I’m not a big fan of the colour pink, being the manly man I am. Regardless of this fact, I am a huge fan of Kirby. The little pink fluffball’s games are always entertaining to play, even if a couple of them are way too short or easy. Heck, even his show isn’t too bad considering that it doesn’t feature nearly enough of the pink marshmallow and instead focuses mainly on the characters who’s names aren’t in the title. So if I hate pink so much, why is the page drenched in it?

Pretty stupid question, but it gives me some time to type in filler and think up some pertinent things to type. Firstly, it’s all pink because I’m reviewing a damned Kirby game. Secondly, pink goes really well with other pinks, so the rivers of rose flow very smoothly together. And on a side note, I’d like to direct your attention to the top of the page, where as you can see, I’ve changed the look a little. Works better with image-based backgrounds this way. And it looks a lot better overall too, but back to the review!

I’ll start by saying this: Kirby Canvas Curse is without a doubt the best Kirby game since Kirby Super Star back on the SNES. Yeah, that’s right. Anyone who might follow the exploits of the pink wonder would know that beyond a shadow of a doubt, KSS is the greatest Kirby game ever, and that title is suddenly being challenged. While Canvas Curse fails to topple the reigning king, it certainly comes close. Want to know why? Read on. If you don’t care, read on anyways. You know you’ve got nothing better to do.

Firstly, Kirby Canvas Curse is incredibly fun. And it’s very simple to boot. Making Kirby fly all over the place and screwing around with some of the different powers can be fun enough to while away the hours while not actually accomplishing anything. I find it very similar to Super Mario Sunshine in that I can just play around in the levels and never actually make any progress in the game. Games like this are rare and are easily my favourites.

The premise of the game is pretty standard-issue for Kirby games in that it’s simple and shallow, but does stray a bit from the usual “King DeDeDe/Dark Matter is out to cause trouble” routine. In this game, a new enemy appears to make life hard for our hero. As it goes, Kirby was just sitting around and then this witch came out of nowhere and turned the world into a painting. Kirby tries to stop her, but is quickly turned into a useless ball. The witch flutters away, leaving her magic paintbrush, which Kirby touches and somehow manages to send to you. Thus, you have the paintbrush (stylus) and can draw stuff all over the world. And then it’s off to fight the witch! No plot twists or anything. A perfect story for a Kirby game.

So you’ve got this “paintbrush”, and you’re in charge of helping Kirby save the world. How does this work? Easy. Kirby, as a ball, will just roll around on his own. Pretty useless. This is where you come in. Drawing on the touch screen will produce a rainbow that Kirby will follow and use to gain some speed. This is how you get him places. Need to get up a ledge? Draw a ramp. Need to cross a pit? Draw a bridge. And so forth. Tapping Kirby will make him to a dash attack, which is his primary defense against enemies. the second line of defense is you, as you can poke enemies to stun them so Kirby can finish them off without the aid of a touch-dash. And that’s the basics. You can also draw a loop to make Kirby dash and get a huge speed boost. Such a maneuver is rarely necessary, but fun to use nonetheless.

As always, Kirby can use his characteristic enemy copy ability to acquire the powers of his foes. Only now, he doesn’t have to ability to inhale them, so it only takes a body slam to steal powers. There are some really fun powers to play around with, like Wheel, Missile and the new Balloon power, but others like Spark and Stone can be more cumbersome than you might like. In the end, you will have to make use of every power to solve some tricky puzzles and find all the secret items, just like in previous games.

The game itself is about average length, being composed of seven worlds (each containing three levels) and the final boss level. wile you may be able to burn through the main game in three hours or less, depending on how quickly you pick up on the controls, that is simply an appetizer for all the crap there is to do in this game. And don’t get me wrong, the main game is plenty interesting on it’s own, and even offers a good amount of challenge, not usually seen in Kirby games, but there is so much beyond it that you might be surprised at how much there actually is to accomplish in the game.

First off, each level contains three hidden medals. Some are simply a little ways off the beaten path, perhaps hidden in an alcove near the top of the screen. Others might be behind a wall that con only be broken by a certain copy ability. Others yet might require you to go a long ways off your path and hit numerous switches, and solve some complex puzzles. And lastly, some are locked behind giant doors that can only be opened by hitting a switch later in the game (similar to the Switch Palaces of Super Mario World). Getting to all these medals is no easy task, and that’s still only about the half of it.

