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. "Honest Gamers" stated, "It has very little flaws, if any, is very addictive, and even a child can use it. The games never get old and none of it ever gets tedious. It is one of the best games for the SNES." Josh Despain of "Defunct Games", however, opined that while it was a "bold and unconventional move" for Nintendo to release a Mario product that wasn't a game, thus being a "unique piece of video game history," it's was nothing more than just another "simplistic" paint program, only with a Mario theme.