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Jan 14th, 2008 at 01:52:39 - Drawn to Life (DS) |
(Gameplay Session 2)
GAMEPLAY
As I continue to play this game and learn more about the story, I find myself becoming more and more addicted to the game. As the story unfolds, you learn about the "darkness" that is slowly taking over the lands. In a style similar to Super Mario Sunshine, you have to clean up bits of darkness "goo" among the various platformer levels. Looking at the game as a whole at this point, it seems that there's a collection of random gameplay elements: we have your standard RPG game, a platformer aspect, a drawing system, and various mini-quests within a given level (such as the recently mentioned "goo" cleanup). However, somehow the game seems to unify these gameplay elements nicely in a way that doesn't make Drawn to Life feel cluttered or awkward to play.
The level design, although a platformer, is pretty interesting. Even though it's linear, there are (similar to Mario) secret spots in the levels where you can obtain health, extra lives, or even special coins that allow you to upgrade your character and eventually learn special moves. Knowing that there's so much to unlock drives me to play further to see what I can potentially unlock.
Overall, I definitely see myself continuing to play this game in the future. The unique drawing system immediately hooked me, and my friends enjoyed seeing what I drew and how the object in turn works as an object in the game. I look forward to uncovering more about the ever-creeping "darkness" and what other characters, objects, and weapons I can create.
DESIGN
I'd like to write a little more about the amazing drawing system. At the beginning of the game, you are prompted to effectively create the character you control. You are given a template to draw from, with different boxes and rectangles arranged in the approximate shape of a human figure. Using these boxes as guides, you can fill them in with arms, legs, a body, and a head. The game then recognizes where the limbs are separated, and from your drawing animates your character running, jumping, and waving its arms around.
I was definitely taken aback and excited to play around with this system further, as it seems brand new and really pushes what the DS touch screen is capable of. Throughout the game, you are given more opportunities to draw things (such as a "snowblaster" weapon or a sled you can ride on). Although the game is single player only, I was able to share the game with my friends by passing the DS around to let them draw different objects. Given that it was being passed around a group of teenage college students, some very interesting (and not-so-PG-13 items were being drawn). Despite that, everyone enjoyed the drawing system of the game, and being able to immediately see their artistic masterpiece come to life.
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Jan 14th, 2008 at 01:31:42 - Drawn to Life (DS) |
Jacob Pernell
CMPS20 - Whitehead
1/13/08
-| DRAWN TO LIFE |-
(Gameplay Session 1)
[SUMMARY]
Drawn to Life is a adventure/platformer/RPG game that pushes the possibilities of the Nintendo DS touch screen. Based in a "typical" RPG fantasy world, you are the "Creator" (a god-like figure) of a village of Raposas (anime-styled creatures). Throughout the game, you create various objects and playable characters using a special drawing system.
[GAMEPLAY]
I was pleasantly surprised when I first started up Drawn to Life. The introduction is very short, so you're thrown into actual gameplay very quickly. You learn that you are the "Creator"--a god-like figure that uses the DS Stylus to tap on objects on screen and draw characters (including the one that you start off controlling)/objects that are able to be used in game.
There are two modes of gameplay so far: I will label them "map" mode and "platformer" mode. RPG's are one of my favorite game genres, so when I started in the typical RPG map mode (i.e. your sprite character runs around on screen throughout the town and is able to interact with other NPCs), I got excited. Nothing too new or special about this mode, as it's fairly standard among RPGs.
However, when I was sent off on my first quest to rescue someone from the town, I was taken aback. Upon entering the first 'stage', I was presented with a level that was extremely reminiscent of the classic Super Mario games. I still controlled my same character, but instead of walking around and interacting with NPCs in an RPG environment, it ran, jumped, and attacked enemies in a platformer-game style. The fun-factor quickly superseded the oddness of the game style shift from RPG to platformer, in that the controls were very intuitive (c'mon, everyone's played Super Mario!) and collecting coins or defeating small enemies in your path was very satisfying.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Jan 14th, 2008 at 01:36:30.
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