After you’ve finished to main game, you’re given the ability to unlock new character balls to play through as. While you don’t have to, completing the game with each of the four unlockable characters will net you even more medals, so it’s highly recommended. Not only that, but each new ball has it’s own play style. The Waddle Dee ball, for instance, is really bouncy and you have to adjust your style of play to incorporate its erratic springiness. The DeDeDe ball, on the other hand, is huge and slow. If nothing else, it provides a bit of an incentive to play through as all five characters.

I’m not even close to done here, so stay strapped in, fools. Once you manage to muddle your way through each world, you’ll unlock its Rainbow Run variant. Rainbow Run offers not one, but two new challenges for you. First, you get the standard Time Trial mode, in which you have to clear one room of each level in a certain amount of time. Then there’s the evil Line Trial, where your goal is to clear a different room from each level using only so much paint. While Time Trial only requires practice, Line Trial makes you perfect using only tiny ramps and has you trying endlessly to figure out where exactly to put those lines. Each trial mode has three “difficulty levels”, and will award you with medals based on your performance.

So what exactly are you gathering up all of these medals for? Later. I have to explain the boss modes! After you’ve cleared the last stage of each world, you get to challenge one of three bosses; Kracko, Paint Roller, Or King DeDeDe. Each boss presents a dramatically different challenge and has two difficulty levels. Kracko’s game if reminiscent of Kirby’s Block Ball in that you must bounce Kirby around a stage with a paddle, breaking blocks and defeating enemies until you finally face Kracko in a nube-a-melcocha battle. King DeDeDe will challenge you to a mine cart race which is very similar to the “Gourmet Race” mini-game featured in Kirby Super Star. Lastly, the Paint Roller’s challenge is a tough (due to oversensitivity) game of connect-the-dots that ends with a simple “tap the blinking panels” test of speed and accuracy. The boss games aren’t overly difficult during the story mode, but once you’ve beaten the Lv2 game, you can play it from the Sub-Game menu, where it gets really hard. Particularly the Paint Roller game. But doing well in these sub-games will earn you (you guessed it) medals, so they’re worth the effort.

And now that I’ve listed out all of the different ways of getting these coveted medals, I think I’m due for an explaination of why they’re so important to collect. You see, medals are essentially your currency for buying unlockables. That one was pretty obvious, but what they unlock might surprise you. Goods come in all shapes and sizes, from music for your sound test, to heart containers for Kirby to a couple of the character balls. There are even different paint schemes to change the colour of your rainbows (though they suck, the default rainbow is easily the best), and some unlockable ability challenge stages (which can be aced to earn even more medals). One really neat item will replace all the music in the game to the music from Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland. Kind of a downgrade (the music in Canvas Curse rocks), but it’s a novel idea.

So how are the production values? Graphics, for starters, are excellent. While the amount of animation isn’t quite up to par with that of Kirby’s GBA adventures, it’s still quite fluid and reminds you of what masterpieces devoted artists can do with 2D graphics. The backgrounds are beautiful as well, and each different type of stage has its own style, from a black and white mechanical theme to pastel hillsides to a comic-inspired city, each level is extremely diverse as far as scenery goes. Just take a look at the screenshots.

The music for the game is just phenomenal. While it’s composed almost entirely of Nightmare in Dreamland remixes (which are, in turn, Kirby’s Adventure remixes), most of them are so different that you might not even notice it’s the same song until a single familiar bar plays. Some of them are just so out-there that they heavily incorporate sound effects, like cell-phone beeps and the like. Sound effects are pretty minimal and don’t have the traditional Nintendo fortune of voice clips (take that as you like), but they get the job done and are pretty convincing. I mean, you can’t really goof the sound of a lightning bolt or a tire burning rubber.

Duh. The gameplay rocks. Like I said, it’s fun enough to just mess around for hours. Add that and the enjoyable story mode, plus the almost-infuriating Time and Line Trials, and the mini-games, the four extra character balls, and the really neat final boss battle, and you’ve got quite a winner. It lacks multiplayer, but for such an excellent single-player experience, I’m willing to overlook that. The only real flaw in the game is trying to navigate Kirby underwater. You have to draw a line to keep him submerged, and while it might not sound so hard, it can be a real bitch when you’re trying to complete some of the Time Trials. That aside, everything is great about this game. If Kirby were a more popular franchise, Kirby Canvas Curse would sell DS units. Easily.

