With the release of Kirby: Canvas Curse, a side scroller for the Nintendo DS, main character Kirby has pulled of something quite amazing: he has made an appearance, in some form or another, on every lasting (read: with the exception of the Virtual Boy) Nintendo system, from consoles to handhelds. That is an amazing feat that, dare I say, even Link has yet to accomplish yet! That said, I think you have to admire Nintendo for sticking with a character like Kirby through the years, there’s no doubt about that. I mean, Kirby seems like a sort of misfit among the classic Nintendo characters from games like Metroid, The Legend of Zelda and, of course, all the Mario games. Even Kirby’s history is something of an oddity among Nintendo lore. The game hero’s final appearance started out as a placeholder for a sprite to be added in later, though series’ creator Masahiro Sakurai became fond of the blob-like little fellow and so it stuck. The character was originally going to be called Popopo, though it was eventually changed to Kirby, named after Nintendo’s General Counsel John Kirby. And, Shigeru Miyamoto (a man who needs no introduction) wanted Kirby to be yellow, the creator wanted Kirby to be pink, the Game Boy technology made him a sickly sort of green and North American artists made him white, since NOA was still somewhat confused by it all.
I can’t hardly imagine how difficult it must be to market a game in which the hero is a pink, possibly genderless I-don’t-know-what who swallows-up enemies in order to copy their abilities...but I digress. As it is, the Kirby series has close to 20 namesake titles, and even a few cameos (The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening and, of course, the Super Smash Bros. games), even though it is a relatively young series (some games, like Mario for instance, have the better part of a decade on the pink puffball). But, through it all, the Kirby games still command a certain amount of respect, most likely since each title is sold on the basis of being something of a novelty. With the exception only a few games in the series (like Kirby’s Avalanche for the SNES), instead of slapping a new label on an old title and releasing it as a new game, Kirby always has something new to offer, both to the series and the genre itself. Now, I am not going to pretend to be an expert on the series, but to help illustrate my point, I am going to give you a quick rundown on some of the Kirby games and what they had to offer.
KIRBY THROUGH THE AGES
- Kirby’s Dream Land for the Game Boy premiered with graphics unrivaled by any other handheld game at the time.
- Kirby’s first NES foray, Kirby’s Adventure, was the first time we saw his signature copy ability.
- Experimentation is always a good sign of a series’ stability, and Kirby’s Dream Course made Kirby a golf ball on the SNES.
- For Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards I have just two words: Super Molecule.
- Game Boy Color cartridge sensors allowed you to fling the pink puffball around depending on how you held the game in Kirby Tilt ‘n’ Tumble.
- Kirby and the Amazing Mirror featured some multi-Kirby action, either with CPU-controlled characters or three other Game Boy Advance-owning friends.
- The GameCube has the racing game Kirby Air Ride, and a second game, bringing back Kirby’s animal friends from some of his earlier games, is in development...though some speculate that might turn out to be his first full Revolution game.
- And finally, in Kirby: Canvas Curse, we have a touch screen and stylus...
In Kirby: Canvas Curse, Kirby has a run in with the evil witch Drawcia. Following her into a vortex, Kirby finds himself transported into a world of paintings, turned into a ball and trapped! As Drawcia hurries to escape, she leaves behind her magic paintbrush (e.g. your stylus) and when Kirby touches it, it transports into your hands. So, with said stylus (or, depending on how much you get into your games, said magic paintbrush) in said hands, you begin your quest to restore the more short, less handy Kirby to his former glory...Oh! And, of course, to save Dream Land, too. To do so, you’ll use the Nintendo DS touch screen to stun enemies, destroy obstacles, use copy abilities and otherwise control Kirby’s every move...sort of. I think it would be a bit of an understatement to say that Kirby: Canvas Curse is a touch screen-based game because, in fact, the touch screen is the only way to do anything in this game. You can’t even get out of the start menu without it. So long as Kirby: Canvas Curse is in your DS slot, the only two buttons you will ever use are the Start (to pause or quit) and Power buttons! Now, you may be wondering how you control Kirby without the D-pad and buttons since, after all, Kirby is a platformer, but this is where the whole “magic paintbrush” stuff comes into play: using your stylus, you will actually “paint” paths for Kirby to follow (think Yoshi Touch & Go). This, in my opinion, has lead to a few problems, chief of which is control itself. You see, in Kirby: Canvas Curse, the D-pad movement of standard games has not only been replaced with the touch screen and stylus but also with a continuous motion of Kirby. I mean, he/she/it just continues to roll in one direction, sometimes with the momentum of an anvil falling up, until you either paint a path, tap Kirby for a speed boost, or Kirby bounces into an obstacle...in which case Kirby’s war, and apparent victory, against gravity continues in the opposite direction. Kirby is like the Energizer bunny, just without the ears, or the drum...or, in this case, arms and legs, but other than that, they could be brothers! The only way to really stop Kirby is to steer him into a corner and continue drawing a barrier to stop him (though, to be honest, I have to admit that sometimes, without warning, Kirby will just come to a complete stop if you let him coast along for too long). Granted, after awhile, you’ll get used to it, especially since the top screen (the only other aspect of the DS hardware to be used) provides you with a handy map (one of the few times it doesn’t just seem like a cheap copout because, believe me, you’ll really use it), but I still feel the constant motion attributes to a good number of cheap deaths. The top screen also displays a myriad of other information, such as level information, collected stars, health and lives and your “Ink Gauge,” though Kirby’s current copy ability is on the bottom screen, where you can tap the icon to get rid of it.
Posted: 2006-02-20 12:18:05 PST