Well, well, well,looks like old Mike Drucker got his wish for Mario Paint to come back. Not as life changing as my ongoing wish to meet my grandfather who left when my mom was a kid - true story! - but definitely something that’s improved my week.
I’ll also give credit toNintendowhere credit is due: not only is the game compatible with theSwitch 2’sJoy-Con, but you can still play it on the original Switch’s Super Nintendo app by hooking up a regular computer mouse. I debated between writing ‘computer mouse’ and just ‘mouse’ but honestly both sound stupid and that’s what it means to be outside of the media’s target demographic now!
No One Is Immune To The Nostalgic Charm Of Mario Paint
When I loaded Mario Paint, I planned on playing the game for approximately eight minutes as I screwed around with the Joy-Con and said, “Huh. Well, that certainly does work!” Because, I’ll be honest, I’m used to being fired up for nostalgia and then quickly realizing that I just wanted to be reminded of the memory or see how it performs on modern hardware. I planned on making a few animations. Making a few songs. Swat a few flies in the minigame, and then probably never play Mario Paint ever again.
That was the plan from someone who wasexcitedby this announcement. As much as I want to claim I’m some wise expert on classic games, sometimes I want to hear a ‘hadouken’ and then go to bed before the sun is even out of the sky.
But instead of that happening, I fell in love with Mario Paint again. Rather than spending a handful of minutes testing out some new tech that I had no intention of using ever again, I spent about five hours just screwing around in the art program of my childhood dreams. I keep forgetting that the Joy-Con mouse mode is actually surprisingly good - especially once you get the right surface and figure out how to crab claw your hand onto it.
I eventually found a large coffee table book to use as a mousepad (they suggest using your leg, but I’ve never learned anything good in life that starts off with ‘rub it on your leg’). After 15 minutes of awkwardness, playing Mario Paint now felt just as good as playing it over three decades ago.
Mario Paint Represents A Simpler Time For Gaming
I even brought out the official strategy guide for the game, which I own, and started messing with creating pictures of characters fromStreet Fighter 2and music fromStar Wars. Today, this would be billed as a $40 crossover event in which you slowly get bit by bit of info on how to create the World Warriors in your game.
Back then companies were so loose-goosey on IPs that you could basically be like, “Eh, here’s an off-style-guide picture of a popular character. Have fun. They know us, it’s fine.”
But one thing the game definitely showed me is that we need a new Mario Paint game for a new generation of kids. Actually, me. We need a new Mario Paint for me, a man for whom the original Mario Paint was an age-appropriate release. Because Mario Paint does something beautiful that many art apps even now fail to do: make messing around as fun as knowing how to create something.
Every tool has a different musical sound effect. Each method for wiping the screen as its own animation. Every choice causes some sort of honk or beep or bouncing sound. No matter what you’re doing in the game/app/whatever, Nintendo makes it delightful. Even the little paint brushes make faces and jump around while you’re waiting for the system to process.
Remember how easy animation felt in Mario Paint? Good, because this is still Mario Paint! I was eight when this came out and I was able to figure out how to create short films through a few frames of animation - and then stitch those together using a VHS tape recorder. Good news: you may now do that by just saving screencaptures and downloading the footage to your phone.
Every feature of this game is actually nowmoreconvenient than it was on the SNES. Whether you’re using a regular mouse or a Joy-Con, Mario Paint on the SNES just becamebetter.
And, look, I’m not saying that art tools have become worse over the years. Every single social media app used by any child who can fool age verification with a screenshot fromDeath Stranding 2has used plenty of simple art tools and filters.
The average person today is better at editing a picture than experts using the then-current Photoshop version 2.5 in 1992. Art tools these days are both more accessible and more capable than anything human beings could think of back 33 years ago.
That said, Nintendo could definitely make the experiencemorefun and evenmoreaccessible. Just think about how crazy an expanded Mario Paint might be. Imagine if there were a new version that was perfect for - ugh, I’m really going to say this, I’m so sorry - the digital age. Keep the same tools and music maker. Keep the same controls. Keep the same techno-cartoon vibe of visiting EPCOT in the early ‘90s.
But let’s go deeper. Let’s have a music maker that usesmoreweirdo sound effects. Let’s have a visual palette that has even more icons and weird designs along with the standard colors. Give us a bigger pixel art maker. Allow the creation of minor games like in Game Maker Garage (whichalsonow has Joy-Con mouse support).
Hell, ifDonkey Kong Bananzacan include an impressive sculpting mode as a fun side project, I don’t see why we can’t get that same 3D sculpting in a new Mario Paint. Imagine being able to create your own 3D animations using a simple engine. Again, I know, I know, it’s easier than ever to animate something. I know, I know, it’s easier than ever to sculpt something stupid in 3D.
But the magic of Mario Paint isn’t just that it made doing these things easy in 1992 - we already had Microsoft Paint and a thousand Brøderbund programs that let us design things - it was that it made it fun. It made mistakes fun. It made exploring the different tools fun.
I’d love it if we didn’t live in a world in which we’re all expected to constantly make content to prove that we exist as legitimate human beings worthy of dignity and respect. But we do live in that world, and it ain’t changing anytime soon. But I’d love a new Mario Paint that rose to makingthataspect of life suck less. Something fun that lets me mess with pictures and videos with hamfisted graphics and official Nintendo iconography. Something that lets me share a true horror to my phone that I can then put online.
The Switch 2 Joy-Con is made for this. The fans yearn for this. Let us create. Let us swat flies. Let us live.
