FutureFive New Zealand - Consumer technology news & reviews from the future
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Tue, 1st Nov 2005
FYI, this story is more than a year old

In Canvas Curse - your DS stylus has been magically infused with the power to paint! When Kirby gets turned into a ball by an evil witch, your hand-drawn rainbow paths become the only way he can find power-ups and reach the gates of each world. It's up to you to draw loops to make him speed up, make ramps to jump danger, and draw walls to block laser beams and cannon blasts as you explore seven levels packed with adventure. As you can tell – Kirby is a game for the younger generation, but offers a colourful and quick-thinking experience for small hands and minds.

Using the stylus to control Kirbys movements is surprisingly intuitive, and the new control scheme provides many unique gameplay challenges. The rainbow paths you draw guide Kirby through the game, but they also can protect Kirby from falling icicles, lasers, cannon blasts and other hazards. In addition to drawing paths, the stylus can also be used to stun enemies, destroy barriers, detonate bombs and much more. Each of the games seven levels is divided into three stages, and each stage holds three hidden medals. Some are easy to find, while others are either well-hidden or heavily protected and all the while you also earn medals by completing other tasks in the game. You don't need to find these medals to complete the game, but the medals you recover can be traded in to unlock special features like new ink colours for the paths you draw with the stylus.

Finding all of the medals in the game will be a tough task even for experienced gamers, and a collection of unlockable minigames adds even more replay value. Kirby: Canvas Curse delivers all of the classic copying action Kirby fans expect, while utilising some of the most innovative touch- screen controls we have seen on Nintendo DS.