Rating of
2.5/5
Just Buy a Wacom and PhotoShop Elements
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 07/15/11
The uDraw Tablet is a unique device that allows players to transform a normal Wiimote into a Wacom-like tablet by plugging it into a tablet-shaped shell. This shell has a cord-attached stylus and thus takes no batteries other than the ones in the Wiimote itself. Unfortunately, the uDraw Tablet doesn't work with my Wii's System Menu (4.1 FOR EVAH!), so I'm required to pop the Wiimote out of the shell to start games, since the shell stupidly has plastic covering the Wiimote sensor camera.
Bundled with this tablet is the 'game' known as "uDraw Studio." Having been a fan of the mostly-not-a-game, "Mario Paint" back in the day, I was expecting "uDraw Studio" to improve on that classic creative title in every way. After all, Adobe's creative software has improved immensely since the early 1990s and Wacom's tablets are used by designers everywhere. Surely, introductory graphic design tools for the Wii have improved as much? No, they haven't!
Presentation
The "uDraw Studio" interface is clean and simple. It provides easy access to all of the different tools and options. Unfortunately, the included coloring-book pages are not very interesting or well-drawn. Even worse, the quality of the drawing tools is nearly identical to the 18-year-old "Mario Paint!" Every line is blocky and jagged, no matter which drawing tool is used.
The soundtrack for the game is quite nice. While painting, a soothing background tune plays, which can be turned down or off in the options. The game's tutorials are narrated by an easy-to-understand male voice.
Story
"uDraw Studio" is a demo, sandbox, and painting application. There is no story, but then, there isn't a need for a story. This isn't actually a game!
Gameplay
Since "uDraw Studio" isn't actually a game, there is no gameplay... at all. While "Mario Paint" at least had the fly-swatting game, "uDraw Studio" has nothing. So, in this section I will instead discuss the implementation of the software's mechanics.
The ancient "Mario Paint" included drawing, coloring, midi sequencing, animation, and a mini-game. "uDraw Studio" only features drawing and coloring, which immediately makes it pale in comparison to its spiritual predecessor. "uDraw Studio" also suffers from the shortcomings of the uDraw Tablet. The pen tip is digital, not pressure sensitive, which can lead to stuttering lines that cut-out in the middle if the user doesn't really jam the pen against the surface of the tablet. Also, the movement speed of the pen is VERY slow. It can't even keep up with the simple process of signing one's name (not that commercial credit card machines do much better)!
On the other hand, the uDraw Tablet is still pretty neat. The drawing surface is adequately-sized, the pen features two buttons in addition to the tip, and the tablet itself has access to all of the embedded Wiimote's buttons. The potential is there for this hardware to be good, but the software just doesn't take advantage of it. I can't imagine that software implementation can get much better, as "uDraw Studio" is a pack-in demo made by the company that makes the tablet itself.
Not that the software is entirely bad... "uDraw Studio" includes a plethora of drawing environments, canvases, tools, and palettes that blow "Mario Paint" away. But when I look at the Wacom Intuos attached to my PC and the copy of PhotoShop CS4 pinned to my taskbar, I can't help but think that "uDraw Studio" could have been so much better.
Overall
"uDraw Studio" and the uDraw Tablet are an okay deal at the original retail price of $60. It's not possible to buy a Wacom Bamboo Tablet and a copy of PhotoShop Elements 9 for that little money, so the uDraw Bundle still serves the purpose of introducing young kids to graphic design at an affordable price. And based on the crudness of the tablet's precision, it seems like kids are the target market. For anyone older than 10, though, just give your money to Wacom and Adobe.
Presentation: 4/5
Story: n/a
Gameplay: 2/5
Overall (not an average): 2.5/5
