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Drawn to Life was one of the more innovative games to come to the DS in recent years. With it, players didn't just run through a platformer world, instead they got to help create it. Throughout the game, they were asked to take out their stylus and draw the objects that would be seen in the levels. Well, THQ is putting out Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter, but not just for the DS, you will also get to use the Wii-mote to scribble your character and world.
The Next Chapter offers a bigger and more complete drawing system than the previous game, but it seems to do a good job keeping things simple enough that any player can pick up their remote or stylus and sketch out a character to play with. But that isn't all, during levels, players will have to create objects called Action Drawings. Unlike previous drawings that forced you into an editor and then simply became a part of the background, these are drawn in the world itself and will change the way you interact with the level.
There are three types of Action Drawings: Sticky, Object and Character Attachments. Sticky Drawings keep your pen within a box, and stay where you put them. In the demo, I needed to get to an area that was too far to jump. The box in the area between me and my destination told me that I could perform a Sticky Action Drawing there, so a simple line became a ramp for me to walk across. In another location, I was faced with a giant enemy, something I couldn't hope to take on myself. But the Object Action Drawing area there allowed me to create a giant circle that, when complete, fell from the sky and rolled over my foe. The last type wasn't available in my demo, but I was told it would allow players to add things to your character like wings that allowed me to triple jump instead of my standard double.
The character creation screen seems to have had some enhancements as well. Not only can you create body parts of any shape and size (within the confines of the drawing areas, of course), but you can pull the different body parts together and hook them to the body in different ways to make a character that is exactly like you want him. The demo team showed me how to make an unusually small character that would be harder to hit. First, all of the body parts, the arms, legs, torso and head, were created significantly smaller than the available drawing area. Then, they selected the yellow dot on the edge of each drawing area and pulled it to where they wanted the body part to connect with the torso. This means that the gap between the edge of the arm and the drawing area, as well as the edge of the torso and its drawing area, were made non-existent and in the end, the character was significantly smaller than normal. It seems that this means you could also attach those body parts in slightly different areas as well so that you can come up with some really odd looking characters.
Whether you've played the first game or not, Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter is sure to be an interesting title that will spark some interesting puzzles, not to mention the imagination of players of all ages. |
