E3 2010 Hands-On: Ivy the Kiwi?

There is certainly a renaissance of 2D platformers occurring today.  Each one has its own spin, too, so the genre rebirth is far from wearing itself out.

During E3, I had the opportunity to sit down for a hands-on demo of Ivy the Kiwi?, the quirky-titled and even more quirky-designed game by Prope Studios for XSEED.  It stars a kiwi bird, vines, and a beautiful art style.

There were two aspects to this game that I immediately noticed: the hand-drawn art style and the passive control method.

The art style is beautiful; it mimics that found in a storybook, like Winnie the Pooh.  Pencils, pastels, and canvas are the design tools, and hand-sketching, shading, and purposefully rough linework create the characters and environment.  This kind of aesthetic can take much longer to create, manipulate, and implement into a game than polygonal modeling, so color me impressed (pun intended).  The issue that arises with hand-drawn elements is that because they take longer to create, they are much more susceptible to being over-used.  Of the 4 stages I tried, all used the same assets and none were unique enough to remember.  I hope the rest of the game is more ambitious in its design.

The second thing that sets this game apart is the passive control method.  I can’t directly control Ivy, the runaway kiwi.  Ivy automatically moves straight ahead at top speed.  By creating vines — up to 3 at a time — I was able to guide the misfit bird up ramps over pits, under spikes, and onto a presentation stage at the end of each “course”.  Depending on the angle of the vines, Ivy runs faster or slower and, by criss-crossing two, can be stopped in one direction and sent running in the next.  By grabbing and pulling down on a vine that Ivy is already on, I can launch the bird in the air to grab items or drill through obstacles.  The controls are novel and work well with both the Wii’s and DS’s chosen input methods.

With Ivy running at top speed and co-operative play for up to 4 players, the action can (and did) get mighty chaotic.  I can see myself failing often before I’m able to successfully clear a level in under the required 300 ticks of the clock (around 3-5 minutes per stage).  The game is fun, but I’d like to actually spend more time on it to make sure my few concerns aren’t spread all throughout the rest of the game.

Ivy the Kiwi? releases this Summer for the Nintendo Wii and DS.

[Images courtesy XSEED Games]