A refreshing game with a great 'draw.'
Drawn to Life is, to put it rather simply, a wonderful, refreshing game for the Nintendo DS. It has one of the most creative ideas rarely seen in many of today's games - the opportunity to create.
The game's plot is this: In a village which has been all but deserted, and is covered in darkness. This is because a character name Wilfore has turned to darkness, stole the Book of Life (which contained many of the village's items - the moon, the sun, lighthouses, and so on), and tore out many of it's pages. However, a small Raposa (the game's characters) called out to the Creator (you) for help. In response, you breathe life into a puppet, which becomes the template for your created and controlled character. From there, your character goes to fight the darkness and restore the village.
There are a few parts to the gameplay. First is the action. It's pretty standard, as your character jumps on, kicks, shoots his gun (which fires snowballs, acorns, or starfish), or swings a mighty sword. You'll notice similarities to most of the bigger platformers/adventure games - early Mario, Zelda, Ghosts and Goblins - but the system is integrated well, and there are very little flaws with it.
The other part is the creation itself. Other than your hero, you'll have plenty of other opportunities to design or color in objects. In fact, most of the things that you'll retrieve, you'll design. Just about any color or creation you want. For example, my characters were Nicholas D. Wolfwood from Trigun, Van of the Dawn from Gun X Sword, and Rock Lee from Naruto. So, many of the things I designed had something to do with them - a statue that looks like Vash the Stampede, a sword that looks like the Cross Punisher Wolfwood uses, a gun that resembles a thumbs up (a symbol of Lee and his sensei, Guy), and so on.
Now, does this game have faults? Of course! This game is rated "E" for everyone, but some of the bosses might be hard for younger children. For experienced players, the bosses may be too formulatic, and simplistic. The plot could be a little better, and once in a while, some of your drawings are restrained by the space available. Also, there isn't a lot of replay value, unless you feel like taking several different characters through the game. If you are an experienced gamer, you may run through the game in less than 10 hours (unless you put effort into your drawings, which will bring out the length of the game).
Regardless of faults, this game is a worthwhile buy for anyone and everyone, regardless of age or artistic ability (for the record, I have none). It is very easy to get 'drawn' into the plot, and the creation aspects of the game. So, if you're looking for a fun DS game, Drawn to Life is right up your alley.
See? There's that pun again...I need to stop that.