Written by: Ian

 

 

 

"Ivy the Kiwi?" comes from Yuji Naka, the creator of Sonic the Hedgehog. But some 20 years later after his most famous creation, how does this new platformer turn out on the Nintendo DS?

 

 

There is a storyline to Ivy the Kiwi- it’s just been unfortunately pretty much forgotten. The game starts with a cutscene to start things off, but then just lets you get on with things, before suddenly starting to pick up again around half way through the game. It’s an odd decision, and a little bit more flesh in this area would definitely have been appreciated.

 

 

Ivy the Kiwi is a pretty innovative game- it reminds me of some of the better indie games of recent years, like Limbo, Braid, and Super Scribblenauts- a combination of ‘different’ gameplay, and an interesting art style. You don’t even control Ivy directly, instead, you draw vines as she rushes from left to right to avoid traps, obstacles and enemies. You can draw up to three at once, with the last ones disappearing as you draw new ones. The levels are pretty short, generally coming in at under a minute, but there are about 100 to get through, with a nice difficulty curve that gradually ramps up as you progress.

 

 

There are also feathers to collect on each level, but whilst progressing isn’t too hard, getting these without dying seems almost impossible in comparison. It’s a shame that this is the case, because it ruins pretty much any replayability. There’s no real other reason to come back to things. The stylus controls work well, with nice, accurate drawings, which is really appreciated, because poor controls would have really hampered the game. You can also grab vines to use a slingshot move as well, which is pretty cool, and the physics here are ok as well, whilst pulling off moves to get through breakable objects and enemies is pretty satisfying too.