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By Anthony Swinnich on November 25th, 2007
"The developers spent more time designing the drawing interface than the actual game."
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Drawn to Life comes off on paper as a killer-app for the Nintendo DS. Drawing your own character seems like a pretty unique way to use the touch-screen. Theoretically, it should allow you to connect with him or her on a more personal level since you’re "the Creator." The problem lies in its execution, however, as the game fails to provide a solid identity for either itself or your character.
Drawn to Life is a platformer, first and foremost. You’ll take your hand-drawn character on a trip through 15 stages in the magical land of [player-chooses-name-here]. There are four worlds with four levels each with a different gameplay hook, sans one in the last world to make room for the final boss. The first world uses double-jumping to navigate its snowy terrain; the second uses triple-jumping and gliding in a solemn forest. The third uses swimming in (you guessed it) a beach stage, and the fourth uses a giant-sized character with single-jump capabilities while stomping all over a tiny city. The platforming is the meat and potatoes of Drawn to Life, but it’s pretty basic stuff. The level design is extremely straightforward, and even marginally curious gamers will find the pages of the "Book of Life," villagers, and three hidden secrets in each stage with little to no effort. Jumping on enemies or shooting them with your gun is also a basic and tiring affair, since the enemies do nothing but move from side to side or fly towards you. You’re asked to draw certain pieces of the set on the touch-screen as you progress, like clouds for jumping to higher areas, or rocket ships to fly around in. While drawing these objects is fun at first, most gamers will probably just make use of the "fill" tool and solidly color everything towards the end. Sadly, it feels like the developers used the "fill" tool to design the levels, and spent more time designing the drawing interface than the actual game.
"The action is bland and there is too much fluff..."
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Even though they’re basic, the platforming stages are the main attraction and are probably what most interested gamers want to play. Why then, in God’s name, is there a silly RPG-style town with goofy fetch quests bogging the flow of the action down? I get it: They were going for an Actraiser vibe; you are God the Creator after all. The game tries it’s hardest to get you to connect with the village by having you save three inhabitants a level, or find and color buildings by putting together the pieces of the Book of Life, but it quickly becomes tedious. Saving villagers only means it’s fetch quest time when you get back to the village. It progresses as follows: Find a specific villager on the farthest side of the village, then go back to where you started in the first place. It also has you color some houses, draw some crops, or clear clouds blocking their homes away, but it only ends up keeping you from what you want: the platforming. While Drawn to Life can bring out the creativity in gamers, it did nothing to showcase the creativity of its designers. The action is bland and there is too much fluff keeping people from the main style of gameplay. Curious gamers will find a playable title and a fairly competent drawing interface, but a fair amount of tedium as well. | 
