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
Wanna try Scribblenauts for yourself?
