Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter Review

Drawn to Life is a platforming game that's aimed at younger players. The game's unique twist is that you'll have to draw and create most of the items that you'll need to use in the game.

"Draw...on my TV" I hear you say...well, not quite, but the game does use the Wii remote's motion sensors as you draw in the air with your Wii remote controller.

So how well does the game capture your drawing movements, and does this make the game any more fun than a regular side-scrolling platformer?


Video Game Summary

This Game is Perfect For:

Children, Young Teenagers

Genre:

Platform

Number of Players:

1-2

Age Rating:

3

Online:

No

FUN Factor:

7

Nintendo Wii Explained Score:

7 What does this Nintendo Wii reviews score mean? (opens in a new window)

Game Summary:

You are the Creator of Raposa, having brought this world to life through a series of drawings called the "Book of Life". When the Book of Life and other items are stolen from Raposa by creatures of darkness, the Raposa residents ask you, the Creator, to send a hero to help them solve the mystery and rescue the Book of Life. As the Creator you'll get to draw your own hero and help him or her save Raposa by drawing items that you'll be able to use directly in the game.

There have been a few interesting uses of the Wii's motion sensor capabilities, the Wii Balance Board being one, but Drawn: The Next Chapter uses the Wii remote to create user generated content during the game. In Drawn to Life, you'll create your own content by drawing the main character and other items as you need them during the game.

In Drawn to Life you're known as the Creator, a father figure responsible for the creation of the Raposa world. The story of the creation of Raposa is known as The Book of Life, a highly valuable object for the people of Raposa.

When the Book of Life and other objects disappear, the Mayor of Raposa asks you, the Creator, to send a hero to search for the book.

To begin the game you'll create your hero, either by drawing free hand with the Wii remote or using one of the pre-set character templates. While it's tempting to want to draw your hero by hand, it's finicky and difficult to design something that looks even remotely presentable. The game's platforming gameplay is far more exciting than the drawing tools, and your temptation to draw will be quickly replaced by the desire to just play the game.

Even though drawing your own game world is supposed to be Drawn to Life's unique selling point, the time you have to spend away from actually playing the game is distracting and makes the game feel disjointed. Far more interesting though, is the short in-game puzzle solving you'll have to perform to progress through the levels.

Drawn to Life is a fairly generic platform game. You're trying to solve a mystery and find the villain, while making your way through a treacherous landscape jumping across platforms, knocking out enemies, and collecting coins and other artefacts as you go. The game's highlight though is creating your own platforms while you play.

You'll often have to cross an empty space with coins spread out at different heights, and a blank canvass for drawing your own platforms. It's a clever puzzle scenario that requires you to draw platforms very quickly, and without interrupting the game, in order to collect all the coins and get to the other end without dying. While cutting away from the game in order to draw items in the full drawing tool feels like a distraction that breaks up the flow of the game, having to work out the most suitably shaped platform and then actually drawing it in the game with the Wii remote control is satisfying. Executing these platforms is not particularly difficult for adults, but will engage younger players in some thought-provoking action.

The story is fairly basic as the Raposa characters send you on quests to find more clues, but the gaming levels are fun as long as you choose the pre-set templates in the main drawing tool and get back into the action as quickly as possible.

The main campaign is single player, although it does allow you store up to four different profiles, so friends and family can all play through the game too. In addition, the game includes basic 1 or 2-player mini-games in the form of soccer, basketball, ice hockey and volleyball. Beating the computer is pretty straight forward but these could be quite fun against another human player.

All told, Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter is a platforming game that's aimed squarely at younger gamers. While other games targeted towards younger players, like Mini Ninjas, hold enough charm to appeal to older gamers too, Drawn to Life is probably a little too basic for gamers over the age of 15.

If you're looking for something to keep the younger kids engaged, then this title may be worth a look, however, if you're looking for a game that appeals to different age groups, then Mini Ninjas may be more suitable.

Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter is available from Amazon, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon Canada, with Free Super Saver Delivery and speedy delivery times.


Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter and other great Wii games can all be found in the Game Reviews section.


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