There is something to be said for when a game's control scheme that just feels good. Where the smallest action inspires a smile and each movement evokes a feeling of accomplishment, all just by pressing a button. For instance, transforming into a morph ball in Metroid and rolling around the level, joyfully laying down bomb after bomb always brought a smile to my face. It wasn't just the transformation of Samus into a skittish spherical form that inspired glee, it was the response the bombs had on her: blasting her high up into the air with nothing but a simple thumb press.

Kirby: Canvas Curse takes the morph ball concept a few steps further and into the realm of the platformer. Those familiar with Kirby know him as a lovable, bubbly pink fellow with four appendages who inhales other creatures whole and somehow (via osmosis I presume) assumes their powers. Well, not this time, at least not with the inhalation. According to the opening story crawl, Kirby is transformed into a simple sphere after running into Drawcia, a wicked witch who was in the thick of transforming Dream World into a gigantic painting . Despite Kirby's newfound rotundness, he can still move: tap on his round figure and he'll gain a short-lived burst of speed. Fortunately, Drawcia left her paintbrush, which 'transports to you on a beam of light'. Her paintbrush allows you to draw lines in the air that Kirby will follow, like an 'escalator'. By painting these iridescent lines, you can help navigate Kirby through the many pitfalls and dangers in Canvas Curse.

What the game's introduction doesn't prepare you for is just how easy and effortless it is to control Kirby. Kirby, like most balls, want to be in motion, and even the slightest bump will set him moving. Paint a line underneath him and make a spiral and Kirby will follow it like a religion. It is stunningly easy: just swipe your stylus and he's off and rolling, and you're off and grinning. See, the stylus works so well to control Kirby that finessing him across levels feels immensely graceful, and even exudes glee. Draw him across pits, scrolling up multiple layers of groundwork, it's so exceedingly easy to pick up that you'll be beside yourself, left marveling at the control scheme for at least the first few levels.

This is not to say that Canvas Curse can't be tricky at times. As the game progresses, the levels become more and more complex, throwing a library of standard platformer devices at you to increase the game's difficulty. Autoscrolling, both horizontal and vertical are applied, timed blocks that'll smash you if you happen to be under them, columns consisting of both fire and spikes that you must dodge (although these are modernized a bit by the inclusion of a giant purple button that forces the columns to stop rotating when tapped), underwater floating (which ingeniously requires you to draw a line above Kirby, to force him to swim downwards); all make extended appearances. In fact, more than once I was reminded of another game featuring an occasionally spherical character: Sonic. Yes, Canvas Curse definitely evokes Sonic's early outings, not only in level design and character attributes, but also in ease of use.

Sonic the Hedgehog was simple back in those days. You could jump, you could curl up into a ball, you could speed dash while in morph ball shape — not unlike Kirby's controls. Also like Kirby, controlling Sonic was effortless, mostly thanks to the brilliantly constructed levels. You'd plow through them like a jackhammer, constantly pressing right on the Genesis d-pad and let Sonic expend all the effort of defying gravity, reacting like a pinball to the convoluted levels, and speeding frantically for a confrontation against Dr. Robotnik. Not only was Sonic's speed and fluidity easy on my fledgling skills, but it even felt empowering - so much power wielded with just one press of the controller.

And now that power comes forth through the DS's stylus, and onto the canvas of the game. The feeling is enough to make you just want to aimlessly litter the screen with rainbow streaks and watch Kirby transverse your rainbow web. But alas, there is of course a goal to the game: to return Kirby's limbs and revert the world back to its non-oily façade. Despite that objective, the gameplay rarely wears out its welcome. Each level requires an increasing amount of stylus skill and stylistic flourishes just to make it to the goal, much less explore the nooks and crannies of each level for collectible coins. The only time the stylus falters is when your paintbrush lines are replaced with a rigid, straight line that acts as a paddle. During one of four boss encounters, you're forced to navigate Kirby vertically through a series of enemy occupied rooms by bouncing him, Breakout-style, upwards. It's a frustrating change that, thanks to the various obstructions in the room, turns your strokes into scrawls of desperation, like you're flailing to catch a falling drinking glass that repeated bounces off the tips of your fingers only to inevitably shatter on the floor.

It's not one of the game's better boss encounters.

Apart from than that gaffe, directing Kirby is enough of a dream to make the short, four hour experience worth playing and replaying. Even the mini-games and post-victory fetch quests are enjoyable, simply because you're able to take the new flourishes you've picked up throughout the game and apply them to levels that you were still learning how to draw. There's also an involved 'medal swap' system that allows you to trade in coins found throughout the game for additional health or songs in the sound test area but honestly, as terrifically quaint as Canvas Curse's soundtrack is, you'll be fetching those coins because you want to exercise your painterly skills. The fact that you get something in return is merely a pleasant byproduct.

Kirby: Canvas Curse never feels like work, its levels rarely feel like a chore and the painting never gets tired. It is simply effortless gameplay: for what you put into it, you get so much more emotionally out of it. What's even more surprising is that you are not in direct control of your character (unlike his other pinball brethren, yet managing Kirby is remarkably smooth and downright satisfying. Despite containing a plethora of clichéd platformer elements, Kirby: Canvas Curse stands on its own as a whimsical and exhilarating short experience that's worth playing, even if you don't have an artistic bone in your body.