Pokemon Art Academy Review

The Art Academy series has established itself as the premiere teaching software for budding artists. One probably wouldn't think that game software, let alone on a small DS screen could portray everything from drawing basics to complex shading. However, the first few Art Academy games focused a lot on realistic drawings. Drawings that went from still life imagery to even self portraits using the camera. But that type of art style isn't for everyone. Enter Pokemon Art Academy. A similar teaching tool that once again starts out with the bare basics of drawing, and ultimately ends with taking off all your training wheels, and letting you put all those skills to use. This time though, the subjects are all Pokemon.

The format, for those that played previous Art Academy games, is very similar. You start out with basic shapes to draw Pokemon faces. You then move on to perspective, full body, drawing from shapes, shading and using various drawing tools, ultimately culminating in everything you've learned thus far. The lessons move at a brisk pace but always have enough detail for beginner artists to get the hang of the mechanics. Each lesson also has side-lessons with different Pokemon, to further reinforce the new technique you just learned.

These two images show the progress I've made with Pokemon Art Academy

As was the case with previous games, the amount of detail you can add to each of your drawings is simply staggering, and once again proves that the 3DS is more than just a children's toy that "plays games." Pokemon Art Academy is just as much a learning tool, as it is entertainment. The fact that I walked away knowing a lot more about art theory as a result of finishing the main 8 courses, speaks volumes. The fact that I got to draw Pokemon was just a huge bonus.

Pokemon Art Academy has some really nice touches that fans will truly appreciate. For once, every single drawing you finish gets printed on a Pokemon card of the corresponding color, along with your custom signature that you set up when you start the game. It really adds a sense of accomplishment when you see the Pikachu you just finished on a Pokemon card. Now if there was only a way to get these physically printed…

You can also export all your images to your SD card if you want to see them on a bigger screen. Actually, all the images in this Review were drawn by me. Of course there is Miiverse sharing built in as well, which will allow everyone to see your masterpiece and vice versa.

The Jigglypuff was drawn completely freehand, while the Voltorb was my first step into shading territory

Aside from the main Lessons, you can also partake in Free Paint which allows you to draw any of the previously finished Pokemon from earlier lessons, as well as some unlockable ones, without much guidance, with the exception of the original image being shown on the top screen. This is where you go after you're comfortable enough with the various art tools at your disposal, as well as understanding process and flow of creating an image from scratch.

This mode allows for the most artistic freedom. Sure you're never really bound by the rules of each lesson, as the game doesn't score you on accuracy, but starting an image from scratch gives you a much bigger sense of ownership of that drawing.

Lastly, Quick Sketch mode are mini-lessons, designed to only last you a few minutes, and yet still go over various techniques that you can improve on and utilize. For example, the Swirlix Quick Sketch is nothing more than some swirls eyes and mouth. But those swirls can then be refined further to look like the actual Pokemon. The Dratini sketch on the other hand uses nothing more than chalk, but once finished, you can go back and outline and color it in.

But Pokemon Art Academy isn't limited to just what's available within the software. You can add your own images onto your SD card and load them up in the game. There is also a button in Free Paint that can check for downloadable images that Nintendo will surely release over time. This specific feature didn't work yet since the game is unreleased, so I wasn't able to test it out, nor see what images Nintendo is planning on releasing.

Pokemon Art Academy is a fantastic entry into the Art Academy series, and easily accessible to anyone, even beginning artists. The lessons are thorough enough to teach all the important fundamentals, but never extremely long to the point of boredom. For a drawing title, each lesson moves at the perfect pace to make sure you're always learning, and never falling asleep at the stylus. I would certainly love to see this title on the Wii U with a much bigger gamepad, but even with the 3DS' small size, it's a very impressive and capable software.