Ivy the Kiwi?

[illdog]

The intro is about 10 seconds long, then its game time which is how it should be. But those 10 seconds make you faal in love with Ivy. Well i did.

Its frantic stuff, Ivy hurtles along pretty quickly whilst you fumble around trying to get used to stretching vines and stopping her falling to her peril. And thats about all you have to do, protect her from spikes and collect feathers. Ive only got to 3-1 and its introduced a new mechanic, stretching a vine and pinging Ivy into the air where she spins like Mario and can bash through certain types of blocks.

I dont think ive got to the end of a stage yet where i havent felt anything but relief that the levels over but not in a bad way, its just a fucking roller coaster. It can feel a bit harsh when you die, especially when you've got 9 out of the 10 feathers and then die, having to do the whole level again.

The graphics are really simple to match the game play but its all in a sepia like tone, its like playing and old Whinnie the Pooh book but its looks lovely. And its the first game in a while thats made me notice the soundtrack, especially Chapter 2's music which is fantastic, it has an RPG grandeur to it which makes you feel like your playing Final Fantasy or Ivy the Chocobo?

Impressed so far.

[DANGERMAN]

this is on my list to buy before christmas. Glad you're enjoying it

[illdog]

Im pretty sure you will too, its got that je ne saise quoi.

[Craymen Edge]

I played it a little at the MCM expo (DS version). I didn't like it very much.

Part of it was down to the constant movement thing, which put me off Lucidity too.

Unless I missed it, there didn't seem to be an easy way to get rid of any mistakenly placed vines other than drawing a couple more. Getting Ivy to jump also seemed a bit hit and miss.

[illdog]

Unless I missed it, there didn't seem to be an easy way to get rid of any mistakenly placed vines other than drawing a couple more.

Yea, thats an issue. You can only have three vines on the screen at one time and to eliminate the first in place you have to draw a fourth if you follow. There might be a magic solution hidden in the instruction booklet but who reads those?

[spatular]

got this on rental, started and sort of finished it today while watching tv, i quite enjoyed it.

there's some cool moves you can do when you get used to the controls, and it's a nice idea for a game but beyond drawing vines and pinging them nothing else really gets added to the gameplay.

there's 10 worlds, 5 levels each i think, then it ends but you can start again on the bonus levels, these are similar but harder/more obstacles and a key to find before you can get to the exit, i didn't finish these, got upto 7-3 where it was getting pretty frustrating and i'm not too bothered about getting any further.

It can feel a bit harsh when you die, especially when you've got 9 out of the 10 feathers and then die, having to do the whole level again.

i never really bothered trying to collect all the feathers but yeah some deaths seem unfair (not sure if it supports widescreen which might help with this?), there isn't much visibility when moving fast, you can hit enemies that were off screen without really having a chance to react.

i feel like i should have liked it more as it's nice to have something unique to play and if you're going for time trials, perfecting your run and collecting all the feathers, maybe the game comes to life?

[DANGERMAN]

I got this on the DS last week, my thinking was that it would work better with a touch screen a la Power Paintbrush. It's a bit temperamental as to where it draws the vines, particularly if you want to grab the vine to spring you. The enemies are a bit shit too, satisfying when you kill them but Ivy's hit box is bigger than she is so some of the deaths feel a bit harsh

That said in other ways it's perfect for a handheld, quick challenging levels, good pace to it. I'm sounding really negative about it but I actually really like it, it's just got one or two problems that stop it from being just about perfect.