Pixel Paint

Genre: Art Application

Players: 1

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Review:

Pixel Paint is an Art Application released on the Wii U in 2014 and then ported to the Nintendo 3DS in 2016. As the name implies, the focus of this application is squarely on enabling players to create artworks in the pixel art style, with the game’s $4 price tag presenting this as a budget option for Nintendo 3DS owners wanting to use their handheld to create art.

Given the low price point, one would expect this to be a fairly bare-bones package, and in a way it is. Aside from the title screen, little effort has been made to give this game a memorable presentation, with bland, basic-looking menus. There’s also no tutorials or anything like that. The most players will get is a text listing of all of the game’s button commands.

Yet despite how lacking the presentation is, the actual tools at your disposal are fairly considerable given the budget price. Players can create visuals using a full spectrum of color, or if they want they can stick to one of various pre-made palettes. There are line and shape tools, cut and copy tools, fill, the ability to replace all of one color with another, and players can even save their artworks directly to the MicroSD card to transfer to their PC later.

Apart from the presentation, there were a few other issues I had here. First, the game’s music is extremely annoying, and you’ll want to mute it soon after you start. Also, it feels like there should be an option to create animations here, though perhaps that’s getting a bit greedy since this is only a $4 app. Finally, the overall interface is somewhat unintuitive, and players will have to take some time getting used to it.

Is Pixel Paint going to replace Adobe Photoshop? Of course not, and for a $4 Application on Nintendo 3DS you’d be a fool to expect as much. However, the variety of features packed into this Application for that low price point makes it a surprisingly good value, despite the poor presentation. I don’t know how likely you are to want to create pixel art on your Nintendo 3DS, but if that’s something you want, I think you’ll find this is $4 well spent.

tl;dr – Pixel Paint is an Art Application that, as the name implies, allows players to create pixel art on their Nintendo 3DS. The presentation here is severely lacking, and it will take a bit of getting used to the various options, but overall this is a surprisingly robust application given the low $4 price tag. If you’re looking for an Application on your Nintendo 3DS that will enable you to create pixel art, I think you’ll absolutely get your $4 worth here.

Grade: B-

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