Of all the games I received this Christmas, perhaps the strangest was the SNES title Mario Paint. Don't get excited... this is just like a paint program you have on your computer, just with a few extra features to it. I'll explain more as I go on.
It goes without saying that this is Review is on a scale of 0-4 stars. This game needs a SNES Mouse to operate, by the way.
Graphics: **
It's very hard for me to grade any graphics for this game. After all, this is simply a 2D paint program. To be as fair as possible, I'll give it an average score.
Sound: *1/2
There are lots of things to grade sound on in this game. I'll start with the sound effects, which are adequate. They aren't super-annoying, so they're fine. Next comes the background music, which isn't great music, but it's not annoying, and I think it fits the game well. Then comes the making music feature, in which you can make your own music by placing heads of Mario characters or other objects on a music staff to create music, and the heads and objects determine which instrument or sound effect is made. The demo music tune #1 is awesome (a mixture of the Mario theme song and background music from Super Mario World), but the other two are a little below average. As for making music itself, it's very difficult. There are no flats or sharps (the black keys on the piano), so already it hurts when trying to make a song you know (being a piano player myself, it's hard to make songs that have black keys because one wrong note hurts the whole song). Not only that, but the tempo (speed of the song) must be the same the whole way through the song, if you're saving the song. That hurts even more because if you want to make a song like the Imperial March, which requires long and short notes, it doesn't work. All the notes are of the same length, all being quarter notes or triplets (1/3 notes). This music-making feature lacks things which hurts it badly, and those things hurt the overall score of the music as well.
Difficulty: ***
This is a humorous category... it's not like you're trying to beat the game or anything. Sure, there's a coffee break which allows you to play mini-games, and I know the fly-swatting one is pretty easy until the end. But what I really mean by difficulty is how difficult is it to make what you want, and I'll tell you right now that it is near-impossible to get what you want. The music-maker is very hard to make the music you want, I can't figure out why the animation won't show up on the normal page while I can paint around it, and it's very difficult to be neat while painting.
Controls: **
The controls are easy; all you do is click the mouse's buttons. Of course, since the SNES Mouse isn't too responsive, you're going to have a tough time with that.
Painting Mode: *1/2
This is the main screen, the main event. You can make characters' heads and faces as well as many other objects, and you can draw lines, boxes, rectangles, circles, spray paint, and scribble, if you please. It's okay, but it needed a few more options to be really worth it.
Animation Mode: ***
This mode is probably the most fun in this game. You can make multiple pictures, then run them in a quick slide show. It's pretty funny watching my stick figures playing football, or my version of some world events. Of course, since you can't actually get this to run while you're painting the normal picture itself, it becomes a little pointless, since you can only watch it in animation mode.
Coloring Book Mode: *
Ever want to color pictures of Mario or other stupid, non-Mario objects? No?! I thought so.
Coffee Break Mode: *
This is where you can take a break and
play a mini-game with your mouse... how about that excellent
fly-swatting game? It's a ton of fun,
right? You know I'm being sarcastic, yet again.
Replayability: 1/2
This game ought to keep you busy...
for maybe a couple of scattered hours or so. It's a game you play when
you have a horrible headache and don't
have the concentration to play a better game, a good game, or a fun game.
That's why I played it on Christmas Day, because I had a bad migraine.
That's also why I'm hoping I never get a migraine again, so I don't have
to play it or even have to watch my sister play it.
Fun Factor!: no stars
Come on, you think it's a ton of fun to color pictures? Well, if not that, you think it's a lot of fun to scatter Mario faces over a screen, right? Okay, so you don't like that, but don't you like fly-swatting? What? Don't even tell me this game doesn't interest you. There hasn't been a more interesting, intriguing game since Pokémon Pinball!
OVERALL: 1/2
The best part of this game is the animation mode, where you can at least get a few laughs. In all honesty, though, this game wasn't worth the $12 I paid for it and the mouse ($10 for the mouse itself). If you have a SNES Mouse but not this game, you may want to pick it up for $2 just to fool around with it. $2 is how much this game is worth; only that, and nothing more. By the way, this game ought to be called Paint. It's too bad it had to have Mario's name in it, because it becomes the worst Mario game I've ever played... but there are a few I haven't played yet.
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