Drawn To Life: SpongeBob Squarepants (DS) Review
Drawn to Life: SpongBob Squarepants Edition is a capable follow-up to 2007s surprise hit, draw-it-yourself platform game, Drawn to Life. It easily manages to combine the madcap fun of the SpongeBob cartoon series with the smooth charm of the original game to come up with an experience that will certainly entertain fans of both. It features excellent stylised graphics that all fans of the cartoon will instantly recognise and some solid music that goes well with the onscreen action. There are some drawbacks that stop it from competing with the best of the 2D platforming games on the Nintendo DS, but overall Drawn to Life: SpongeBob Squarepants Edition easily stands out in the crowd of licensed games on the system.
The fantastically creative draw-your-own-character mechanic of the original Drawn to Life is back in this follow-up, and it surprisingly has been incorporated seamlessly into the storyline. The game is based on actual episodes of the cartoon series which feature an evil drawing named DoodleBob that comes to life and starts wreaking havoc in Bikini Bottom. The player must draw their own character to team up with the wacky inhabitants of the sea floor to fight DoodleBob and his minions. From then on the player is required to draw their own objects and items to help their creation through some admittedly generic 2D platforming stages.
Technically the game is outstanding, with smooth animation and great mechanics that make running around the different stages a joy. The game responds well to both the touchscreen and button input and everything has an all-round speedy feel. The quality of the gameplay mechanics are definitely up there with New Super Mario Bros. and other high-quality platforming games, but sadly this is let down by some rather uninspiring stage design. This is unfortunate because the lack of quality in the stage design means the player never really gets to explore the gameplay to its full extent.
The graphics and audio work well and stay mostly true to their source material. The SpongeBob world has a very distinct art style and that is recreated perfectly here with plenty of attention to detail in both the characters and backgrounds. The drawing interface is very flexible and allows for plenty of self-expression from the player. The drawings also survive the transition from editor to gameplay quite well and blend in with the surrounding scenery and characters with ease. The cutscenes are a little lacklustre, but dont take away from the overall experience too much. The music is light-hearted and entertaining and matches up nicely with the well crafted environments. Sadly there are no real voice-overs to speak of and that does take away from the experience considerably.
There is plenty of content for SpongeBob fans to enjoy and keen players will probably be happy to play though it a couple of times. A four player multiplayer mode is included, but sadly this is only via multi-card play. This is something that should not still be cropping up in DS games as it effectively kills any multiplayer potential that a title may have. Developers and publishers should be admonished for even considering this as acceptable this far into the DSs lifecycle. While not a gamebreaker by any means, developers need to be aware that creating a multi-card multiplayer game is generally a waste of valuable development time and resources. This is time and money that could have been better devoted to improving the quality of the single player experience. It can only be hoped that the reasoning behind the decision to only include multi-card multiplayer is a technical one, rather than a decision based on trying to force more sales to those wanting to play together.
Drawn to Life: SpongeBob Squarepants Edition is a decent 2D platforming game that uses both the original Drawn to Life concept, and the SpongeBob licence, to create an experience that should appeal to casual and hardcore audiences alike. While the stage design can be a little generic and uninspired, the game is really about the players ability to draw on their own creativity to directly influence the game world. One of the best things about the game is that both properties have been treated with the respect they deserve. The Drawn to Life property hasnt just been shoehorned into the SpongeBob world for the sake of making another licensed game and it shows in the overall quality of the final product. The technical aspects of the game are very solid and should form the basis for some interesting takes on the Drawn to Life formula in the future. Drawn to Life: SpongeBob Squarepants Edition certainly stands head and shoulders above all other licensed platforming games on the DS, but still struggles to match the quality of some of the big Nintendo-published titles.
