking stuff by completing certain objectives in the game, new characters, and new courses.
The graphics are great, the design of the courses are basically the good old stereotype, like fire, ice, forest, but strangely they all have a uniqueness into them, they don't look like regular course found in several other games, and the music certainly adds much to it, it one of the best soundtracks for a DS game, it really grows into you, even if you don't really like it in the beginning.
The story, which is the game's biggest flaw, can be skipped entirely, some mentions in the presentation and in the end, between all that lies only action, non-stop action and nothing more, who needs a story for a game this good anyway? If you wanna know a little about it anyway, here's the deal, Kirby was living peacefully in Dream Land, suddenly a bad witch comes and transforms the land into a painting, when she sees Kirby she flees into a vortex, Kirby gives a chase, he find himself inside of a painting, he challenges the witch, who transform him into a ball escape, now all the hope lies within the Magical Paintbrush you wield! Believe me, you don't need that.
Another thing I would like to mention is the final boss, not the actual bosses from the stages, because they're pretty uninteresting, but the final boss, without any spoiler let me tell you that it's a great boss, and a good challenge, nothing like the bosses seen on 2D platformers usually.
It's a pretty solid game that succeeds in everything it tries, uses the DS touch screen like heaven and throws some good challenges at the player, the only bad thing would be if there's no sequel in the future.
