Ivy The Kiwi?
Grab your helmet shell and get moving!
Posted August 30, 2010
Designed as a puzzler for the Nintendo Wii and DS, Ivy the Kiwi? is a creative, unique title out of the Prope development house that puts you into the role of Ivy, a recently hatched kiwi bird. (Kiwi’s are flightless birds typically found in New Zealand.) Young Ivy breaks free from her egg in the middle of the forest and sets off to find her mother, complete with a portion of the eggshell as a helmet of sorts. The narrative feels very much like a bedtime story your parents used to tell you or perhaps something out of a nursery rhyme. That being said, the story never speaks down to the player and it’s really quite beautiful in combination with the graceful artwork style of the visuals. It’s just not terribly captivating for an older crowd, but younger players will love it.
On each level, the player is tasked with getting Ivy to the exit. Ivy has three vines at her disposal to navigate around the levels, rife with magical power. These vines are drawn on the screen with the Wii Remote (pressing the A button to start drawing them) and Ivy can walk along them. Vines can snap if stretched too far, so be careful how far you attempt to stretch the maximum of 3 vines on the screen at any time. Ivy’s actual movement isn’t controlled by the player, but rather moves automatically. If she hits a wall, Ivy simply turns around to go the other way. Vines can also be used to launch Ivy across the board if you don’t pin the vines down. In fact, many levels are often easier to launch Ivy towards the exit rather than drawing multiple paths.
Ivy is avoiding a variety of obstacles in the forest including spiky floors, viscous rats and pesky birds. One way to take out birds (or even a blocked path) is to send Ivy flying toward them with a vine launch. Ivy spins as she flies through the air and takes out her enemies. There’s also collectibles in the form of feathers in each level. Collecting all the feathers can be quite the task for the latter levels, due to a higher level of difficulty. After you finish each puzzle, you unlock it for stage trial mode. Winning all the medals in stage trial is particularly tough, even for accomplished players.
There’s also a competitive multiplayer mode included with the game (local only). It pits you against up to 3 other players in a race to the end of each level. An inclusion that can get particularly nasty is the ability to draw vines on opposing player’s screens. You can sabotage any player with a quick swipe of the controller. It really promotes strategic choices, but feels a little dirty.
This game does a great job at balancing difficulty with a story that will appeal to a younger generation of gamers. While Ivy’s story doesn’t really help motivate older gamers to finish the game, the creative, more difficult puzzles in the latter half of the game will. Completing all the puzzles in the game takes a handful of hours and getting all the medals for those levels takes considerably longer. In addition, the local multiplayer can be fun at parties for strategic players. This is the type of game that you should pickup if you enjoy games like Lemmings or Braid. All in all, it’s a solid puzzler that’s worth a playthrough for puzzle lovers.
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On each level, the player is tasked with getting Ivy to the exit. Ivy has three vines at her disposal to navigate around the levels, rife with magical power. These vines are drawn on the screen with the Wii Remote (pressing the A button to start drawing them) and Ivy can walk along them. Vines can snap if stretched too far, so be careful how far you attempt to stretch the maximum of 3 vines on the screen at any time. Ivy’s actual movement isn’t controlled by the player, but rather moves automatically. If she hits a wall, Ivy simply turns around to go the other way. Vines can also be used to launch Ivy across the board if you don’t pin the vines down. In fact, many levels are often easier to launch Ivy towards the exit rather than drawing multiple paths.
Ivy is avoiding a variety of obstacles in the forest including spiky floors, viscous rats and pesky birds. One way to take out birds (or even a blocked path) is to send Ivy flying toward them with a vine launch. Ivy spins as she flies through the air and takes out her enemies. There’s also collectibles in the form of feathers in each level. Collecting all the feathers can be quite the task for the latter levels, due to a higher level of difficulty. After you finish each puzzle, you unlock it for stage trial mode. Winning all the medals in stage trial is particularly tough, even for accomplished players.
There’s also a competitive multiplayer mode included with the game (local only). It pits you against up to 3 other players in a race to the end of each level. An inclusion that can get particularly nasty is the ability to draw vines on opposing player’s screens. You can sabotage any player with a quick swipe of the controller. It really promotes strategic choices, but feels a little dirty.
Graphics
- The visual style of Ivy the Kiwi? looks great in high definition, mostly due to the artistically detailed backdrops on each level. The developer has brought a Mother Goose story to life and with excellent hand drawn panache. The physics engine is pretty spot on as well and Ivy has no problem climbing on the vine that was drawn just a half second before.
Audio
- The light, bouncy soundtrack reminds me of Thumper’s music in Bambi for some reason. The developer did a great job of matching the feel of the visuals to the music in the audio. The music is fairly varied in the game as well.
Conclusion
This game does a great job at balancing difficulty with a story that will appeal to a younger generation of gamers. While Ivy’s story doesn’t really help motivate older gamers to finish the game, the creative, more difficult puzzles in the latter half of the game will. Completing all the puzzles in the game takes a handful of hours and getting all the medals for those levels takes considerably longer. In addition, the local multiplayer can be fun at parties for strategic players. This is the type of game that you should pickup if you enjoy games like Lemmings or Braid. All in all, it’s a solid puzzler that’s worth a playthrough for puzzle lovers.
Discuss This Game on Our Official VGT Forum