[1][2] Mario Paint consists of a raster graphics editor, an animation program, a music composer, and a point and click minigame, all of which are designed to be used with the Super NES Mouse peripheral, which the game was packaged and sold with.

Per its name, the game is Mario-themed, and features sprites and sound effects that are taken from or in the vein of Super Mario World.

Mario Paint's music composer in particular has been used to create original songs, covers, and remixes using the game's sounds and limitations.

According to the manual, two parts of Mario Paint are meant to familiarize the user with the SNES Mouse: the title screen, where users can click on each letter in the logo and each element on the screen to prompt a respective Easter egg;[3] and a fly-swatting minigame, "Gnat Attack", where the player must swat 100 insects before fighting a boss named King Watinga.

[3] After choosing, the user can draw with a pen (small, medium, or large) and airbrush; [8] fill in a closed area the selected texture with the "paint brush" tool;[9] and create perfectly straight lines, rectangles, and circles that is the color or pattern selected (either fully colored-in, with just an outline, or with a spray-canned outline).

[10] Parts of a drawing can be copied, pasted, and moved to other areas,[11] rotated vertically and horizontally,[12] or erased via pens of six various sizes.

[18] There are also text stamps, such as English, Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji characters, that can be added and changed in size and color.

While Nintendo Power and GamePro suggested that it had enough features and interactive elements to fascinate a person of any age with "even a remote interest" in artistic ventures,[28][38] other reviews, even from critics who enjoyed the program, suggested the program's limitations made its novelty wear thin to those past its young target demographic[33][30][39] and made its high price tag unjustifiable.

's Steve Misery argued that the limitations were inexcusable for a title on a console that can have 250 colors on a screen at a time, stereo audio, and instantly changing graphics.

[31] Mario Paint was honored by the Parents' Choice Award, a non-profit organization recognizing children's educational entertainment.

[42] Calling Mario Paint "perhaps the most ingenious and inspired idea Nintendo ever came up with for a product", AllGame rated it 5 out of 5 stars.

"[49] US Gamer called Mario Paint "an era-appropriate solution to graphics programs on expensive PCs" which is "at least somewhat responsible for our modern era of 2D indie throwback games".

(2003) for the Game Boy Advance, the microgames from which originated from minigames present in Mario Artist: Polygon Studio, which themselves were conceptualized by Kouichi Kawamoto.

The Wii Photo Channel features editing functionality similar to Mario Paint, and includes several of the special erasers.

A remixed Mario Paint soundtrack medley can be played as background music in the Miiverse stage in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (2014).

Ultimate (2018) for the Nintendo Switch through an Assist Trophy called "Flies & Hand", where the flyswatter from Gnat Attack attempts to hit both insects and opposing players.

Titled BS Mario Paint: Yuu Shou Naizou Ban (マリオペイントBS版), this version was modified to use a standard controller without the need of a mouse.

Nintendo had commissioned the joint developer Software Creations, who described the game's original 1995 design idea as "a sequel to Mario Paint in 3D for the N64".

[72] Gnat Attack was also intended to appear in Paint Studio, but it was cut before the final release,[74] though it was shown on several magazine previews and some reviewers received copies including it.