Is your hand about to drop off?
Platformers are slowly becoming all the rage again. While New Super Mario Bros. Wii's main change from its past incarnations was the ability to play it with up to three other people, and Super Mario Galaxy offered an intriguing 3D aspect to it all that went beyond Mario64, there have been platformers outside of the Super Mario Bros. Franchise that have been trying to reinvent the platformer. Little Big Planet is probably the most popular of this new stab at the platformer, but in 2007 Drawn to Life was offered up by THQ, developed by 5th Cell, for the Nintendo DS. Now THQ has released two sequels, the Wii version developed by Planet Moon Studios and the DS version developed by 5th Cell again; despite both games having the title of The Next Chapter they are not the same game.
The game sees the return of the Creator (you) and a new hero (you) to solve the Rasposa's strange problems of late. Cue hints that a dark force from the past is gathering strength once more and must be investigated at once, and you are sent off to every corner of the land looking for answers. Helpfully a recap of the previous game's events is given within moments of setting foot in the Rasposa village.
If you have no inclining as to what Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter's game play revolves around, its gimmick if you will, is that things that you draw become part of the game's environment. In fact you can draw the hero of the game any way you please or, if you're not feeling that creative, choose from a number of customisable templates. As you progress through the game you will draw visages from bats straight through to monkey tails.
However the game does not solely rely on you drawing left right and centre (despite it seeming like this at times). No, like any platformer there is a whole host of levels that, while nowhere near as punishing as the latest Mario Bros., will often leave you amused and puzzled depending on whether you know which way you should be going and how to get there. Getting to grips with how drawing into the various draw boxes on levels can be worked to your advantage makes up a large amount of game play. Drawing directly into a level offers a temporary piece of scenery for you to interact with, but in order to progress you will often have to draw the scenery in a way that will facilitate jumping onto another part of the area or more frequently a series of moving handholds.
