Hmm, well I finished up the main game with a few chests and gold medals still to obtain when I feel up to it.
I'm on the fence with this outing, it didn't really take me until in the later half of the game to truly have me click with the mechanical differences between this and the DS predecessor, I'm so used to the paint lines being like solid paths that the almost magnetic conveyor style of the ones here never felt quite right to me and probably played a hand in moments where I had Kirby trapped in corners and what not. That and dashing in water doesn't cause you to descend this time, another thing I had to wrestle with.
The foundations of the gameplay are still solid but it lacks that more kinetic dynamic of the original with less a focus on mastering your momentum with dashes and ramps, seeing as now a paint path just drags you along anyway.
The transformation sequences were a bit hit or miss, can't say I cared for the tank (and the gondola could be a right hassle at times while I'm at it) but I'm more accepting of the submarine and rocket, still I think I'd have preferred an Epic Yarn like approach to these pace changers where they finish off stages as opposed to taking up almost all of one seeing that the game lacks many stages in general.
Not that one shot attempts at collectables are uncommon in this series but it does feel at times that this entry in particular leveraged that angle for some shall we say replay value, like is there any reason the challenge doors should vanish if you fail? the first few seconds are spent quickly deciphering your actual task like it's a Wario Ware microgame so sometimes I didn't catch on until it was too late to finish up the task in time.
I do like that the standard star collectables count towards a medal, here you have that extra factor with the collectable combo mechanic which makes them more enticing to pick up, shame that the actual numbers needed for each stages medal rankings are kept hidden from the player though, an odd oversight.
At times I was reminded me why I enjoyed the path painting mechanic as much as I do in the first place, the game starts kicking into a stronger gear towards the end only to just end a bit too soon.
Looks great, sounds great, plays just okay, occasionally fiddly, maybe I just had higher hopes coming from Power Paintbrush, not to say I didn't enjoy the game, it just didn't expand on the original concept how I'd have liked, one dash forward with some ideas like the
but two dashes backwards on the whole.
If the DS game was a title that opened eyes up to the dual and touch screen nature of the DS and how you could harness those elements well then the Wii U here doesn't get the same benefit, just your TV taunting you with superior visuals to the point I just mostly stuck with off tv play to ignore the temptation of swapping back and forth between TV and Pad.
Music unlockables are a great set of throwbacks for those of us who've played the series over the years, glorious DL2 remixes, if only there were more from DL3 and 64.