I know that there’s probably something I’ve forgotten to mention, but I don’t know… Oh yes. There are two things that bother me. There is absolutely no music on the title screen. Absolute silence. That and there’s no neat little interactive thing on said title screen. Super Mario 64 DS had the drawing thing, WarioWare: Touched! was full of things to poke and prod, and even Feel the Magic XY/XX lets you play with the mic. But nothing on the Canvas Curse. Oh well. Little issues aside, the game is an A++ fo shizzle. If you own a Nintendo DS, this is well worth your moneys. Even better, import the Japanese version and get a pink stylus! Nintendo totally owes me for not including it in the NA version…

 
 

Note: (it’s obvious, but for the sake of good jounalism) all pics stolen from Planet GameCube.

It’s been a long time coming, and almost three decades later, the Star Wars saga draws to a close. Well kind of, what with this one being in the middle of the story and all, but you know what I mean. While my plans to catch the first showing of Revenge of the Sith were foiled by… well, me, for never putting them into action, I will eventually see it. Heck, by the time you read this I may have already seen it. But that’s besides the point. My point, is that there are new Star Wars games, and they kick a lot of ass.

Make no mistake about it, I was a fan of Super Star Wars and its ilk (though I could never make it too far…), but they weren’t all too amazing, being just standard side-scrollers. The various flying games like the Rogue Squadron are all well and good, and then there are the various other Star Wars games that I’ve never played, which the public seems to have mixed feelings about. But nobody I’ve talked to (maybe about three people) has disliked their experience with the Revenge of the Sith games. Most (which includes all of: my brother), in fact, proclaiming their want to purchase the console version after a scant five minutes with the demo.

Yeah, the console version is pretty sweet. It’s got plenty of action and the ability to customize your Jedi’s abilities just the way you want them. But it’s one of those games that likes to use all the buttons, and after playing LEGO Star Wars, which is uber-simplified, it was a bit of a hassle. So no big deal normally, but I found myself constantly pressing the wrong buttons. So back to the task at hand, today I’m reviewing the Nintendo DS version of the game, which is essentially the GBA version with some awesome upgrades.

Firstly, and most importantly, this game is crafted really well. It is a pretty basic brawler, but with the additions of lightsabers and Force powers, it manages to mix things up just enough to avoid being a Double Dragon clone. Not to say that’s a bad thing… I love Double Dragon. Anyway, for most of the game, you will be moving right and beating up enemies to progress. Not a whole lot if you’re looking for variety, but it’s really good for what it is. Me myself, I prefer platformers to brawlers (they tend to be faster-paced), but RotS has captured my attention like… well, many others.

So anyway, the game follows the story of the movie pretty much down to the dialogue. There are only like one or two levels that aren’t somehow featured in the movie. Of course, I use this a little loosely, because Obi-Wan and Anakin didn’t spend much of their screen-time running down endless halls smashing endless numbers of Battle Droids, Clone Troopers and Jedi. You can probably understand what I’m trying to say here, but I just can’t fins the exact right words for it. Essentially, it follows the story perfectly. No “extended missions” like in the console version. Or at least very, very few of them.

The game starts off with a simple choice: selecting your language. Manage to get past that one, and you’ll be catapulted into a frenzy of Jedi action. Or something to that effect. The first real choice you’ll have to make is whether you want to play as Anakin or Obi-Wan. Each has his own style of play, dictated by simple attacks, Force powers, and super moves. They’re similar, but you’ll have to master the little facets of each character’s style to do well. After you pick your character, you pick either Padawn (easy) or Jedi (normal), and you’re on your way.

Next, the obligatory scrolling Star wars intro, and some cutscene, and then you get your map screen. Here, you can see your progress through the game. Once you’ve passed a stage, you can play it whenever you want to collect power-ups you may have missed the first time through, or just to have fun. also, you can check your clear percent on each stage so you know which ones you have to scour for power-ups. Also, you can choose to play against bosses you’ve defeated, because the boss fights are pretty fun, and somewhat intense.

Choosing Anakin will lead you down the path to the dark side of the Force, and playing as him can prove to be a challenge, if a little more fun. His story missions span General Grievous’ flagship to the streets of Coruscant to the Jedi Temple, and finally to his duel with Obi-Wan on Mustafar. The bosses on this path include Count Dooku, Mace Windu, and Jedi Master Cin Drallig and his padawan.

Anakin isn’t exactly easy to play as. He has more moves that leave him open to attack than Obi-Wan does, and that can get you turned into mincemeat in seconds. Being bound to the dark side, he cannot use the Force to heal himself, and therefore has to rely on pickups to replenish his life. This can make the game pretty tough, but in turn gives him more offensive powers. These include the ability to throw his lightsaber, choke enemies, and suck their life out to replenish his fury meter. And on that note, it’s time to look at this fury meter and what it does.

