As the classic tale Pygmalion tells us, charm can go a long, long way. Drawn to Life, the latest adventure/platformer from 5th Cell and THQ takes a generic platformer, marries it to a neat coloring and drawing mechanic and paints the whole package with multiple coats of charm. The end result is a game that, while containing a few core gameplay issues, serves younger gamers well while at the same time, makes older gamers crack a smile as they remember Sunday afternoons spent coloring at the kitchen table.
Drawn to Life’s main mechanic is the ability to draw elements in the game. You play as The Creator, god to a cute and fuzzy race of creatures called the raposa. At some point in time you decided to abandon those that worship you and loll about doing whatever it is gods do. In your absence, an evil raposa took the sacred Book of Life and ripped out its pages, scattering pieces of the text across the land. As a result, dark clouds appeared, spawning puddles of countryside covering black goo and evil black goo creatures. After years of silence you decide to get off your celestial ass and respond to the pleas of the raposas. With pen in hand you create an avatar from an old mannequin and start working to clear the world of evil.
Ok, so its not an epic story, but it does what it needs to do, which is explain just why you need to draw platforms and floating clouds and for that, it functions just fine. The drawing mechanic is Drawn to Life’s big, well, draw and it ranges from full on creative expression to coloring in existing shapes. The biggest opportunity to express your creative freedom comes from your avatar.
You can draw your own player or, if the only things you can draw are flies and breath, choose from a selection of templates. There’s a nice set of templates to start off the game, with more acquired as special items as you progress through the levels. There’s also the ability to mix and match sections of the templates so if you want a robot’s chest, a knight’s armored appendages and Santa Claus’s noggin, you’re all set. Additional customization in the forms of stamps for things like glasses and mustaches can also be found as special items, so between the templates, the stamps and your imagination, you really can make your character your own. You can edit the avatar at any time, as well as other gameplay elements, should you decide that your Santa Robot Knight just isn’t cutting it any more.
While your avatar provides the best opportunity to flex your drawing muscles, there are plenty of times in the game where you and your godly pen are needed. You’ll be drawing the sun, moving platforms, floating platforms, vines, goo clouds and other environmental aspects as well as coloring in larger objects such as rocket ships, whales and submarines. While it would have been nice to be able to draw your own toboggan or whale, some of the objects are plenty big to still allow for a large amount of customization. You can also go the simple coloring route if you prefer a more pedestrian approach.
Once you’ve created your avatar it’s time to head out into the world. This is where Drawn to Life falters a bit as the platforming gameplay is the weakest part. It’s not that the platforming is bad per se, just very generic. You have your jump button, along with a jump and a butt stomp attack, a blaster of your own design for shooting and a slide attack for sliding down slopes. Along the way you can pick up special attack tokens that unlock special moves like double jumps, for purchase back at the town center. You’ll also collect coins for purchasing items as well as pages from the Book of Life. These pages, required for progression, are scattered throughout the levels and require a fair amount of backtracking, so younger players may get frustrated to get to the end of a world just to find they’re missing a page because they didn’t see a side passage.
As you move through the levels you’ll be tasked with taking out environment specific baddies as well as the ever present goo beasts. You’ll also come across houses and other structures covered with black gunk that will have to be cleaned off by rubbing the goo with your stylus. The jumping is fine, and most enemies have patterns that are easy enough to figure out, however the shooting is imprecise and can be a bit dodgy for taking out the various airborne opponents. Again, it’s not that the platforming is bad, it’s just not anything that veteran gamers haven’t seen before, only implemented better.
When you’re not platforming you’ll be hanging out with the raposas playing snowball fight mini-games or performing fetch quests. The raposas are charming little buggers and fun to talk to, however it can be a little annoying to have to go from house to house to talk to the Mayor only to find out that he wants you to talk to the shopkeeper who wants you to talk to the farmer who tells you to go back to the Mayor who has nothing for you to do in the first place. The lack of an ability to save when in the raposa village is also annoying as there are often many fetch quests to go through before you can go to the next mission. In the platforming world, save points are about 10 – 15 minutes apart, which doesn’t work well for those playing the game between subway stops, but fits perfectly a younger audience that’s looking to plop down in their room and play for hours at a stretch.
For all of its faults, Drawn to Life is undeniably charming. The raposas are adorable, right down to the little sigh of disappointment when you close your DS while playing and the jubilant cry of excitement when you open it back up. The player creations are animated nicely with your avatar doing a little boogie dance when completing a level. Colors are vibrant and bright and the music does a good job of presenting a perky mood. It’s a game that exudes atmosphere and is a great game to showcase the DS’s strong points.
Hopefully Drawn to Life will turn into a series of games that all capture the whimsy of this outing and build upon the already rock solid drawing and coloring mechanics. Older players may find that the generic platforming isn’t enough to hold their interest past the drawing and coloring, but younger players who weren’t raised on Mario will find plenty to love. With some gameplay tweaks, THQ and 5th Cell have a real diamond in the rough here and should be applauded for bringing something new to the table.
