Colors Live wants to turn the Nintendo Switch into an art tool

By JC Torres/June 11, 2020 5:02 am EST

Although it has the heart of an NVIDIA-powered tablet, the Nintendo Switch's singular purpose makes it less ideal for anything other than games. In fact, it's not even good for general media consumption aside from YouTube and Hulu. Some definitely see it as wasted potential but, fortunately, there are those that are applying a bit of ingenious creativity to get around those limitations, like this Colors Live bundle that wants to transform the console into a digital art canvas, complete with a pressure-sensitive stylus.

Colors' claim to fame happened in 2007 when it launched on the first-gen Nintendo DS, taking advantage of the handheld's unique stylus to offer an equally unique painting app experience. The Switch, of course, doesn't have a stylus and painting with a finger, as many iPhone users can testify, is no fun. Fortunately, creator Jens Andersson had a little help.

On its Kickstarter page, Andersson narrates how an inventor friend from Hong Kong helped develop the tool that will truly make Colors Live unique. It plugs into the Switch's headphone jack for power and uses sonar technology to emulate pressure sensitivity. This would, at least in theory, allow for more expressive and more professional works of art, on the same level as a Samsung Galaxy Note or iPad Pro. Of course, your mileage may vary depending on your skill.

Colors Live isn't just an app, though. New to this Switch incarnation is a Colors Quest, which is pretty much just a gamified daily drawing challenge. From the looks of it, there will be social aspects to the experience, with other players rating your work.

Now for the fun part. Colors Live is currently on Kickstarter with less than two days left to go. There is no longer any question it will reach the goal since it has already blazed past that long ago. All the uncertainty that remains is the shipment of the Colors SonarPen around Summer 2020, considering physical goods often carry more risk than purely digital ones like Colors Live itself.