Colors! 3D (Nintendo 3DS) Review

Colors 3D, at its heart, is purely about painting and keeping it fairly simple with the amount of tools and brushes available, meaning owners will need at least some artistic skill to be able to produce some fine-looking work. That said, there are no rules to say that anyone that has little or no artistic ability won’t enjoy it! Plus, it comes with some preloaded artwork to give inspiration to those that might need it. Beginner artists might want to go for a title like Art Academy first, though - a fantastic application that actually teaches the fundamentals of art and provides the skills to then move onto Colors 3D. For the more experienced artists out there, Colors 3D is worth purchasing abruptly and is more than worth its price tag.

The title immediately takes the crown of “best painting application on 3DS” simply because any other artistic applications have been home to Nintendo’s previous handheld, the DS. That said, it looks set to stay that way for a long time, perhaps even throughout the entire life of the 3DS, and here’s why.

Once users have finished work on a piece of art it can then be uploaded to the Colors Gallery through the software itself, where the rest of the world can view it. That’s right, you don’t even need Colors 3D to view others’ work, as the Colors Gallery also has a website. It has all the same functions, such as being able to ‘like’ artists’ artworks and see a time-lapse of how they drew it, from the first line drawn, right through to its completion. Viewers can also comment on work and ‘share’ it to Facebook (although the latter only exists on the website). Developer Collecting Smiles even holds competitions via the website and promotes work by highlighting the weekly best, latest and random paintings. All in all, it is fantastic and, more importantly, convenient. It is just a shame there is no way of keeping track of particular users’ artwork by following their account or something along similar lines. Adding to the array of ways one’s artwork can be shared, completed paintings can be saved to an SD card, which can then be sent to friends via Nintendo Letter Box or transferred to a PC at a much higher resolution.

Paintings made with Colors 3D can be viewed in stereoscopic 3D, producing some amazing sights in the gallery. The majority of paintings have been purposely made using the 3D layer system and it works great, giving artwork a new perspective (quite literally). Creationists are able to paint on up to five layers of 3D, giving a solid amount of depth. Painting on separate layers may become a bit confusing at first, but with practice it becomes second nature. These layers can be deleted separately or moved forwards or backwards easily, too, so artists can easily manage their paintings. In fact, controlling the application in general is very easy. A simple push of the R button brings up all available options, including choosing between brush types, colour selection, brush size and opacity. The L button comes in handy at times, as it functions as an undo button, allowing for the backtracking of any mistakes made. Artwork can be saved at any time by pressing the Start button, and even if a number of mistakes are made afterwards, changes since the last save can be discarded. Both of these functions come in very handy. Additionally, the 3DS cameras can be used to take photos as a reference for paintings, and images can be imported from an SD card.

Multiplayer options have been included, allowing two people to draw together on the same canvas, and sessions on paintings that have already been started can be shared. Unfortunately, this can only be done locally, with online options non-existent.