There isn’t much to say about Alive Paint, from Eastasiasoft, as there’s not much to discuss. Does that mean we skip this and look at something else? Not at all. It’s just not that kind of game.
Like Comic Coloring Book by Reindeer Games, this is a colouring game. There are 45 images to be coloured, and that’s it. There’s a wide range of objects to choose from with no particular theme, and you work your way through, garnishing it with some colour. Once complete, the canvas will come alive, a.k.a. animate.
The art in Alive Paint is cute, and the interaction with the palette is good – especially with the Switch’s touchscreen. It looks like there aren’t many colours to choose from, but select a colour, and it opens up a few shades – more than enough for the type of graphics presented in the game.
I was under the impression that Alive Paint would appeal to my younger daughter, but she only did a couple of the images. Asked whether she liked it, she said she did, but it was a little awkward. It didn’t give her the same creative freedom as her Procreate app, nor did it have the tactile feel of crayons – it was just… different. Those aren’t her words. If she were that articulate at six, I’d get her to do the articles on the site.
The bottom line is how you feel about selecting parts of an image and filling it with colour. Doing it one after the next is monotonous and spoils the experience, but doing a few at a time is much better. Plus, because there are no restrictions or explicit tasks, you can do as you please.
Alive Paint isn’t demanding, but I took a bit more time with this, opting for fewer doses over an extended period. For parents who can’t pry their kids away from a screen, this would be better than them playing Fortnite, and for adults, it’s somewhat comparable with those ‘mindful’ colouring books you see. Again, it’s not the same as doing it on paper, but at least you don’t run out of ink and still feel pretty relaxed after doing so.
