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If Mario is Nintendo's McCartney, then perhaps Kirby is its Harrison, the quiet, unassuming multi-instrumentalist responsible for some of the company's more offbeat moments (I've also heard it's Kirby that may have introduced Mario and co. to the magic of mushrooms). Since his inception at the hands of Masahiro Sakurai at HAL Laboratory, Kirby's lent himself to the further reaches of Nintendo's experiments, from the accelerometer powered Tilt 'n' Tumble to the slick velocity of Air Ride.Kirby and the Rainbow Curse is the successor to one of the series' most successful offshoots, Canvas Curse, a 2005 Nintendo DS game that made use of the handheld's touchscreen and stylus. They're both features of the Wii U, of course, and have both been thoroughly implemented here, but Nintendo's current home console adds something else: a real sense of art, and of craft. Kirby and the Rainbow Curse is absolutely gorgeous.
Other games have gone for the Etsy aesthetic before, conjuring worlds that carry the aroma of PVA glue and that look like they've been hastily cut out by a craft-knife. Kirby and the Rainbow Curse goes beyond that, though, and its clay-sculpted characters and environment aren't worn lightly. The look might be familiar, but this isn't Clayfighter, or even The Neverhood - while Kirby isn't the first to be cast in clay, no other game has worn the soft thumb-marks and indentations of Play-Doh so proudly.
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