Anime Forum Games Links Movies Music Profiles Survivor TV Shows AH, Kirby. I remember way back when, Kirby had just come out for the original Gameboy and Kirby was in black and white. He's changed a lot since then. He's been given color, he's done a fighting game, a pinball game and now he's had his arms and legs removed! Kirby has always been a fun series (excluding the terrible N64 game). And Canvas Curse keeps the Kirby name fresh. The story is simple. Drawcia (let's not go there) attacks Kirby's home world and makes it into a painting. She also removes Kirby's arms and legs! Now he has to roll his way through paintings to save the day. Very simplistic, no more plot ever comes around. Yeah, it isn't great but it sets up the game nicely and for once, the story doesn't matter, it's all about the game play in this title. The graphics are some of the best on the DS at this point. It's all 2D but everything is bright and vibrant. I actually enjoyed the black and white levels also, they seemed stylish almost. However, the levels don't breath with life. The colors and stuff may be vibrant but they didn't blow me away and I never uttered "wow that looks beautiful". Of course no other game makes me say that but with the whole painting theme, I guess I was expecting more. Since this is a DS game there isn't voice acting. Sure Mario DS had some voice acting but this is Kirby and do we really want horrible voices like those from the anime? Anyway, the music is fun and catchy. Not something to write home about but it is fun and fits the game nicely. The sound effects are typical. Nothing exciting but they work well. The control in the game is simple and you can't really complain because it's all on you this time around. You move Kirby around with the stylus. You make him roll, dash and use skills, when he collects them. You can also draw lines for him to roll up onto. It works well. My only problem is that once in a while you're attempting to draw a line but what happens is you make him dash off the edge of a cliff and he's dead. Works well otherwise. You do have to sit and play this one though. It requires a lot of focus to play it. The game play is the meat and bones of this title. Let's see if I can cover it all. There are seven actual worlds. Each contains three levels and those three levels have three areas. Now each area is a decent size. They are full of enemies and switches and puzzles. Some of the later levels are insanely hard. There's also an eighth world but it's more of a prelude to the final boss. Now, bosses are a bit odd in this game. After beating a world you get a choice of three. Each is a boss and you must fight them twice in the entire game. Once you do, you unlock a mini game. One boss has you killing guys by bouncing Kirby like a pinball; you create flippers instead of the normal lines. Another is a race, collect fruit to go faster. Move the stylus to go up and down. The third one has you drawing items before time runs out. I found this one to be very fun. I didn't care for the racing one but the pinball one was good too. The final boss is very overwhelming. I didn't beat her on my first try because you really have to learn her patterns. Now, to navigate the levels you need to draw lines, ramps or scoops to go over holes or climb up. It's fairly easy until the first world of world seven which places the evil water zones in bad places so you end up making small ramps and hoping that Kirby makes the jumps. I found it really fun to build the ramps and stuff for Kirby because you really have complete control over him. Well, except I can't figure out how to tell him to go a specific way without pushing him and then making a quick wall to have him turn around, this causes problems with the last boss. Also, some spots in the levels are sort of raining and in those areas you can’t use the paintbrush. It’s not really raining since Kirby goes under water but it’s more of a magic block. It makes the game a bit more challenging. The game features the classic enemies of the series. However, you can only get powers from a select few (ten or so) and you tap Kirby and he uses the powers. This makes it a bit hard at times because he doesn't move as smoothly but you can drop the power by hitting its name, or you lose the power when you get hit. It's fairly simple but it works well. The game also has 250 coins hidden in it. You use the coins to unlock new characters, color schemes for your paintbrush, music or extra health. It's all good and that's a ton of stuff right there to find. After four hours of play (time it took to beat the game with Kirby) I was only 17% complete. You also unlock the worlds after beating them and you can do time trials or line trials. Time trials are easy to explain beat level within a certain amount of time. Line trials gives you a specific amount of lines that you can draw and you have to get to the end using just that amount. Both are fairly hard in the later levels but it adds so much more to do in the game. You also get the boss mini games which is great. Kirby: Canvas Curse is the only DS game at this point that I think is worth owning. A few more are on the way but no other game has taken over my gaming time like this since Untold Legends for the PSP and that was a few months ago. Kirby fans will love this game and those who are craving for a good DS game have to look no further. Story - 6/10 Graphics - 8/10 Sound - 8/10 Control - 9/10 Game play - 10/10 Replay value - 10/10 Final Score - 9/10