Kirby and the Rainbow Curse was announced exclusively for Wii U by Nintendo at E3 2014 during their digital Press Conference, and was a surprise title that came out of no where. The upcoming platformer is due sometime in 2015.
Check out the official Kirby And the Rainbow Curse E3 2014 Gameplay Trailer.
Kirby And the Rainbow Curse is an all-new sequel to the oft-forgotten [editors note: but totally awesome] 2005 DS title known as “Kirby: Canvas Curse” (also called “Kirby: Power Paintbrush” in Europe or “Touch! Kirby!” in Japan).
Original Nintendo DS titles like Kirby: Canvas Curse, along with Yoshi’s Touch & Go and Elite Beat Agents, went far in convincing the masses of why a touchscreen could be a very cool game mechanic that opens-up all-sorts of new gameplay possibilities… Back before touchscreens were a known quantity in heavy use in the industry (before smartphones & tablets hit the scene).
To that end, Kirby And the Rainbow Curse employs the same touch-screen exclusive control mechanics as seen in Kirby: Canvas Curse, bringing all kinds of fun touch-based gameplay to the table.
In both titles, the player must draw on the screen to create platforms, to push Kirby in certain directions, and to essentially guide Ball Kirby through the game’s many levels. This time players do so with the Wii U GamePad as opposed to the DS’ touchscreen.
As before, players use rainbow colored ink to guide the ball-shaped Kirby through obstacle infested levels towards the end-world bosses, while collecting medals, defeating enemies, and avoiding hazards. Kirby is exclusively controlled by the GamePad’s touchscreen, you must use ink to draw platforms that automatically roll him forward, allowing players to create loops, bridges, paths, platforms, or erecting walls to protect Kirby from incoming enemy projectiles.
The ink to create the paths goes away quicker if Kirby touches the ground, and platforms disappear quicker once another is placed, thus requiring quick timing, reflexes, and precision touching and swiping to guide Kirby without incident.
Tapping on Kirby meanwhile rockets him forward, and is one of the few ways you can offensively attack enemies. Attacking certain enemies allows Kirby to steal their power in typical Kirby fashion, and there are all-manner of fun Kirby powers to use throughout the game.
Here is a full 15 minutes of gameplay from Nintendo’s E3 2014 Treehouse Live event.
This time, Stars make up your health matter, kind of similar to the Yoshi games. If you get hit, Stars fly out of Kirby and lower the amount of Stars in his health meter. You can find Star Boxes that will refill your Stars, and when you have 100 Stars (a full health meter) Kirby will grow into massive size. This gives you the “Star Dash” ability, which allows Kirby to easily plow through enemies and special blocks with ease.
Instead of three medals hidden in each stage, there are now five hidden Treasure Chests to find. Like before, some of these will be very deviously hidden, so expect a major challenge when trying to collect them all.
As you can see from the videos above, Kirby And the Rainbow Curse looks like it plays exactly the same as Canvas Curse.
However this game features an amazing claymation graphical style to it that is very, very unique. Just like Yoshi’s Woolly World (also on Wii U), Kirby and the Rainbow Curse uses art-style to great effect to add some eye-popping visuals.
In the trailer you can see the player do some unique things with the drawing aspect, such as preventing rain from getting Kirby wet by drawing a ceiling above Kirby.
You can also see some of the awesome new powers Kirby will obtain, particularly the Tank! Which looks to me like Mech-Kirby! You also get glimpses of the more standard Rocket & Submarine Kirby’s. There are surely manner more powers and abilities Kirby will get in certain portions of the game. As always, these enemy powers are one feature Kirby fans look forward to most in a new Kirby title.
Here’s the Kirby And the Rainbow Curse image gallery.
Click on any of these image thumbnails to see the full-size photos:
Rant Incoming…
Overall Kirby And the Rainbow Curse looks like another very fine addition to the Wii U family. Some people question why this isn’t a 3DS title, and that’s a valid point. But the graphical power of the Wii U allows for beautiful clay visuals that may not have been possible on the 3DS. Also, Wii U owners have been looking for more titles that make good use of the GamePad, and this is definitely one of them. Even if it looks to mostly use the GamePad as a touchscreen.
A great many people missed out on the excellent Kirby: Canvas Curse for DS, so I’m very happy to see Nintendo making a sequel for a console platform, where a lot more people will get their hands on it. However, it is a bit disappointing to see Nintendo relying so heavily on their mascots.
Nintendo recently released Yoshi’s New Island for 3DS, and is following that up a year later with Yoshi’s Woolly World for Wii U. Likewise, Nintendo just released Kirby Triple Deluxe for 3DS, and is now following that up a year later with Kirby And the Rainbow Curse.
Before this, Nintendo released Donkey Kong Country Returns for Wii and Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze for Wii U (granted, separated by four years. Which is a long time), and let us not get started on the newfound frequency of Mario releases.
However, even having said all of this, you can’t help but love Kirby And the Rainbow Curse. Nintendo always brings about amazing platformers with fantastic level-design, and this is surely to be no different. And that art style is a beautiful thing. Like Yoshi’s Woolly World, you just can’t hate on Kirby.
So I’m definitely excited to get my hands on Kirby And the Rainbow Curse, especially since I missed out on the DS title.
How excited are you about Kirby And the Raindow Curse? Did you also miss out on Kirby: Canvas Curse for DS?
[editors note: This is the 20,000th article on VGB! Yay! Suiting you made it about Kirby Josh, Nintendo rocks!]