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Review: Drawn to Life – Bring your own hero to the battle

by Mike Bantick

Saturday, 20 October 2007

So Halo 3 grabbed first position, followed closely by Zelda Phantom Hourglass. Guess what was third in the GFK sales charts recently? This little, original IP for the Nintendo DS, where the hero is unique for each game.

The Nintendo DS is a wonderful platform for developers to explore new ways to bring interactive electronic entertainment to the masses.

Drawn to Life
	Developer	5th Cell
	Publisher	THQ
	Rating	G

DS

Having a touch screen and stylus gives an input device that, if utilised well brings a unique character to a software title.

This is definitely the case with Drawn To Life, a new Intellectual Property from 5th Cell via THQ.

At its heart DTL is an adventure platform game that tasks a hero to save the life loving village inhabitants known as Rapsas. What is the threat to the villiage? Darkness of course, it has already consumed the Sun, Moon and Sky and now threatens the remaining villagers.

So far pretty pedestrian; a typical good versus evil game with a tinge of Japanese style drama and art to the presentation. Gameplay consists of controlling the ‘hero’ through a series of worlds, battling the evils, rescuing innocents and generally bringing colour back to the land.

In DTL however, you are the ‘creator’ and must bring many worldly objects into being with a swift (or not so swift) swipe of the DS stylus. Whip up submarines, wings, clouds, weapons and more.

Your first task is to design a hero, given a wooden mannequin as a template – and with the aid of some preset heros to be guided by if need be, the DS transforms into a simple but powerful paint program.

Once your hero has been named and burst’s into game life it’s off to the rid the world of the Darkness. Literally this means, from time to time, scrubbing the screen of black goop that permeates.

Battle baddies with weapons and devices and vehicles designed by yourself as the creator. Traverse 16 levels with 50 stages all and indulge in the mini games all the time exploring your creative side.

The platform challenge across the myriad of stages varies in difficulty somewhat and some of the ‘cut-scenes’ can be a little drawn out. But this is made up by the fact that you are watching your own creation struggling to make the next cliff top or discussing the tragedy of a missing Rapasoian.

Add to this the ability to share you creations via the Nintendo wireless networks and the game becomes a personal link to you, gaming and your creative abilities.

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