Nintendo DS Review: Art Academy

Art Academy

Developer: Nintendo

Released: October 25, 2010

ABOUT:

Draw, Paint, Create Step-by-step lessons for everyone! Learn to create art on the DS. Art Academy is a fun, interactive training program that teaches real-world painting and drawing techniques, much as you would learn in an art class. Lessons take you from basic sketching techniques with pencils to painting with brushes, color mixing and water dilution—all with a realistic feel and producing realistic results that can be applied to real-life materials outside of the Nintendo DS environment. Simple, easy-to-understand instruction. An in-game tutor walks you through each lesson step-by-step, giving examples, providing demonstrations, and offering helpful tips. Each Lesson gradually builds off the previous one, and allowing players to advance at their own pace. Art on the Go! Inspiration can appear anywhere –in the park, at a bus stop, even on an airplane. With Art Academy software’s free paint mode, your personal art studio is no farther than your pocket, ready to assist in creating your latest masterpiece.

Features:

• Free Paint Mode allows you to create works of art when ever and where ever you are inspired
• There are different types of Pencil and Brush types for you to choose from when creating your art; this gives you more creative freedom when painting and drawing
• Paints are easily mixed on a painter’s pallet to get the desired colors; they can also be diluted with water to adjust the color saturation; you can even choose how much paint is on the brush at a given time
• The Gallery is an area where the you can frame and save all of the artwork you create; Gallery Images can be displayed in a slide show or viewed one at a time

MY THOUGHTS:

Since my tween sister was visiting, I let her play the game and since she was so into it I told her she had to review it!  She wouldn’t let me play it, but I did get to watch her play and draw!  She really enjoyed it and kept asking if she could keep it!

Here is her review:

In the Art Academy for DS, you learn many different skills that you can apply to real life skills.  The game lets you paint and draw using the stylus. You Sketch, mix, and blend as if you were using real materials.  When you first get to choose what you want to do, there are two models: Lessons and Free paint. In Free paint, you can draw or paint freely and you can also draw or paint using a reference picture on the top of the screen if you have the DSi. There are ten lessons that teach you the basics of art and it is very interesting and you learn a lot of knew things that you probably didn’t know before.

In each teaching session, the text and examples will appear on the top screen and each lessons are divided onto stages, and each stage is divided in several step. You can brush up on your skills through carefully crafted lessons such as learn pencil techniques in more depth and how to build up a drawing from a simple sketch.  It may be hard for some people, but as you gradually play you start to understand the techniques and how to make fine detail.

As you get more into the game you can start mixing colors and use new materials that will make you picture more realistic. This game is super addicting because when I started playing it, I couldn’t stop! It’s so fun and very interesting, I suggest that you start with the lessons because when I started, it wasn’t easy and the step by step directions really helped me to understand the game.

BUY IT: Look for “Art Academy” wherever video games are sold or check it out on Amazon.

I was sent this game to review. My opinion remains my own. Please see my Disclosure Policy.