Scribblenauts (DS) Review
Posted by Adam Larck on 10.07.2009
You’ve all heard about Scribblenauts, but how does this game play? Find out inside.
Title: Scribblenauts
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Developer: 5th Cell
Genre: Puzzle/Action
Players: 1
Rated: E10+ for Everyone 10 and up
Talk about a game that had a lot of hype to live up to. Scribblenauts had been talked about at E3 as a game that would allow players to put any non-copyrighted word they could think of into the game and get an actual object out of the word. There seemed to be infinite possibilities for this game. However, hype aside, is the game still fun to play? Read on to find out.
Gameplay:
First off, I want to talk about the dictionary in the game. I’ve tried hundreds of words, and still haven’t came close to scratching the surface of words available. However, there is a reason for this. Besides having a ton of words in the game, the game also uses a lot of synonyms to produce such a big number. There are multiple words for officer, army men, swords, etc.
Some of these related words do produce different results, though. Sword produces a different looking blade than katana, and there are quite a few various guns in the game. The guns have a three bullet limit before they disappear, but you can always create another one.
As mentioned above, copyrighted words are not in the game. Trying them will often net you an item that you did not expect, or the game will suggest the spelling for a different word, something great for the bad spellers out there. However, there were a few interesting things to see here. Master Chief actually produces an army guy, and both God and Satan are in the game. Internet memes can also be typed in to see different items, such as “rick roll,” “roflcopter” and “Cthulu.” Overall, there is quite an expansive list of words to go through, and most players will probably never see all the words the dictionary has to offer.
The first thing in the game that will catch your attention is the beginning screen. The game doesn’t start you inside the actual challenge mode. It instead puts you into a sandbox mode where you can try words out by typing them on the touch pad to see what things do. As you type different words in the game, you can get different levels to transport to and try the effects out in different areas.
The sandbox mode has actually wasted hours of my time. Trying different words out to see what they would do and how they would interact with each other is interesting to see. Also, it helps give you ideas of what words to use in the actual game to solve puzzles.
Once you finally get tired of the sandbox and hit the star at the bottom, you can create a profile and finally go into the challenge mode of the game. In the challenge mode there are 10 worlds that offer 22 stages in each. 11 of the stages are puzzles, where you have to do a certain objective before getting the Starite to complete the stage, while the other 11 are action stages where the only objective is to get the Starite located somewhere in the level. Each stage has a star number that shows you how difficult the level is supposed to be.
Before going through these, though, you start off in a training level. The University has 11 levels that show you various ways to use different things and get the Starite. However, it is during these training levels that I noticed a big problem with the game.
The controls in the game are annoying. Instead of being able to control Maxwell (the main character) with the D-pad, you have to control him with the stylus. The D-pad and buttons are only used to move the camera around. This wouldn’t be a problem except that is unresponsive a lot of the time. Maxwell often wants to slide a bit past the place I want him to go, and running and jumping at the same time is out of the question. Also, you can’t choose to stand at a certain rung of a ladder, and trying to aim and shoot is near impossible in this game. You have to actually tap the thing you want to shoot at to shoot. The controls probably would have worked out much better with the buttons and just left the stylus to type the words.
Anyways, back to the challenge mode. The first areas I want to focus on are the puzzles. I’ll use level 1-9 as the main example for my review. 1-9 has you trying to knock down milk bottles without crossing the line or using guns. Each level has its own stipulation of what you can and cannot do as well as a par to try and beat by using fewer words than given. You can go over; you just won’t get as much Ollars, the game’s currency. Besides this, you’re given full control over what to do. I knocked them over with a baseball, rocks, dropping animals on them, summoning Cthulu to go crazy. Whatever you can think of to complete the goal is acceptable. However, if you kill the person on a level, there’s a good chance you will fail and have to retry.
After beating a level and getting the Starite, the game ranks you by your par, style of the way you beat the level and the time you took to give you the amount of Ollars earned. I’ll get more into Ollars later in the review, but one of their main purposes are to buy more worlds to do challenges in. Also, you can earn various merits depending on what you use. Think of them like achievements that you can get multiple times and have no value. There really is no use for them other than to brag with other local friends that have the game.