During normal stages, the bottom screen will display four boxes. Each one represents a special attack that your character can perform once his respective power gauge is full. While Anakin’s is referred to as the “Fury Meter” and Obi-wan’s in called the “Focus Meter”, they both work the exact same, and even the moves are similar. You start out with one super attack that will kill all on-screen enemies, but will deplete all your Fury/Focus, and will acquire one more move for each boss you defeat. Obviously, touching the panel will execute the move, but you can also input a button combination for each.

Anakin’s starting move is Vader’s Wrath, and like I said, eliminates all enemies that are on the screen. The next move learned is Plo Koon’s round, which will knock over enemies close by. Afterwards is Tyranus’ Uppercut, which will kill all enemies close in front of you. Finally comes Sidious’ Hate, which is similar to Vader’s Wrath, but won’t necessarily kill your foes, though it does use less fury (though not much less…).

Obi-Wan’s path is debatably easier, but also poses its share of challenges. While Obi-Wan has the power to heal himself as long as he’s got some Force left, his library of offensive moves is limited. While both Jedi can use the Force to push and pull enemies, Obi-Wan is left with no other offensive moves, having the abilities to stun enemies, move faster, and shield himself where Anakin could choke, throw his lightsaber, et cetera.

This isn’t a terrible problem, but it does make it a bit hard to score well. See, the game has three ways of giving you power-ups. Firstly, there are ten hidden green orbs in each stage. Sometimes enemies have them, sometimes they’re tucked away in the background. Then you can also get five points for speed. This is no problem. But the last ten points for each level are based on your Jedi style. The more Force powers and such you use will increase this bonus, and since you’ll be using mostly physical attacks with Obi-Wan, you’ll often ignore your somewhat useless force powers and have trouble getting a perfect score in this category. Or at least that’s a problem I have.

The quest to stop the Sith is a different one than that to further the influence of the dark side, obviously. Obi-Wan will trek through Grievous’s starship, search the tunnels of planet Utapau in search of the General, brave the clone-infested Jedi Temple, and finally confront his former padawan on the fiery surface of Mustafar. The bosses you’ll encounter on this path are comprised of Count Dooku, General Grievous, and two of the General’s bodyguards. Of course, the last mission in each story is a duel with the opposing character.

Obi-Wan’s focus moves are very similar, if not exactly the same as Anakin’s fury attacks. Obi-Wan’s Sense is your basic screen-clearer, though it is a lot more fun to watch than Vader’s Wrath. Yoda’s Teaching is the exact same spin attack that Anakin has, just going by a different name. The Knight’s Slam has the same effect as Ani’s uppercut, but varies aesthetically. And lastly, the Jedi’s Devotion will extend Force waves all over the place and knock over all your enemies. So yes, the moves are all the same, they just look a little different. On top of that, Obi-Wan’s focus will increase depending on how much force powers you use, and how much of the environment you break, while Anakin’s fury will increase when you do pretty much anything.

As I may have mentioned before, the boss battles, or duels if you will, in RotS are a lot of fun. They’re pretty simple when it comes down to it, but still plenty of fun, and are pretty intense as far as 2D brawlers go. And that’s a point of interest alone. Rather than the semi-3D stages you’d normally go through, you’re set on a strictly two-dimensional plane for boss duels. Your freedom of movement is restricted to moving toward your opponent, and slowly backing away. Imagine a 2D Soul Calibur. That’s what it’s like.

The fights are pretty easy, as the key to winning is observing your opponent’s moves and waiting for an opening in their attack pattern. They’ll either attack high or low, or a combination of both that could include up to eight or so blows, so you just have to learn to see which move they’re about to execute, and you should be fine. Jedi bosses will also use their Force powers against you, which can be promptly absorbed by holding your own Force button (which is R). As easy as they may be after a little practice, I still think that the duels are awesome. I’ve played the Grievous duel about ten times over because it’s just so enjoyable to play.

And that’s pretty much what you’ll get if you play either the GBA or DS versions of the game, minus the touch screen options, of course. There are a couple of big differences in the main games, however, besides this little one. Firstly, I hear that the music quality is like five billion times better on the DS, with the music being actual songs from the movie, as opposed to the GBA version’s crappy synth stuff. I’m ready to believe this one. Also, I hear that there are a couple extra cutscenes in the DS version. I think it a bit odd, but plausible. Can’t think of any off the top of my head that couldn’t have been done on the GBA, but I’m sure there’s something in there somewhere.

