I just dunno, I tell you people about the incoming spoilers
yet you still complain about them! Or did I forget the warning in the last
review…

Now if you remember my comics, I have my buddy Jowee, the
raposa. You probably wonder what the heck a raposa is supposed to be.
Weeeeeeell it’s Portuguese… for fox. Figures. Raposa in this case, however,
belong to an under-rated disrespected series, one that brought me into the
realization of what video games can be. Adventures, stories, and you craft them
yourself. This game had all these and they all rocked, so here’s one of my
beloved video games lost into time, Drawn to Life.

Now we first begin with an interactive story book. Long ago
there was nothing but a being known as the creator, and the creator used his
power to make the book of life. With the book, he drew everything in the world.
The planet, it’s forests, and even it’s inhabitants the raposa. You even get to
draw the things if you want, yet they won’t carry on into the game yet. Good
thing too, cause first time players don’t know what the heck a raposa is
supposed to be. (BTW it’s pronounced ra-poo-sa, lot’s of things are hard to
pronounce, I only recently pronounced Jowee joe-wee instead of jao-wee) Now the
story book ends where it says that the creator left, darkness came in, and there’s
no more hope. Then we hear the prayers of a girl named Mari, who asks for you
to return and help. You even have the option to say no, and restart the game. Well
say yes, and Mari goes to get the remaining villagers to the creation hall.
First she gets her best friend JOWEE I love this guy.

Then you see as the mayor tries convincing shop keeper Isaac from leaving,
because they want to look for their daughter Cindi. Well Isaac and his wife
leave, and before the mayor follows Mari tries convincing him the creator
returned. But he ignores her, tells her to get a grip on reality, and leaves.
So she heads back to the hall, with only her and Jowee. And here’s where we see
the main game mechanic, as they enter the creator (you) draws a hero and
transforms a mannequin. Yes, in this game not only can you draw your own hero,
but you design equipment, town objects, and game mechanics. And the only limit
is really the size of the drawing, they say draw a cloud as a platform, you can
draw a jet propelled platform or a dragon or whatever.

And there is only one
company that can make a game with this much creativity, one that has since lost
their magic…

Well anyways, you find out that Cindi was, the entire time,
playing hide-and-seek in town. Upon trying to leave the entrance of the
village, a dark, shadow covered raposa stops you, insulting you all and closing
the entrance with darkness. It seems you now can’t leave, but fortunately there
are world gates in the village to transport you across the planet. Now you
begin the tutorial in the snow fields teaching you how to play. The levels are
side-scrollers, and you can jump on and push enemies in your way. In each level
there’s a special gimmick you create to get through to the end. The main
enemies are local wildlife, shadow monsters, and the local pests called, you’ll
get a kick out of this… BAKI’S. Let me make this clear, the goomba-like furry
bears without arms are called baki’s. Yep, I already love this game, they used
baka since 2007. Now back to the game, in each level there are 4 pieces of a page
and 3 villagers you must find, otherwise you can’t progress. After you find the
Mayor you return, only for Cindi to go through the gate to find her parents.
The Mayor found a page torn from the book of life, carrying a template for a
snow-shooter. You use this to shoot at enemies if you want to.

After you save Isaac and his family, you ask him who the
mysterious raposa was who had control over the shadow covering most of the
town. He explains that the man, Wilfre (say that however you want, I really don’t
care at this point) was long ago a well-respected member of the community. He
questioned once how come they weren’t allowed to draw in the book of life like
the creator. He believed he could draw things better than the creator, but when
he stole the book and drew in the pages they came out as shadow monsters. As
the other raposa realized what happened they chased after Wilfre, who, in a
rage, tore up a large portion of the book of life, and then escaped. The
creator, devastated by what happened, left the raposa on their own and sealed
the creation hall until now. As time went by, things like the sky, buildings, and
time itself, all faded away, and it seems Wilfre gained control of the shadow
he unleashed to cover the village.

Now the only thing to counter the darkness is the eternal
flame, and fortunately what other page would you find in level one? You are
given a template to color in, and you create the flame again. Now that’s how
the game goes, use the flame to destroy darkness, save the raposa, restore the
book of life, and defeat Wilfre’s army. But there are many things to happen
later on… like for instance *get’s shot*

INTERMISSION

Fine… I won’t spoil the story…… BUT HOW CAN I EXPLAIN THE
EVENTS THAT OCCUR!? I MUST EXPLAIN!!! T^T

Well remember, as the village develops many events occur.
There are snowball fights, festivals, and other situations that occur. Also
there are some key villagers you rescue who all play important roles. All in
all, it’s a simple game, but tons of fun and depth. Also there are 4 worlds to
play through, the first snow world with only your snow shooter, a forest where
you gain wings and an exploding acorn launcher, the accursed water levels with
swimming underwater and homing starfish, and the city, where you gain extreme
size and rampage through the town. In each world there’s a boss controlled by
Wilfre who he uses to threaten the village. Some are hard, some can be easy,
all are pretty cool. The first one is a dragon, the second a mechanic tree, the
third a giant fish, the fourth a giant scorpion.

