Colors! 3D

Genre: Art Application

Players: 1-2 (Local Wireless)

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Review:

Colors! 3D is an Art Application released on the Nintendo 3DS in 2012. As with other entries in this series, this game aims to turn your game system into an art tablet of sorts, with the big draw of this entry in the series being that it makes full use of the Nintendo 3DS’s 3D capabilities.

To be clear, one of this game’s biggest highlights is the ability to create works of art in full 3D using multiple layers to create depth to your art. Unfortunately, this feature is really only visible on the Nintendo 3DS itself, meaning that naturally you won’t get its benefit on the Nintendo 2DS (in fact, the lack of 2D will keep you from even using the game’s tutorial), nor will images you export off of your Nintendo 3DS reflect this effect on your PC. I know, obvious, but it still bears mention.

At the very least, you can share your works with the Colors! 3D online community, which appears to still be thriving even now in 2023. In fact, one of the best and most unique features of the Colors series is the way the game saves your entire process of creating art so others can see it play back as a video that can be paused and played around with, and you can do the same, learning from the work of others. Additionally, this game includes a number of sample paintings to learn from without even the need to connect online, as well as some coloring book pages for the kiddies.

When it comes to tools, you have the aforementioned layers, a zoom function, an undo button, the ability to change your brush size, type, and opacity, a full range of shades and colors, the ability to import photos to either use as reference or incorporate into your work, and players can even wirelessly connect to a friend to work on an image together.

Unfortunately, this software lacks any sort of copy-paste feature, simple shapes, and outside of a few slight sounds when navigating menus, the game is virtually silent. At the very least, the game’s menus are straightforward and self-explanatory.

So here’s the elephant in the room. As I write this, it’s 2023. The Nintendo 3DS is due to see the end of its lifespan this month, and the Nintendo Switch has an excellent successor to this software in the form of Colors Live. As such, the question then becomes, what does Colors! 3D offer that its Nintendo Switch successor does not? To that, I can only point to three things – Colors! 3D is naturally the only one of the two that lets you create 3D images, it’s the only one that allows you to use a stylus without having to buy one created specifically for use with the game, and it only costs $7 (compared to $30 for Colors Live, or $50 for the version with the custom stylus).

It’s that last bit more than anything else that’s really the clincher here. For only $7, this is a pretty excellent Art Application, although it’s not without a few issues or areas where it’s lacking. However, if you’re looking to create 3D art on your Nintendo 3DS (and not animation or pixel art, as other applications may be better for those), then Colors! 3D is well worth the fairly low price. However, if you have a Nintendo Switch and are willing to spend a good deal more to get something comparable on a more modern platform, you may want to consider Colors Live instead.

tl;dr – Colors! 3D is an Art Application that allows players to create 3D images on their Nintendo 3DS. While it’s not without its flaws, this is overall an excellent art tool that does a good job justifying it’s relatively low $7 price tag. Those who have transitioned to the Nintendo Switch may opt to go with Colors Live instead, but artists who are down to create art on the Nintendo 3DS will find this to be a much less costly alternative with many of the same great features.

Grade: B

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