Colors! 3D Review: A Colorful Experience

Wishing you could use your Nintendo 3DS like a drawing application? Well, now thanks to Collecting Smiles, you can with Colors! 3D from the eShop on the Nintendo 3DS. This nifty little app for the Nintendo 3DS is just what we’ve been waiting for. The developers from, Collecting Smiles went all out with details and features for this drawing application. Everything from 5 different layers to the ability to replay all your creations as well as any drawing made by others.

The app is pretty packed with what it can do. Pretty much every button and button combination allows you to do different stuff, like for example switching between the 5 3D layers to undoing a mistake. There’s a lot to do here. Luckily the developer included a simple tutorial to get you used to the controls. Once you get used to them, everything becomes second nature. No issues if you’re a left-handed person, as the app allows you to switch controls if you are left handed. Even the 3D Slider is a control button here, allowing you to decide how close or far away the layers are from each other. The only thing that feels like it missing is the ability to move, copy, or delete parts of your drawings. You can however copy, delete, or change the location of each of the layers at any time.

When you first create a painting, you get the choice of how big your canvas size will be. There are three chooses here: Widescreen, Landscape, and Portrait. Each of these matches the aspect ratio of the 3DS screens – with Widescreen matching the top screen and Landscape matching the bottom screen. These are the aspect ratio, and not the image sizes. When you export an image, you can choose how big you would like it to appear.

Beyond the ability to paint, the app comes pretty feature packed. If you and a friend have the app locally, you both can enjoy the “paint with friends” feature. This feature allows you both to share a single season and create and collaborate anything you wish. Using this feature can help you create the masterpiece you been working on, or just mess around for an hour. Either way, it’s a fun experience.

One of the main interesting things behind the app, besides drawing in 3D that is, is that you can at anytime replay your paintings as well as any online paintings made by others. This is a very neat idea, as viewing how someone made an awesome painting just makes it that much more great. At anytime during the replay, you can choose to branch out this painting at this spot – meaning the ability to start drawing at that spot to create something new.

When you’re done painting your masterpiece, be sure to head online to the gallery. This will take you directly to the app’s network to view other masterpieces from around the world. From here you can upload your creations and view others that were uploaded. Along with viewing a playback of any drawing, you can like and comment on all these drawings. From the main online menu you can view the current week’s best drawings, top ranked overall, new paintings, and of course your own personal favorites.

Since this is a painting app, your drawing shouldn’t stay confined to just the 3DS. As well as online mode, you can export each of your drawing to your SD card. Allowing you to put them on your computer or even send them to friends through SwapNote. When you export, you have controls on if the image should be in 3D or how strong the 3D should be for the drawing. Exported painting sizes are done in 3 sizes based upon what the painting was made in. Don’t worry about the image being small, as the app will allow you to choose the export image size, even going up to 1280×960 for Widescreen drawings.

In the end, this app is a wonderful drawing experience. Creating 3D drawings and watching them playback is a great way to pass the time. I recommend this great app for those who are artists or even those who just like to doodle from time to time on the couch. With many great features, this app is certainly packed with greatness.

Rating: 8/10

Colors! 3D can be found on the North American Nintendo eShop for $6.99

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  1. Nice review!

    I really enjoy it also, and it’s amazing to see what some people can. I liked watching the videos in the online gallery of the art people created. Some really great stuff!