Now in terms of our main characters, Mari is stressed with a
new responsibility, soon she becomes the new mayor. Often she tries learning
how to resolve conflicts and do other mayoral duties, but she doesn’t feel like
she’s up for the job. Jowee is constantly bugging you to join you in the
levels, but he’s given another responsibility himself. After you beat the first
boss you rescue a weird raposa named Heather. She’s half covered by shadow and
doesn’t speak, and since she seems to like Jowee he now needs to take care of
her. Jowee also likes looking for treasure and impressing Mari, hey, it’s VG
rules to hook up with your childhood friend of the opposite gender after
conflict arises. Also it seems Wilfre wants to stop you from going against him a
lot, as he must know your power. Other than trying to roadblock you, he sends
the bosses specifically to kill you so he doesn’t have to fight, and will even
try convincing you to stop helping the raposa. Sometimes you as a player might
even get sick of helping these rabbit people all the time as well, some pages
you restore are for things like statues and palm trees and… ugh… beach
equipment. They don’t really treat you as special either, rather thanking the
creator for making you rather than you yourself.

Now like I said, many gimmicks occur. Some levels you slide
or surf through a destination, others you control a helicopter or submarine. There’s
even a level where you get in a rocket and go to space! The enemies are also
unique, and there are often hidden areas and secrets, as well as the task of
erasing all the shadow goo in an area. You also collect lots of coins to buy
from Isaac’s shop, unlocking hero templates, stamps, color palettes, and
special moves to help you defeat enemies smoother. You can also throw coins
into a well, unlocking bonuses like extra lives and eventually a special bonus
after depositing 10000 coins.

Now that I’ve gone over the gist of it, here’s
the rating. Not recap. I had complaints I don’t address my score even after
discussing the categories and once I called them recaps I got complaints when I
forgot to mention graphics BEFORE a recap. Jesus, I’ll never satisfy you people…

The graphics look cool, they are all somewhat pixelated and
well animated. Everything looks great, from the drawings, to enemies, to the
raposa. Did I mention raposa are adowubs? :3 I give it a 9.
The music is also great, as the stages sound very fitting to
the level. The music seems to be like snes music, with occasional use of
chiptunes along with ds music capabilities. The boss fights also sound awesome.
Now there’s a reason I gave it a 9… but you have to play through the game to
find out…
The game actually isn’t quite as addicting, once you do
everything there isn’t much driving force to keep going. Lowest score here, 5.
The story? TEN TEN TEN!!! We got a great building story,
well-connected events, and great backstory. The beginning, middle parts, and
ending are all amazingly crafted, and again... done by what used to be my
favorite game company until recent years…
There’s many unlockables as well as large levels. There’s a
lot put into this game, and you should see it for yourself. 7
The game is easy in some parts, but takes some practicing
later on. But it’s a good curve, they don’t just drop you in a warzone or
anything like that. The last level has very challenging enemies, platforming,
and a tough as nails boss. 6

And this was DTL, now you may be wondering, “This sounds
great for todays systems! Drawing on the Wii-U! 3D art! Why haven’t I heard of
this already? Well, to be honest there was a sequel to this game and people
think the climax of that was why we can’t have another Drawn to Life game ever
again. But I believe they could make that game if they can pull it off.
However, there were some bad parts to come out of this franchise… I’ll go over
2 other games another day, but here’s why I hate Nickelodeon.



Utter… bull crap.

Whether it’s a good game I don’t know, but it shows the
turning point of the company. Soon, they wouldn’t care about making an in depth
game, they would just be in it for the money. They USED to praise this game as
well. In fact, a future game, Loc’s Quest, even had “from the makers of Drawn
to Life” on the cover! I miss their work, as of today they have unmemorable
franchises and they still uphold only ONE good game from their past, but it isn’t
fun anymore. Here’s a hint on what the franchise was like. The first game had
very well thought out levels that tested the limits of your creativity. It had
makers of Drawn to Life all over it. The second game added much more
creativity, but the levels were weaker than before. However, it was still a
huge hit, and when their 3rd game was made it was on the Wii-U and
the 3DS. The levels were all very simple and not very thought provoking. But it
was a hit nonetheless, which led to their 4th installment. It was made
supporting a franchise people love, and while the game was terrible compared to
the others it had the appeal of comic fans all over. Yes, DC comics. This is
how Scribblenauts fell to such low points, and 5th Cell cared about
nothing more than making money…

Very interesting. I started reading this, and I thought it was a walkthrough. XD

Reading this review, this game sounds like a game that I would hate, yet love to play. I like the way you described the story; it makes it sound very interesting. However... I hate drawing, so I would probably have a love-hate relationship with this game. 

This also sounds like something my sister would like, so I might have to recommend this to her the next time I see her.

   Besides the part that jumped to the Scribblenauts series, this was an interesting review. You reviewed it in a way that kind of like thing said, more of a walkthrough before really reviewing the game itself. I enjoyed it, and I think you did it pretty well. I like to see different writing styles here, and although, to be honest, this might not be my favorite, it's refreshing to see.

   As for the game, I had mixed feelings on it. I felt like I should have loved it, and at first, I really did. Making things was fun, although the extra power of the 3ds would help to reduce the crazy amount of pixelation the game has. But I personally never felt like the levels were all that fun or interesting on their own. But to each their own, I guess.

Trust me, the scriiblenauts rant WILL be relevant as I make future dealeo's on the series. as for dealeo's they're my excuse to make walkthroughy reviews