The other stages, the action ones, already have the Starite in the level. It gives you a hint as to what to do, then lets you to find a way to get it. Once again, you have the freedom to get the Starite however you can think of doing it. After getting it, the game ranks you exactly the same as how it does in puzzle stages.
Overall, the stages are pretty varied throughout the game. Sure, you can cheat to get the Starite easier, but why would you want to? However, the controls do bog the game down, and many stages can be solved by using the same few keywords. This is one of these games that can give you a lot of interesting memories or can get old quick, depending on your vocabulary and innovation.
Graphics:
I’m torn on the graphics in this game. On one hand, they’re very cartoony and low quality. On the other hand, I can understand why this is and appreciate it for that reason.
The game has a unique art style where everything looks hand drawn. Honestly, I could draw most of the stuff in the game, and I’m a terrible artist. However, the graphics have grown on me. It’s a unique style that works will for this game due to the simplicity it needs.
With so many objects in the game that look different, it would have been hard to have drawn high quality images for each individual item. The simplistic art style allows for the objects to look different and still be easily told apart from another object. Overall, the graphics are good and offer a unique feel to a unique game.
Sound:
There are 38 tracks in the game, all that can be bought in the store and listened to in the jukebox. The tracks are all instrumental, and nice to listen to in the background. After I got used to a track for a while, I would often hum along with it without noticing.
In each level, the tracks still play, but other than that there really isn’t much to hear in the level. The creatures normally make noises, and some of the objects do to when they are used, but that’s about it. There is no talking in this game. The game doesn’t really need it. The sound is good, just nothing memorable about it after you put the game down and walk away.
Lasting Appeal:
Just trying all the different combinations in the game could take months. That aside, each level does have a Gold star mode that can be done to it. After beating a stage and coming back to it, you have to beat the stage three times in a row to gold star it. However, the catch here is that each time you use an item in one play-through of the stage; you cannot use the same item in the next times. It makes you actually think of new ways and new words to beat the stages. A loophole though is that synonyms still work on the stages.
Besides this, you can buy various avatars and music to change the look of Maxwell and hear all of the games tracks. You can also edit any levels that you have beaten in challenge mode.
The level editor lets you choose either puzzle or action stages. Once in there, you can set whatever items you want into the stage wherever you want. You can also set their personality type (if they’re aggressive, used as mounts, use something else, etc.) Also, you can set the Par, type a Level Hint, change the music track and name your level. Finally, you can place the Starite and playtest the level before saving it. It does give quite a bit of freedom, and levels can be shared with friends over the Wi-Fi. Unfortunately, to share the levels you have to be friends with the person, so there’s no random finding of levels.
Scribblenauts does offer quite a bit to keep you playing, as long as you have a good size vocabulary to go with the game.
Fun Factor:
The fun in this game really depends on the words you know and try to use. If you only have a limited range of words, it will get repetitive quick and you’ll probably lose interest. However, if you have a broad vocabulary, you’ll probably find quite a bit here to try out and will be pretty interested in this game for a while
The 411:
This game lived up to the innovation it had. It really does let you use almost any word you can think of to solve levels. However, the shoddy controls do hamper it from being an amazing game. The game is worth a buy if you’re creative person that isn’t afraid to try thinking out of the box to solve puzzles. If you’re more of a by the book person, you may want to borrow this one or wait for it to drop in price.
Graphics
7.5
The graphics have a very simple and cartoony feel. It works well for a game with so much items in it, but still feels severely outdated when compared to many other games.
Gameplay
8.0
The premise of the game is great and the game delivers on the hype. However, the controls bring this score down a considerable amount. Classic button controls would have been the way to go here.
Sound
7.0
The soundtrack in the game is nice to listen to, but other than that there really isn’t much to listen to. You’ll appreciate the sound in the levels for a bit of background noise, but will shortly forget it after you’re done.
Lasting Appeal
8.0
The level editor can give infinite replay ability depending on how creative you are. Not only that, but seeing how different objects interact with each other can keep you coming back to try new things out for a while.
Fun Factor
7.5
This number can vary depending how innovative you are. If you like to try new things, add a bit more to the score, while if you aren’t imaginative take a bit away. I personally have quite a bit of fun trying things out.
