Handheld
(DS) Drawn to Life
By James Rinehart
Dec 20, 2007, 7 :02 am

You would have thought that by this point in the Nintendo DS’s lifespan we would have seen more games that used the same approach to the stylus and touch screen that 5^th Cell’s Drawn to Life takes, using the stylus to draw your main character, his weapons, vehicles, as well as other aspects of the game. As it is though this idea hasn’t really taken off as much as it could have, and so this is probably the best example we will see of it for the foreseeable future.

Drawn to Life is the tale of a small village inhabited by cute cuddly creatures called Raposa, who were at one time in harmony with the Creator. The Creator gave the mayor of the town a special book, called the Book of Life, in which anything that was drawn in the book would be created in the real world of the village itself. Then one day the Creator largely disappeared, leaving the poor Rapo on their own, and terrible darkness befell the town blocking off all but the central portion as the pages of the Book of Life were torn from it and scattered to the winds by an evil villain. As the town settles in for a seemingly endless winter the game begins when you, the player, become the invisible hand of the Creator for the Rapo.

Taking control of a blank mannequin to act as a basis you then draw the character you’ll control for the rest of the game. There are about half a dozen preset templates to choose from, ranging from stock boy/girl options to more creative stuff like Santa Claus or armored dark knights. The drawing is done very well, with a simple interface not too unlike that of MS Paint for Windows. There are a variety of color patterns and templates you can unlock as you progress through the game as well. The zoom function allows you get right down to each individual pixel, and the grid overlay allows you see each pixel box you’re coloring on. The touch screen reads the stylus commands well enough but for fleshing out the finer details you’ll probably just use the grid overlay along with the d-pad and the A button.

After you get your character drawn the game begins proper. The mayor tells you that the villain, Wilfre, has stashed the pages from the book of life in certain areas beyond the village, and it’s up to you to travel to them via various gates that stand along the edge of town. In about fifteen individual levels you’ll do some light platforming, rescue lost Raposa, battle evil shadow creatures, and clean up their remaining shadow goop by swiping the stylus across the touch screen. Along the way you’ll come across little tokens hidden in various nooks and crannies that unlock new textures to paint with, abilities to use in combat, and the musical tunes you hear throughout. The levels themselves are fairly straightforward though the further you get the larger and more mazelike they become. The pages from the Book of Life itself are split up into four fragments for each level, and you’ll need to find every fragment before you can leave back to the hub village. Upon completing a level you’ll warp back to the village where the mayor will replace the page in the Book of Life, which then usually means that you, as the Creator, get to draw something for the town. Sometimes it’s a building you’re replacing, other times it the night sky, or the sun. As you gradually progress through the game you’ll do more and more to bring the town back to its former glory.

The game really has two faces, there are the parts where you’re in the individual stages doing some platforming, exploration, and finding the pages, and then there are the parts where you’re in the hub village and the various characters are talking to you and driving the story along. The dialogue for the characters is mostly charming and the relationships between the main characters of the village are surprisingly developed the further you play. For being cute little creatures of a vaguely animal nature the Raposa are rather human in all their little quirks. For instance, a little boy Raposa is always asking you to take him on your next adventure, unaware that the little girl Raposa he’s a friend of has a crush on him. Likewise the mayor’s daughter is next in line to be mayor and when the time comes to start acting the part she realizes she’s not ready for the burden of responsibility. It’s these little touches you see here and there that had me identifying with the characters more than I thought I would.

The platforming, well, let’s just say it’s good but nothing to write home about. Because you design the sprite for the main character, as well as the designs for some of the platforms and other objects that you interact with throughout the game, the platforming itself can’t be too precise. As a result there’s a kind of floaty looseness associated with running and jumping. It’s not really a bad thing since it doesn’t get in the way of anything, but as a result the game is probably a lot easier than it should have been. Then again, this does seem to be geared toward a younger crowd so it might just be that I’m too seasoned on the more difficult games of yesteryear. Combat is equally simple, just jump on an enemy a few times to dispatch him or use your handheld weapon that you drew to take care of him at range. Most of the challenge of the game comes from navigating the levels and finding everything you need to move forward, be it the lost Raposa, the pages, or making sure all the black goop is cleaned up. After four stages in each area you’ll fight a boss that is usually just a large environmental puzzle dressed up to look like a boss fight. Most of the time the solution is easy to spot but a couple of times I was so stumped I had to turn to the Internet for help.

The game makes good use of the touch screen throughout as there’s always something after each level that requires you to use the stylus, either to draw something like a platform, building, or a new weapon; or to use the stylus to tap on the black clouds surrounding the village to clear them away, thus revealing more of the village to explore. As you open up more of the village you gain access to other gates that lead to more stages, and so the cycle repeats itself until the end of the game. Like I said before, the game is split into two parts. When you’re not in a stage you’re in the village running errands and getting to know the characters better and seeing all the little dramas unfold as more and more townspeople return to the village and clash with each other.

Overall: 8/10

I found Drawn to Life to be a pleasant experience, with charming characters that made me want to see what would happen next. As a straight up platformer, it’s not that special, but the inclusion of the drawing mechanics manages to give old conventions a fresh spin. It’s rated E for Everyone but really by “Everyone” they mean “everyone twelve and under,” and depending on how good an artist you are some of your creations might look downright out of place when put next to the game’s cartoonish art style.