Coincidentally, two articles elsewhere on this here internet today have invoked MS Paint in describing games – one a mobile game, the other console. So let’s see if we can’t learn something about the difference between console and mobile games.
Christian Donlan described iOS beat ’em up Buddha Finger on Eurogamer at lunchtime thus:
“The visuals are endearingly rough, offering cut-scenes, backdrops and enemy designs of the calibre that only a very early version of MSPaint could deliver. None of this is a criticism, of course…”
Then this afternoon came the Official PlayStation Magazine review of Assassin’s Creed 3. Joel Gregory obviously did mean this as criticism:
“Shadows on faces in cut-scenes look like they’ve been added using the spray can in MS Paint…”
So there you go, that’s the difference: on mobile, MS Paint is a good thing; on consoles, not so much. Another tricky question successfully cleared the hell up.