Voxel Maker is a new eShop title for the WiiU. If you’re familiar with pixel art or games like Minecraft you can pretty much get the gist of what you’ll be doing here. Using colored cubes and your trusty WiiU GamePad you’re able create just about any 3D image you can think of. From Castles and forest landscapes to your favorite Nintendo characters and much more! The possibilities are endless.

VoxelMaker is fairly easy to use… once you get the hang of it. As soon as you begin, the games instructions and controls are shown on the screen. After you’ve read those ( I recommend doing so ) you’ll be taken to a blank canvas were you can start creating! Using the stylus you can tap on the different tools/options that are available on the left and right side of the screen. Whenever you’re ready to start adding cubes just tap and they will appear. If you want to fill in bigger areas all you need to do is drag the stylus wherever and your blocks will appear there.

Controls and info

Controls and info

I however, prefer to use the button controls that are available. You can move your cursor with the control pad and adjust the camera with the left and right joysticks. Pressing the A button places a cube, the B button is undo and ZR/ZL let you zoom in and out to get a better look at things. There are also some very helpful tools available. For example a clipboard that lets you copy and paste, a paint tool (if you want to change the color of blocks that have already been placed), a light intensity option that lets you adjust sun exposure and a fully customizable color pallet. If you are lacking motivation there are some sample pieces saved in the game for you to view and edit as you please.

While I had a lot of fun thinking up things to make in VoxelMaker I still have a few complaints about the game. While using the stylus I found the placement to be a bit jumpy.  Sometimes I just couldn’t get it to go into the right spot, that’s why I prefer to use the control pad instead which is much more accurate while placing cubes. Also I cant really comment on the music or sound effects because there wasn’t any. I noticed a few random noises when using tools but they would only happen once in a while making that part of the game seem unfinished.

While background music and whacky sound effects would have been great they are not something that’s necessary. considering most people listen to their own music while doing this type of thing anyways. Visually, VoxelMaker is pretty great. The  game may only consist of squares and blocky creations but everything is very smooth. Also the light effects make the pictures turn out really neat looking when you’re done, making your artwork look 3dimensional and almost realistic.

If you’re the creative type and you’d like to try your hand at making some awesome 3D pixel art VoxelMaker is definitely something you’ll want to try. While it could use a little pizazz and some simpler tool explanations its still a solid art app. It’s also fun to scroll through the Miiverse screenshots and see what others have created. I found some amazing 8-bit Nintendo models while browsing which I’ve added in the slideshow above so be sure to check those out. VoxelMaker is available now in the WiiU eShop for just $4.99!