Scribblenauts: Write Anything. Solve Everything.
In the weeks leading up to E3 2009, everyone already knew what games they were excited for. They knew the big first party releases, they new the big sequels, and they knew exactly what they were going to be reporting on after each of the big press conferences. But if you watch or read any of the post-E3 2009 wrap-ups, you’ll find they all have one little thing in common. Just about every single one mentioned a beautiful little gem of a game called Scribblenauts. A game that came virtually out of nowhere to impress the pants off of everyone who saw it.
Scribblenauts is one of those game that makes you want to call “shenanigans” when you first hear the concept. The objective is simple, just collect a “Starite” from each of the levels. The catch is that the game give you nothing but a magnifying glass and a notebook to scribble in. It’s this little notebook, however, that makes the game special. Anything you write in it appears before you. There are literally endless possibilities of what you can create within the levels.
Need a jet pack to fly somewhere out of reach? What about a SCUBA tank to swim under water? Maybe you need a bazooka to kill a large carnivorous animal. How would you like to just obliterate everything with a nuclear bomb? With the exception of a few caveats (copyrighted material and obscenities) if you can think it, it can be scribbled into the game. Scribblenauts is truly one of the most innovative games I’ve had the pleasure of playing in a long time.
Is the game perfect? The short answer is no. The controls can be cumbersome at times, you can scribble in twenty complex objects before discovering all you needed was a coffee table (yes, that was an actual example), completing the first world in standard mode doesn’t provide enough Ollers (in game money) to buy access to the second world, the handwriting recognition feature is sort of janky, and the only free-play level you get is the main title screen. A screen obstructed by a huge start button in the bottom center of the screen. Even with all these “problems”, this is a really fun and imaginative game. In my opinion, it’s a must have for all DS owners out there.
posted by Christopher Schnese
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A friend of mine showed me this a few days ago. I was completely blown away by how vast their graphics library was. We spent a while trying to stump it (without words that are obviously obscure), and really couldn't. I love that sort of "free input" approach. When you're playing a game with just a handful of buttons and clear instructions, it's all about skill. But with a game like this, or those old text-based adventure games where you need to figure out what the commands are yourself, the sky is the limit. You could play for as many hours as you'd like, and never know if you've exhausted all the possibilities. It's enough to make me want to go out and buy a DS.
I've been having a lot of fun with it. Half the time I don't even attempt to complete the level I'm on. I just play around with scribbling in different objects.
It's really fun to create one thing and then destroy it with something else. It's also fun to try to solve the puzzle in the most ridiculous, Team America inspired way possible.
It would be really cool if you could connect two DSs and do a weird battle mode where you and another person take turns trying to counter each other's attacks.