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Art Academy for Nintendo DS
Art Academy for Nintendo DS turns the Touch Screen into drawing paper and a canvas. Guided by Vince, you work through ten main lessons on subjects such as shape, light, shadow and colour. You start with simple lines and build up a picture in stages. Examples and explanations appear on the upper screen, while you draw below with the stylus. The main lessons are followed by smaller exercises that apply the techniques covered to a different subject.
You choose pencils of different hardnesses and round or flat brushes. On the palette, you mix paint colours and decide how much paint and water to use. This teaches you not just to copy an outline, but also how thin layers and dark areas change a picture. A grid and a magnified view help you position details. In Free Paint, you use the tools without following a lesson's steps, with a reference picture for support if you wish.
You can save lessons and your own work to continue later. Finished pictures can be placed in the gallery. The drawing lessons work on the original Nintendo DS and DS Lite; no camera is needed. Only on Nintendo DSi and DSi XL can you also take your own photos to use as references. You work on your own painting alone, without a competitive timer or an opponent.
Region and language
Our Nintendo DS games are European editions, unless stated otherwise. This product contains a loose cartridge for the European market. A box is only included if explicitly stated in the product details. We note any different region in the product details. In almost all cases, the game is playable at least in English, and often in the other five common European languages too.
Manual
With Art Academy for Nintendo DS, you receive a loose cartridge. A box and manual are not included unless we explicitly state otherwise in the product details. This is the standard way we supply this copy.
The history of Art Academy
Art Academy was developed by Britain's Headstrong Games in collaboration with Nintendo. The first releases appeared in 2009 as two separate Nintendo DSiWare downloads: First Semester and Second Semester. The series therefore initially used Nintendo's download shop for DSi at the time. Its lessons focused on tools that simulated the behaviour of pencil and paint, rather than simply offering a selection of colours and drawing stamps.
Nintendo then brought the teaching material together on a physical DS cartridge. This European release arrived on 6 August 2010 and includes ten main lessons, supplemented by smaller exercises and Free Paint. Moving to a Game Card also made the course playable on the original Nintendo DS and DS Lite. The DSi camera remained an additional option, while the drawing and painting lessons themselves did not require a camera. Distribution changed without requiring you to own a DSi.
The approach fitted the broader role the Nintendo DS had acquired by then: alongside adventures and racing games, the system also offered daily exercises and creative activities. Art Academy used its two screens to display a reference beside your own work. New Art Academy followed for Nintendo 3DS in 2012. That is a separate sequel; this cartridge contains the original DS course from 2010, not the later 3DS lessons.
Similar games for Nintendo DS
Drawn to Life for Nintendo DS also lets you draw with the stylus, but uses your drawings as the hero, weapons and objects in a platform adventure. You then have to make that character jump and overcome obstacles. Art Academy stays focused on creating the picture itself and explains how shadow, shape and paint work. Both involve drawing for yourself; what you aim to do after those first lines differs considerably.
Picross DS for Nintendo DS also creates a picture on a grid. There, numbers along the edges tell you which squares must be filled so that one correct solution emerges. Art Academy uses a grid only as a drawing aid: you choose colours, brushstrokes and details yourself. Both require careful observation, but Picross assesses logical placement while the painting course leaves room for your own interpretation.
Dr Kawashima's Brain Training on Nintendo DS breaks practice into short tasks involving sums, words and memory. You track results across several days and try to answer questions faster. Art Academy likewise has a tutor who explains exercises, but lets you work calmly on one picture. The aim is to understand and apply a drawing technique, not to obtain a calculated brain age or a faster sequence of answers.
Big Brain Academy for Nintendo DS tests skills including arithmetic, memory and shape recognition in short minigames. Speed and correct answers determine the result. Art Academy also asks you to recognise shapes and proportions, but you turn that observation into a sketch or painting. You can spend time on a difficult line and look at the example again rather than choosing an answer under time pressure.
Professor Layton and the Curious Village for Nintendo DS combines individual brainteasers with an investigation in a strange village. You examine drawings and situations to find hidden rules or a solution. Art Academy instead uses pictures as subjects to reproduce or change yourself. Both offer explanations on one screen and room for actions on the other, but only Layton connects the tasks to a detective story.