The biggest addition to the DS version of the game is easily the special missions. In between every few stages, you’re presented with a sweet 3D space flying level! most of the time, anyway. A couple of them are in the “streets” of Coruscant. These may not seem like huge additions on paper (or maybe they do, I guess it’s a subjective matter), but I find that they add a lot to the game. Not only do you get six extra missions to play, but you also get to hearken back to the days where you played Rogue Squadron for hours on end. Or maybe it’s just me again. Anyway, the flying is really well done, and it’s barrels of fun, plus once you’ve beaten the respective stage each is in, you can play it any time from the “special mission” menu.

The final difference between the two versions of the games is the multiplayer. If you plan to use these modes a lot, it probably wouldn’t be such a bad idea to buy both versions of the game, seeing as they’re so different. The GBA version offers a two-player cooperative mission mode, and a Last Jedi Standing mode, in which you and a friend fight against an endless stream of enemies until one of you falls. And then the DS version comes along and replaces those modes with… 3D space flying!

While it’s no co-op mode, the space flying… Aw, who am I trying to kid? The space flying kicks total ass! Especially for those of us who grew up playing Rebel Assault and got into the whole space flying thing early (even if Rebel Assault was mostly on rails, it was still space flying!). The only fault is that it’s only got a limited (you’re forced to play with a kill limit) deathmatch mode. Also, I’m pretty sure the DS could handle more than four players, but that’s sufficient enough, I guess. Everything else about it is awesome.

Firstly, there are eight arenas to play in. Two are in the skies of cities, with buildings and such to avoid. Four of them are placed in free-range (all arenas are free-range, but you know what I mean) space, and one of those arenas, I’m certain, is that nebula level from Rogue Leader where you have to defend the medical frigate. Or it might not be, but it sure bears a striking resemblance. And the last two are more surface maps, but on Tatooine and Hoth! Hooray!

The absolute best part of this mode is the selection of ships they present you with. there are a total of sixteen ships to choose from, and while some fun choices were excluded (Naboo Starfighter, V-Wing, 1969 Buick Electra), there are plenty of great ships to choose from, including several different Jedi Starfighters, the Slave I, a couple TIEs, an X-Wing, and the Millennium Falcon. You have to unlock a few of the really cool ones by beating the respective bots in skirmish mode, but it’s totally worth it. Ooh, ooh! And the explosions look absolutely excellent! They’re kinda like the explosions in Zelda: the Wind Waker in that they’re really cartoony, and they look a bit out of place as such, but I love them. Best effect ever. EVER.

Dun dun dun. Review time. Graphics in Revenge of the Sith are excellent. The main game’s graphics are pretty, but lack a little animation for some enemies. Main characters and boss characters are done well though. There’s plenty of colour and my only gripe is that every part of the environment busts the exact same way as the rest of it’s kind. They could have at least put two different “broken” images for each object. Flying mode is beautiful. The ships are a bit blocky, but it’s forgivable cause it’s no so bad. And the explosions make up for any other shortcomings I may have overlooked. So pretty…

Sound quality is nothing less than perfect, as the music is apparently taken straight from the movie. As I said before, I’m willing to believe that. It is of rather high quality. The sounds are great too, and nobody will have to guess what you’re playing when they hear a lightsaber swing or a blaster go off. Voice samples are very limited, but they’re got the Battle Droid “Roger roger”, so it’s all good.

The gameplay is excellent. The basic brawler premise may turn off a few (like me, until I heard it was really good), but the added Star Wars nuances like Force powers really help it to stand out in the crowd. The ability to develop your Jedi’s powers however you like is another added bonus, as you can customize the game to suit your playing style just a little more than most games allow. Beating the game will unlock a new hard mode, which is really is hard, so that will probably keep you coming back for a while. Also, the space flying gives it tons of replay value, even if you can only really play deathmatch. The hard bots are actually quite good and will give you a run for your money if you’re not playing at the top of your game. Not to mention that playing against or with other people will double your fun.

Overall, I’m more than satisfied with Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. It’s proven that you can make a really repetitive game genre fun, you just have to add some fun boss fights, and maybe some magic powers to top it off. I would very much recommend this to anyone looking to round out their DS library, or even to grab the GBA version if you’re one of those “I’m too good for two screens” types. Though the DS version does have at least two solid advantages going for it. Those advantages being the flying and the music, for those who couldn’t figure it out. Either way, I’m sure you’ll be satisfied. If nothing else, it’s a ton of fun to make Battle Droids explode with a wave of your hand. This one gets an A.

~Ryan