Platform:
3DS
Released:
July 16, 2016
Publisher:
Nintendo
Developer:
Headstrong Games
Release your inner artist with Disney Art Academy, a lighthearted educational game where you get to learn how to draw your favourite Disney characters using your trusty 3DS.
The game is very simple. It takes place on a remote island in the pacific where a Disney art festival is taking place, but there’s not enough students to make the art. So naturally, you are dragged into some lessons with the other students, and thus begins your journey to making some super sweet art!
You start off with some easy lessons, teaching you the basics of the tools you’re using and the controls. The split screen has the step by step image on the top screen for easy reference, and your bottom touch screen contains your canvas, ink lines and tools. As you complete more of the lessons and sketch out some famous Disney characters, you are taught more techniques and have more tools introduced for you to use. If lessons are not your style, you also have a free drawing mode where you can pick a character and draw as you please.
Like I mentioned, the instructions are simplified and very user friendly, and it’s easy to see that the game is targeted to our younger Picasso’s and Kahlo’s out there. That doesn’t mean us semi-functional adults can’t have a crack at it too! For myself personally, it was sometimes more frustrating than it was fun, but I have a feeling that has more to do with the three years I spent studying art, and less to do with the games overall performance.
Knowing my way around drawing tablets quite well, the small screen and tiny stylus was a frustrating adjustment to make. Having such a small digital canvas and stylus made my hand cramp up a lot. In saying that, tiny tools mean it’s a perfect match for tiny hands, so smaller children will be able to enjoy the game to its full potential.
Overall, Disney Art Academy is a perfect game for budding young artists, it’s bright, the art style is fresh and it’s full of plenty of Disney characters we know and love. It’s also a great choice for anyone who has ever wanted to learn step by step how to draw. It makes a great alternative to your classic “how to draw” books, and puts the 3DS features to great use.
Positive:
- Age friendly
- Easy to understand
- Great for beginners
- Fantastic boredom fighter
Negative:
- More appropriate for younger ages
- Instructions are sometimes too simplified
- Tiny canvas space
Fun for all ages, Disney Art Academy is a great creative outlet, packed into a small, adorable package.
About the Author
Vivienne Wright
They/Them
Artist, creator, streamer and chaos bean, Vava is always laughing and rarely pessimistic. You can usually spot them playing Genshin Impact on Twitch weekly, dreaming up new worlds in D&D, consuming horror and fantasy content or sleeping in a blanket burrito.
