Let’s Create! Pottery (Nintendo DS) Review

Let's Create! Pottery starts out with a brief tutorial, with the budding artist being introduced to the process of making the first pot, and, thanks to simple instructions, within a minute anyone can start getting creative by moulding their own little pot using the touch screen controls. These are controls that work great, too, as they are very intuitive and allow for moulding with great precision. From there on the first pot can be sold to gather some money, which can be spent in the in-game shop. There is also an inbox, where emails regarding making pots for various people are received. This is triggered off after selling the initial creation and players are subsequently introduced to Aunt Chloe. She gets the ball rolling by asking you to make a pot for her. Make this for her and receive more money and praise, which leads to recognition and then more customers.

This is where the title gets more into 'game' territory, since there are objectives to complete. Customers will start sending emails describing what sort of pot they would like to be made. This includes a description, which is sometimes informative and even educates a little on the background of some of the more cultural inspired designs. An image is also given as a reference each time, which is very helpful. When creating the pot this image is visible so it makes it easier to design it in the right manner. It also includes a star ranking system so the pot can be precisely tweaked to the correct shape and decoration. The higher the stars go up on each, the closer it is to the right design. It really does require some accurate detail sometimes and it can’t just be thrown together quickly if wanting to make sure the customer is happy. Some pots were harder to create than others, though you never have to get it exactly perfect, but aiming for at least three-to-four stars seemed to work the majority of the time.

As progress is made by selling user-created designs at auction and following the inbox orders, it will be possible to start to gather more money to spend in the shop. Things quickly become even more creative here because the shop is full of new design materials for the pottery process. Different colours can be bought to paint the pots, along with a variety of brushes featuring cultural image designs, alternative styles of handles for the creations and textures, as well. Using a combination of them all, players can create far more unique pots and gain far more money for them in auctions. These materials are also needed sometimes for customer requested pots, so you will need to buy certain ones at times. There is no scrimping here, since there is plenty of material types to make a tonne of unique pots.

Let's Create! Pottery is a bit of a niche title, but for what it is, it has been developed perfectly for pottery enthusiasts and creative people in general. The ambient noise of birds, wind and general environmental sounds add to the whole relaxation experience and this is something that can be picked up and played perhaps during a stressful period. If anything could have been improved upon in a potential follow up it would be the ability to send the pot designs to online friends and also an offline gallery so you can store pieces of art made. That way it would be possible to look back on personalised creations and also show friends the wonders in person. It would have also been fantastic if your own brushes could have been created, for even more customisation of the images on the pots. Visually, it’s fairly simple; menus are clean and laid out well, though, and they do the job. The pots look great for the DSiWare service and have a nice roundedness to them, which is impressive considering the humble DS system's power. Overall, however, this is a title that you can go back to at any time and start creating in shorts bursts or have the option to take your time and create more of a masterpiece.