Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush Review

I’ve really been enjoying the fact that Kirby has become almost a bit of an experiment for Nintendo in recent years. Mass Attack remains my favourite experiment – answering the question of how well Kirby would do if he was a gang of violent vigilantes. Epic Yarn was equally as impressive in the way that it managed to incorporate its unique aesthetic into its gameplay. Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush is the latest offering for Wii U, and while it builds upon the elements established in Canvas Curse, it does do a few things a little bit differently. But it definitely wears its budget price point on it’s sleeve.

Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush begins almost like any Kirby game does. Kirby is innocently going about his daily life, eating an apple, but he drops it down a hill. Kirby chases after it, and while distracted fails to notice a hole growing in the sky above Planet Popstar. The hole shoots out rays of light that drain the world of its colour, turning both Kirby and Waddle Dee into colourless clay. A weird paint brush looking girl named Elline recolours Kirby and Waddle Dee and asks them to help her out and draws a rainbow rope for the duo. Being the cool dudes they are, Kirby and Waddle Dee set off on an adventure to help out the new realm of Seventopia. Yeah, it’s a typical Kirby storyline and it most certainly isn’t going to garner any key recognition for its narrative prowess either.

If you’ve played Canvas Curse, you’ve probably got an idea of how Rainbow Paintbrush would play. Kirby is controlled entirely with the stylus on the Wii U GamePad. Tapping him will initiate a “tap dash” which can take down enemies or increase Kirby’s speed. Drawing on the environment will create rainbow ropes, which can be used to guide Kirby himself or interact with the environment to build a suitable path for Kirby. Flowing lava? Use a rainbow rope to block it off and let Kirby safely cross. It’s a simple system that works really well and if you play smartly you’ll be able to create long and satisfying paths with the stylus.

Thankfully Kirby has a few more tricks up his sleeve. The dash attack can be charged to increase Kirby’s size and create a more devastating move that can destroy certain areas of the environment too. Other transformations are available intermittently throughout the game including a submarine that shoots torpedoes that can be guided using the rainbow ropes. Each transformation utilises similar mechanics to the rainbow ropes and stylus but in different ways. However, none of them feel like they’re utilised enough to really remain memorable, which is unfortunate.

One of the biggest issues with Kirby’s last outing was the game’s difficulty, and while that’s slightly been remedied here it’s quite rare for players to get stuck on Rainbow Paintbrush. The puzzles themselves are quite clever, some even ingenious, and utilise the rainbow rope and Kirby’s dash moves rather well. You can create barriers against hazards, as we previously mentioned, or even trip switches and shift objects. Specially selected amiibo can also be used to buff Kirby’s repertoire and make the game even easier but oddly are locked and can only be used once per day.

But the game is clearly geared towards a younger audience and there’s rarely moments where you’ll legitimately get stuck ala Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. There’s even apparently an option to skip a level if you die enough, one which never appeared to us on our initial playthrough. The rainbow ropes are tied to a finite meter that depletes over time, which feels like a way to almost “limit” the player and add a strategic element, but it’s a rare occasion that we ran out of metre and had to rethink our approach. Essentially – it’s rather haphazard and clearly built for a younger audience.

Rainbow Paintbrush is a game that wears its budget on its sleeve – there are boss battles that feel much more fleshed out than Canvas Curse did but at the same time these boss characters are reused throughout the adventure albeit with slight adjustments. It’s a step forward but towards the end of the game it ultimately feels like a bit of a half step. Sure, it costs less, but it can be a bit deflating to get to the end of a new set of levels and fight a familiar face. To their credit, however, the strategies are different. It just becomes more of a reusing of assets rather than entire scenarios.

Rainbow Paintbrush’s biggest benefit is easily its biggest downfall too – and that’s its reliance on the Wii U GamePad. On one hand, the real estate the Wii U GamePad provides gives players a more generous area to play around in as opposed to the Nintendo DS. On the other hand, it means that for the most part the game’s beautiful clay motif can only be enjoyed on its screen rather than on more impressive display. No matter how hard we tried to rationalise this by attempting to draw on the GamePad while looking at our television, it was incredibly hard and we resigned to playing solely on the GamePad instead.

Those who play along with Kirby will be given more of an opportunity to appreciate the visuals, however, as more players can jump in as Waddle Dees using more traditional platformer controls with the Wii Remote.  Waddle Dee can carry Kirby and clear the way for him in certain situations too, so it feels like the roles of both are unique and the player with the GamePad’s unique abilities really gets to shine too. It’s a nice touch that really didn’t have to be added, but thankfully it was and gives a little bit more replayability to the experience.

Other modes do attempt to lengthen the experience, of which most players will casually roll through in four to five hours. Challenge Mode presents bite-sized pieces of gameplay in which players must quickly get to a treasure chest within a short time limit. There’s 200 levels on offer here, so it offers some short and sweet bursts when you can’t be bothered jumping into the fuller levels of the main Story Mode. Completionists will enjoy rolling through levels and finding hidden chests and unlocking figurines to view and collect too, but your mileage may vary as to whether or not you’d consider it “worth it” to find everything.

Rainbow Paintbrush is a fantastic looking game, to the point where it looks uncannily realistic at times. There’s visible finger marks and nail marks in some segments of the clay, and the enemies and Kirby himself pop out really well to the point where you’d almost swear they’re three dimensional. The game is crisp and filled to the brim with vibrant colours. So, it’s a typical Kirby game. But where Epic Yarn incorporated its unique visuals into gameplay, the clay motif in Rainbow Paintbrush is purely cosmetic and doesn’t factor into the game mechanics at all. There are also some cut scenes that flesh out the story between levels that play out like children’s storybooks or cartoons, but ultimately feel a little bit flat.