Unless players are young or really into bringing their doodels to life, Drawn to Life is a flawed and shallow affair.
Such is the case with the new Nintendo DS game, Drawn to Life.
Drawn to Life has an interesting backstory and executes the beginning well, but within an hour gamers may realize that this game isn't exactly targeted for the college aged demographic. Silliness and fluffy dialogue is abound, which isn't necessarily a bad thing if you're the young at heart type, but players looking for a slightly more serious adventure need look elsewhere.
As the game begins, players are given the option to create their character either completely freehand, putting pieces of pre-designed templates together, or tracing over the templates with the Nintendo DS' touch sensitive screen and stylus. If talented in actually using the DS' screen to draw, an infinite source of characters are at your disposable with the available drawing tools, but if drawing isn't exactly your forte, big green blobs can get the job done just as well.
With main character drawn, the game finally begins and players are tossed into a desperate world in need of saving from evil shadow creatures, but don't worry, you know the whole hero bit.
The main aim of the game is controlling your created character in various 2d platforming levels in search of kidnapped town members and shadow residue to destroy. Every so often the level requires players to put their creative minds to use again in order to draw something in the level that will further your characters progress. This can be something as simple as a moving platform, or something as intricate as the weapon you'll use throughout the area.
Players can really go all out as the coloring book-esque game will accept all ideas drawn, meaning the game is more than often as mature and adult oriented as the player wants it to be.
The problem that inevitably cripples the game is that the gameplay is incredibly boring. The level design is simplistic, the enemies are a joke, and the controls feel like they could use a slight tune-up. Customization may be the game's selling point, but when the fun characters and ideas that you create aren't nearly as fun to control and interact with, the game suffers from it.
Maybe it's because Drawn to Life is geared towards a younger audience or maybe it's just bad development, but either way the game is very difficult to refer to others looking for a fun and creative time. Despite all the hard work and time put into a handful of really neat ideas for customization options, the main elements of a game, such as level design and controls, should always take priority over a gimmick in order to create an acceptable adventure game.