Mario Paint is now available on Nintendo Switch Online’s SNES library—complete with mouse support, music tools, and new save options. Here’s everything you need to know.
Mario Paint Is Back, and It’s Ready to Inspire a New Generation
If you’ve been itching to create pixel art or compose absolute bangers using a dog bark and a Yoshi sound effect—good news: Mario Paint has officially hit the Nintendo Switch Online service.
This retro gem just dropped into the Super Nintendo channel on NSO, making it the first SNES title added since March 2025, and a very welcome return of one of Mario’s most beloved non-platformer games.
How to Play Mario Paint on Nintendo Switch Online
🕹 Nintendo Switch 2 Users
You’re golden. The Switch 2’s new controller has built-in mouse support, meaning you can play Mario Paint just like it was meant to be played—no clunky adapters required.
🧑💻 Nintendo Switch 1 Users
You’re not left out! If you’ve got a compatible USB mouse, you can plug it in and get painting. No extra software required—just connect and go.
Pro tip: Check Nintendo’s support page for a list of compatible peripherals.
What’s New in the Switch Version?
Even though the base game remains untouched, Nintendo has added some quality-of-life upgrades to modernize the experience:
- 🎵 Music composition tools return in full force, letting you build tunes using iconic Nintendo sounds
- 💾 Suspend points now let you save your creations, making it way easier to preserve and tweak your work
- 🎶 The Nintendo Music app now supports tracks composed in Mario Paint—yes, you can flex your 16-bit symphonies outside the game
Why Mario Paint Still Matters
Look, it’s not your typical Mario game. But Mario Paint has long been a cult classic—a title that helped inspire generations of musicians, animators, and weirdly dedicated meme-makers. It’s been used to:
- Recreate the Succession theme
- Drop remixes of Zelda, Kirby, and Pokémon bangers
- Animate stick figure chaos before Flash was even a thing
For a game released in 1992, its creative influence is shockingly modern.
Mario Paint on Nintendo Switch Online
- 🎨 Now available on the SNES channel for NSO subscribers
- 🖱 Supports Switch 2’s built-in mouse control and USB mice on original Switch
- 🎵 Music creator and art tools return, with suspend point support
- 🎶 Composed music can be shared via the Nintendo Music app
- 🕰 Playtime: infinite if you have an ounce of creative energy
In an era of photorealistic graphics and battle passes, Mario Paint’s return feels like a wholesome throwback to when games let you just… make stuff. Whether you’re drawing cursed Goombas or composing remixes of Take On Me, it’s peak Nintendo weirdness—and it’s kind of beautiful.
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