The Nintendo DS is a very interesting platform in terms of its software lineup. You have Nintendo's first party games which are always amazing, you have the 3rd party titles which can be hit or miss, but then it starts to get interesting. Amidst the heaps of shovelware that plagued Nintendo during their DS / Wii era, the DS actually got a surprising amount of hidden gems, so many in fact that it almost seems like there is a second layer of hidden gems beneath the already exposed hidden gems, and thats where Im going today. For my first review of the Obscure Game Review, i am going to review 2 games from the Nintendo DS that are, and I have to admit this to myself, my favorite games of all time. Without further introduction, here I go.
Game: Drawn to Life
Platform: Nintendo DS
Year: 2007
Developer: 5th Cell
Genre: 2D Platformer
SPOILER WARNING - These games are best experienced blind
When I was a kid and first saw TV commercials for Drawn to Life, it looked cool. It marketed itself as a game where you could draw your own character on the touch screen and then play through the game as that character. It seemed simple enough....
When you first start playing Drawn to Life you immediately get to the exposition. The world of the game is inhabited by small fox-people called Raposa, and the world itself was created by an all-powerful god named The Creator (which is sort of you, but its hard to explain) by drawing everything in the Book of Life. Originally everything was peaceful until one day black ink monsters started appearing and began covering the world in darkness. Slowly everything drawn in the Book of Life began to fade away, including the sky, sun, moon, and even time itself. The Creator vanished leaving everyone with no nope, and slowly all the Raposa left the village (where the game takes place) looking for hope elsewhere, and never returned.
Then the game actually starts with the village in its current state. Everyone except the Mayor, his daughter Mari, and her friend Jowee have left. Mari tries using the Book of Life to talk to the Creator despite being absent for so long, and he responds, promising to help restore the world. She runs off to tell her dad, but he doesnt believe her. The creator then speaks to Mari, and now to Jowee, telling them to go to the Creation Hall. They find a mannequin which the Creator then transforms into a hero (this is where you get to draw your own character) and tells them that the hero will rescue the villagers and restore the world.
From then on the game features 2D platforming levels. In each level, you must look for three villagers who have been captured by the darkness and find pages that have been torn from the book of life so that the Creator can restore everything, all while battling through ink monsters amoungst over enemy types. The levels are fun to play through and will occasionally feature sections where you have to draw objects for the hero to use. It was primarily done to show off the touch screen of the DS, but it was still a fun new mechanic that other platformers just dont have. As you progress through the game you will make your way through four worlds, each with their own respective weapon. You start in a snow world where you fight with a snowball gun, then move to a forest where you get a gun that shoots exploding acorns as well as wings to help you fly. the next area is an underwater world where you are given a gun that shoots heat-seeking starfish and you are given scuba gear to breathe underwater. in the final world the hero eats a magic berry that causes them to grow 10x their normal size and you can just punch through everything. and through all of this, you draw what all of these weapons and objects look like. in the final level, you are given a sword to fight the last boss with, and you better believe you can design that sword to look like anything you want. if i remember correctly in my last playthrough i drew my hero the Monado from Xenoblade Chronicles.
between each level of the game you interact with each of the villagers you rescue in a top-down overworld, and this is where 99% of the actual story takes place. after each level, you see different Raposa characters return, each of them brimming with personality and life, well beyond what was needed for a game targeted at a younger demographic. you also get to meet Wilfre, the game's main antagonist. Wilfre use to be a regular villager, loved by everyone, and one day convinced the Mayor to give him the Book of Life to draw his own creations. He ended up drawing the black ink monsters and creating the darkness, even transforming himself into a half-Raposa half-Ink monster. throughout the game Wilfre will appear and torment the villagers, causing more trouble for you, the Mayor, Mari, and Jowee to deal with. i really do need to stress that each character is lovable in their own right, and it is amazing that the devs were able to make so many interesting characters to populate this game. you even end up rescuing several characters who werent even part of the village in the first place. Heather appears after the first boss level and is a young girl who has half of her face covered in darkness and she also never talks. then you meet Mike, who is a human, which would normally not seem like a big deal except humans arent even supposed to exist in this world. and i could go on for hours about each character but that would be far too long.
at the end of the game, the main cast has gathered everything they need to stop Wilfre. the Book of Life is complete again, the hero has the sword to fight Wilfre, and the path to his castle as been restored. the Mayor has one final wish though. in the Book of Life there is a final page where each Mayor signs their name to preserve their legacy to the village. the Mayor never got to because of the darkness, so he asks the hero to go find the last page. the hero returns with the page, only to find that the Mayor has been murdered and the Book of Life has been stolen by Wilfre. after finding him dead in the woods, the entire village begins to disappear. with quite literally no time left, the hero then goes to battle Wilfre, killing him, and restoring the world, leaving Mari as the new mayor of the village. (they might have gone a bit dark for kid's game)
this game is phenomenal, and also dirt cheap. due to its practically non-existent fanbase and minimal people knowing about it, the game can be found going for around $3 - $5 at your local used game store. the game is beautifully designed, has an amazing story, great characters, and is perfect for kids pr anyone just looking to have a good time. the game takes around 10 - 20 hours to complete (or more if you really want to go balls to the wall with drawing everything) and i have played through it about ten times, each as enjoyable as the last.
The hidden gem hidden beneath the other hidden gems - 10 / 10
BUT it doesnt end there, because the second game i mentioned at the beginning is this game's sequel, Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter, which being made a sequel to a game little people knew about only makes it even more obsure. and since this review is long enough, i will instead have to split it into two. i'll probably have the second one done by the end of January
