Kirby And The Rainbow Paintbrush

Wii U

HAL Laboratory’s star character has blossomed into one of Nintendo’s most valuable secondstringers of late. Last year’s Triple Deluxe offered perhaps the most persuasive example to date of Kirby’s familiar métier – in other words, easy but dependably enjoyable sidescrolling platformers – while his late Wii U arrival provides a reminder that he’s at his best when moulded into new forms. In Rainbow Paintbrush (AKA Rainbow Curse), Kirby has been reimagined as a rolling ball in a land constructed entirely from modelling clay, and the result is one of Nintendo’s most irresistibly tactile game worlds since the puffball’s own Epic Yarn.

Rainbow Paintbrush’s aesthetic is realised with astonishing consistency, right down to an absence of uniformity in its shapes. Blocks and platforms are never quite square, with spherical objects a clumsy thumb press away from being perfectly round. Coupled with the charmingly primitive level transitions and the staccato movement of stop-motion-style animations, this is a rare game where the visual inconsistencies are something at which to marvel rather than moan.

It’s a game that feels handcrafted, and not simply because of the visible fingerprints and imperfections. Every level here is a bespoke design. So little is copied and pasted that you begin to imagine every piece being pressed into place by human hands, as if HAL built each individual section out of Plasticine and scanned it in. There’s an uncharacteristic refusal to reuse ideas, too, with the exception of returning bosses, but each of these is at least presented differently in its second incarnation and may also require new tactics to defeat.

First, however, you’ll need to master the unorthodox control scheme, though those who have played the decade-old Power Paintbrush will have an advantage. Daringly, HAL has opted to remove Kirby’s copy abilities altogether, focusing exclusively on its versatile stylus-powered system. There’s a winning purity to the design – from start to finish, you’re drawing lines, but they all have different functions. The rainbowcoloured rope that you produce with every stroke could be a method of conveyance, a protective barrier, or a platform to cushion a fall. An upwards swipe produces a travelator, while a swift corrective strikethrough cancels an unwanted platform. During one stage, it’s a surrogate umbrella, preventing Kirby being drenched by waterfall; later on, it’s used to halt deadly volcanic cascades.

Almost every level has a fresh gimmick to vary the pace. Auto-scrolling stages demand you carefully manage your limited supply of rope, the gauge only refilling when you touch down. As a tank, you’ve not only got to aim your turret towards airborne enemies, but must keep a solid surface underneath your tracks. When Kirby transforms into a submarine, you’ll use the rope to guide automatically fired torpedoes to obstacles and enemies. An ascent into the clouds requires upward momentum and a safety net below; on an underwater dive, you’ll hasten Kirby’s descent and prevent him floating up into spiked hazards. There’s even a spot of cartography late on as you map out a route around triggers in order to open up an escape route from a timed explosive. Another stage splits Kirby in two, and while the idea of one character hitting buttons to open gates for another is hardly new, guiding both with your stylus becomes quite the plate-spinning act.

By then, the clumsy, frantic swipes of the early hours will be forgotten and boss battles become something close to a dance as you skilfully juggle Kirby, guiding him out of harm’s way with delicate arcs, plus a tap here and there to chivvy him along the paths you’ve drawn. You’ll need to rely on brute force sometimes, however: accumulate 100 stars and Kirby’s super ability can be charged up with a sustained press, which results in him careening about onscreen, smashing hitherto impenetrable barriers that are often protecting treasures or health-replenishing Maxim Tomatoes. The former, along with the storybook pages that can be collected at the end of stages from a rotating roulette wheel – and you’d be surprised how easy these are to miss with a single careless line – are your incentive to revisit levels. Each chest contains a clay model or piece of music, which can be viewed or listened to from the menu. It’s a real treat to examine the craftsmanship of the models in detailed close-up, while the soundtrack is one of Kirby’s best to date, with remixes of favourites from past outings alongside upbeat new themes. Beyond that, more than 40 challenge rooms extend the runtime past two good afternoons’ worth of play. The difficulty of the story mode may be a notch higher than we expect from Kirby, but here is where HAL’s designers really bare their teeth. These stern examinations of dexterity and mental agility are entirely in keeping with its publisher’s recent form; following the likes of Nintendo Land and New Super Mario Bros U, these are further proof of Nintendo’s willingness to embrace its arcade heritage. Each quick-fire challenge here is over in a minute, but it’ll take a good while longer to earn gold. It’s an ego-bruising riposte to anyone who’s ever claimed Kirby games are too easy.

Still, Rainbow Paintbrush is a game that could only really work on 3DS, which brings us to an intractable problem: it’s a Wii U game. The Claymation style looks good in soft focus on the GamePad display, but there’s no denying that onlookers or supporting players are getting a better view of its vibrant worlds. It’s the one serious flaw in a game that’s refreshingly flab-free, an adventure that has the sense to end before it runs out of ideas. Still, should Nintendo’s experiments with smaller, mid-priced games keep producing such handsome results, then long may they continue.

It’s a real treat to examine the craftsmanship of the models in close-up, while the soundtrack is one of Kirby’s best to date