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by TheDCD on 05.23.11

Remember the Super Nintendo and the classic game Mario Paint? Well, OK, it wasn’t so much of a game as it was an interactive painting program, one only limited by the imagination of the user as they created wondrous works of art. Now, wouldn’t the Wii be an ideal system for which someone to develop a similar painting program? Since Nintendo won’t release a Virtual Console port anytime soon, we’ll have to go with the next best thing — THQ’s uDraw Tablet, which comes bundled with an interactive uDraw Studio program.

First, let’s talk about the tablet itself. Essentially, this is a midsize peripheral that’s about the size of a hardcover book but a little thinner so that it’s easy to grip with the hands. A stylus pops out, enabling users to draw on the screen without any kind of discomfort, and the Wii remote snaps into place on the left-hand side. Overall, this is a really sharp design, and the screen reacts accordingly as you draw on it. Still, it’s kind of an inconvenience for us to take the Wii remote out and put it back in again when it comes to navigating menus. You’d think that THQ would’ve figured out a way for us to guide the on-screen hand with the stylus. Just a minor word of warning.

Now onto uDraw Studio. When you start this program, you’re given a number of tools in which to create works of art with, including a paintbrush, chalk, pencil, a pen, an airbrush, and charcoal. More extensive tools would’ve been nice, but the basics here are more than enough to get by. There are hundreds of palettes to chose from when it comes to color, and you can mix your own through combinations, if the proper shade just isn’t accessible. You can also create custom rubber stamps as well, if you’re feeling like marking your work once you’re done.

The first thing we noticed is that there’s no tutorial to guide you through the drawing tools. This isn’t the most complicated program in the world, but it would’ve been nice for THQ to include something to tell us just what all we can do with uDraw Studio. That said, it’s still a loaded program, with all the extras needed to create your work of art. What’s more, you can save your drawings to an SD card and then export them to JPG or high-quality PNG format, so you can share them with the world. Being able to email them to friends would’ve been more convenient, but this is a great way to share them with your family nonetheless. And it certainly beats having a real pad and paper and getting stuff all over your hands.

Although uDraw Studio doesn’t quite touch the quintessential Mario Paint, it’s a decent fill-in and ideally priced about $70 with the tablet included for good measure. The tablet reacts great, too, with a decent production value and plenty of drawing space to create your work of art. It would’ve been nice to have some left-handed support, though. The design kind of defaults against that. (Players can still get used to it, however.)

So if you have a potential artist in the family or need a drawing program to keep the kids busy, step up to the uDraw Talent and let your imagination (and painting hand) do the walking.