Thursday, October 01, 2009

Nintendo's Art Academy titles: Mario Paint minus Mario?

I was a big fan of Mario Paint back in the days of the SNES. Of course, who wasn't? The title was (and still is) a fine example of Nintendo's ability to think outside of the gaming box.

The folks at Nintendo may be uninterested in bringing back that long-lost gem--it has yet to hit the Wii Virtual Console service--but that doesn't mean they're uninterested in bringing back some of the things that made Mario Paint so special.

Case in point: the company's recent Art Academy releases for its downloadable DSiWare service.

Nintendo's PR people promise the first title in the series, Art Academy: First Semester, for instance, will guide gamers "through the basics of using pencil and paints, which draw like the real things. With your own paintbrush set and color palette, you will learn texturing and blending techniques, along with how to depict light and shade."

Thankfully, you don't have to take their word for it--"zigg" over at NeoGAF recently posted his initial impressions of the title and seemed very, well, impressed.

"I've only done the first pencil-drawing lesson and there's already three thicknesses of pencil available (though the first lesson only had me use one) and also the ability to use them or the eraser on tip or side," he wrote recently. Here's the result of that first lesson (which I find rather impressive):


"I dunno if it'll make me an artist--I suspect there's something to be said for having the ability in the first place--but being an absolute novice, there's certainly some things to learn here," he added. "Regardless, it looks like the paint program is going to be rather good."

Read more of zigg's impressions of the title at the end of this NeoGAF thread.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

this is so sexy my name is owen morris i live in overton i love gay i am gay by