As one of the more notable original franchises to emerge on DS in 2007, we'd be surprised if there were many people who haven't heard of Drawn to Life. As the first brainchild of developer 5th Cell, Drawn to Life was unique in that it mixed the tried-and-tested platformer genre with the concept of creating the world as you go. The game never quite stood up to the quality its premise promised, but it was certainly a creative project that proved to be a stellar commercial success. With the original developers advancing the series on DS, it's up to Planet Moon Studios to bring the experience over onto Wii with The Next Chapter. But does this game provide a solidity that can match up to 5th Cell's body of work? Or has the franchise lost its charm and innovation in the switch to a home console?

As far as sequels go, it isn't at all necessary to be familiar with the events of the original game to get the most out The Next Chapter's narrative. To those uninitiated, the universe of Drawn to Life centres on the race of the Raposa and their quaint little village. As an immanent, God-like 'Creator', it's up to you to construct a hero in order to fight against the evil shadow Wilfre, who seeks the fabled Items of Power. It's a wholly light-hearted affair presented in a suitably colourful manner. There's little wit in the narration; and no voice-overs to speak of, but the style is easy on the younger gamer and serves its function with charm.

As one of the main-selling points of the series is its creative aspects, The Next Chapter gets straight to business in ensuring you get to grips with the ins and outs of using your paintbrush. An interactive introduction has you draw "the world", "the sun" and "the moon" before letting you produce the hero you'll control throughout the game. The tutorial for the drawing process is helpful and in-depth, and you'll instantly appreciate the levels of creative complexity you're allowed to reach with the simple and intuitive set-up. As you may have guessed, the Wii Remote becomes your paintbrush, and the IR pointer lets you intricately develop your drawings. As well as the obvious paintbrush, eraser and fill options, the game allows you to manipulate squares, circles, straight lines, curved lines and an assortment of pre-set stamps. While the nature of the Wii as a home console allows for more intricate drawings compared to your ulterior vision, it has to be said that using the pointer to carefully aim your brush is no easy task. Even once you're familiar with the system, you'll likely be craving the precision of a touch-screen whenever you need to whip the brush out. We know that DS-to-Wii connectivity has scarcely been employed in any software, but it seemed perfect to make The Next Chapter on Wii a more user-friendly experience.

Of course, drawing your hero is only the beginning of the creative aspects of The Next Chapter. Throughout the game, you'll stumble across easels; which signify points where you can draw your own piece of the world. These opportunities range from drawing a sign post or other non-essential things like butterflies, to more fundamental parts of levels such as platforms or conveyor belts. The game certainly gives you total freedom of these pre-set parts of the levels, but you're never allowed to determine the look of the world enough to compel you to get creative. As novel as it is seeing your own flowers and other trinkets adorn the game world, only players obsessed with the creative part of the concept will be able to avoid the temptation of using the pre-set templates for the majority of objects. We suspect this issue may be a deep-seated problem of the franchise, rather than the fault of Planet Moon Studios. 5th Cell is a developer known for its 'high concept' titles, and this is no more apparent than in their recent hit DS title Scribblenauts. The concept of "Write anything, solve everything" is one just as simple as creating the world as you go, although the former idea has indeed proven to be more engaging than the spirit behind Drawn to Life. At the end of the day, the creative aspect of the game has just never been as engrossing as the developer envisioned.

But dismissing a game for only half of what it has to offer is no way to go about appreciating The Next Chapter for what it is. At its heart, Drawn to Life is a straight-up, sidescrolling platformer – a genre that surely any gamer worth their salt can relate to. While Planet Moon Studios are a developer with a decent back catalogue behind them, we hold our hands up for reserving some worry when we realised The Next Chapter on Wii would not be handled by 5th Cell. Thankfully, we're happy to report that the San Francisco-based team has succeeded in developing a solid platformer that stays true to its genre, while still feeling freshly fun. The game is split up into 4 main areas akin to the 'worlds' of something like New Super Mario Bros., with the village acting as your main hub. Each area is themed, and these themes match the style of platforming you'll have to undertake. For example, the icy area has your hero wearing skates (which you of course can draw yourself) allowing you to pull off some frantic speed and long jumps to help you progress, while the jungle area will require you to draw your own tail to swing about the game world. This aspect of the game is pulled off surprisingly well, and it really does prevent the levels from feeling stagnant. However, our far and away favourite part of the game comes from a particularly clever use the Wii Remote. Keeping in theme with the paintbrush focus of the franchise, you'll be required to draw your own platforms on the fly in real-time. Simply point at the screen, hold a button and draw. It can only be done at certain points, but it gives the levels another facet to their appeal, and lends the whole game a slightly puzzlistic feel. Combined with solid controls and level design that shines in some areas, The Next Chapter can at least offer a wholesome platforming package that – while fairly easy – should please genre fans.

Visually, The Next Chapter adheres to its light-and-fluffy feel by deploying a simplistic art style clearly aimed at youngsters. It can still be appreciated for its charm though, and while it does have a certain pleasantness at 480p and 16:9 widescreen, we were a little baffled as to why there were so many loading screens, and indeed why the game occasionally hiccupped in frame rate during levels. It's a shame that one of the few technical flaws the game has is one so noticeable and one that will crop up consistently - much to the frustration of players.

Pleasingly, Planet Moon Studios haven't exactly skimped on content in The Next Chapter. There are 6 levels in each of the four areas, and while that might not sound like an awful lot, there was no level which we blasted through in anything less than twelve minutes. It took us over 6 hours to complete the game, and that was when shamefully abusing the pre-set templates for most of the things we had to draw. If you're the type of player who thrives on the creativity that Drawn to Life offers, then don't be surprised if you clock up hours merely on drawing the features of the levels. On top of the main quest, there are a number of side-challenges the villagers will ask of you, enabling some replay value for completionists. Then there are dozens of unlockables strewn throughout levels, such as new colour pallets, templates and stamps – all to bolster your drawing set. Finally, there are several minigames that can be played in two-player, such as football and volleyball. Truth be told though, this is the weakest part of the game, with the activities feeling tacked on and severely lacking any fun-factor.

On the whole, we are comfortable to look at The Next Chapteras a solid 2D platformer. While we're sure the developers would love us to admire the creation factor, the game is actually better served when seen as simple sidescroller, with the feel of genre classics like the original Crash Bandicoot, and with intuitive IR functionality, it can even be comparable with recent hits like LostWinds. It will never offer a substantial challenge to seasoned gamers, but for younger players who enjoy flexing their creativity, there's little else on Wii like The Next Chapter.