Drawn to Life for Nintendo DS Reviews by Gamers

Who will save the town of the Raposa from oblivion? Why, whatever you create, of course.

The drawing mechanic is the main appeal of the game, allowing you to create a hero in your own image. Those who want to can select from a few pre-made heroes, if missing the point of the entire game is how you roll. The creation tools are no replacement for Photoshop. However, a steady and persistent hand can create a decent looking hero with enough time.

It's after you create this new hero when the problems of the game begin to show their heads. Drawn to Life, as a game is very repetitive. From the start of the game to its end, you can expect a standard formula of completing a stage, going to town and doing a laundry list of "run to X spot and talk to X, run to Y and talk to Y" tasks. Besides a shop, the creation center where you can edit your creations and the world gates, the town is a big expanse of nothing meant to break up your time between the stages.

This would be forgivable if the actual stages were entertaining. They are, until the chores and searching overpower the fun. Instead of the quick, focused, left to right stages as used by New Super Mario Bros. Drawn to Life's levels are a meandering affair, making you look around a maze like-stage for four magic pages and three missing Rapos to proceed. At times you will be tasked to draw and/or color items to help you along, this is fun at first but you will eventually find yourself just throwing anything together to get back into the game.

The game is not difficult, your challenge being finding the hidden things and tolerating the town overworld instead of besting your enemies. The bosses may take a few tries to best, but by the time you fight them you will have earned more than enough extra lives to out-luck them.

Drawn to Life is a game that will most likely appeal to kids looking for a simple, creative(ha) game. Gamers looking for deep and varied gameplay design need not waste a queue spot.