(Videogame) Scribblenauts

Scribblenauts is a game for the Nintendo DS where you solve puzzles and achieve goals assigned to you by summoning objects. To summon an object, you type in it's name on a QWERTY style keyboard using the touch screen. The amount of options you have are limited almost only by your imagination, as the game's dictionary is immense. There are no drugs, alcohol, copyrighted material, or items with sexual themes, however.

Aside from the puzzles and goals, there are many humorous discoveries you can make. For instance, if you type in “girlfriend” you get the same sprite as a cheerleader. If you type in “boyfriend” you get the same sprite as a lawyer. Lawyers chase ambulances, cheerleaders chase football players. A stalker is a cheerleader with a butcher knife. Though sharing the same sprite, the stalker will not chase football players (though your girlfriend will), but she will chase actors.

Another feature that will keep you interested is that, once completed, a level can be done again, this time requiring you to complete it three times over, not using any of the same objects.

Also, depending on the objects you use and the actions you make, you will receive certain titles at the end of each level, which will be recorded for you. Trying to get all the titles is another feature.

Using less items to complete a lesson will get you more points. You can use these points to buy items from a store, where you can get “avatars”, which are different sprites that you can play as, and music from the various levels that you can then listen to at will.

Between all these features, I'd say the game does pretty well at keeping you occupied with goals. It also makes good use of the touch screen when it comes to summoning items. You don't have to use it, but you actually want to. I find this is rare among DS games. Usually the dual-screen function is implemented well, but the touch screen often feels forced. When implemented, the microphone is usually done well, but gamemakers don't seem to feel as obligated to force it on the player as with the touch screen.

Now, I... uh... never finished this game. Still two levels I can't beat, and a number I can't get perfect on (doing it three times over with no repeated items), but I did unlock every level, beat both the final stages, and bought out the store, so I think I've done enough to have earned the right to review it.

Anyway, I found this game quite relaxing. It keeps your mind active, it requires creativity, it's fun to play around with, just discovering things and experimenting with objects, there's always something to work on, and the game doesn't, for the most part, rush you.

So the gameplay's good, with one exception. And that is, your character, Maxwell (Even if you change the sprite, he's always named Maxwell) is totally suicidal. Other than the one good implementation, this game made worse use of the touch screen than almost any other game I've ever played. And the worst use of any that was still good enough for me to bother to continue playing despite it's flaw.

See, you use the stylus to move objects, to give Maxwell commands, and to move him. This is like making a game where you can only use one button, and it seems like sometimes the game randomly interprets the use of that button in different ways. So if you're trying to tie a rope to a polar bear attached to a helicopter, Maxwell may just decide to interpret your command to mean “drive into the lake and die of the resulting power surge”.

What's worse is when you're manipulating objects on one end of the screen, and then the game informs you that you've lost. It won't show you why. You'll know Maxwell did something to screw you up, but you won't know what, so you won't know what to correct the next time through, or the time after, until you finally guess right.

There is a way to correct this. I tried many things. I tried caging him, surrounding him with dams, tying him to dams, but I found only one thing that would keep him still: making him sit on a harness that's not on anything else. If you put Maxwell on a harness, he won't move or take commands until you tell him to get off.

Unfortunately, this lowers your score, and it won't help on your other two playthroughs if you're trying to win a level with perfection.

So that sucks. Frustrating, but not a game-breaker, in my opinion.

Otherwise...

The music is par. Graphics... sub-par. They had to sacrifice something, I guess. I mean, to create game mechanics for every single item in the English language, and then to do it for, what, five other languages? is a baffling feet to behold. And they didn't exactly skimp out on graphics. It's true that they are primitive, but they stylized it so that it looks kind of intentional. I'm not so foolish as to think it was the best option available, but I do understand that the makers couldn't get bogged down in graphics, and that they did well and made good decisions given the circumstances.

All-around, it's a very unique and entertaining game.