A young girl is standing beside her home, crying. You see her and you look up and see a poor, defenseless kitty stuck on the roof of the building. You must find a way to reunite the two. You type in “wings” and a pair of white, feathery wings appear and you equip them, fly up to the roof, grab the cute kitten and bring it to the little girl. Along with praise you obtain a Starite. That is just one out of more than 200 puzzles you must solve in Scribblenauts, 5thCell’s newly released Nintendo DS title.
The game puts you in the role of Maxwell. You help people using a special notepad. The note pad allows anything you input into it, such as “dragon” or “pie” to come to life. This ingenious idea won 5thCell, the developers, an award for most original game out of E3’09.
There are over 200 levels for players to use their vocabulary and imagination to solve puzzles. There are two game modes. One has you finding ways to reveal the magical starites which are in each level of the game. The second mode already has the starite shown, the player just has to find a way to obtain it.
There are many scenarios to choose from that include helping a fireman and police officer find the tools they need to get their jobs done or as simple as helping a man find some nourishment in the hot desert. But creativity is the key to finding solutions to these problems. Instead of just creating a bottle of water for the thirsty man, you can give him a glass of juice, create a “fire
hydrant” and a “hose” and blast him with refreshing boosts of water or you can even create a “sea” and drop it near him for a longer lasting, refreshing place to relax. There are any different ways to help the people in the Scribblenaut’s world, you just have to use the power of words.
The art design is built with adorableness in mind. The characters are built in this sort of makeshift cardboard, paper and nail mixture with bright colors and wonderful music that make it appealing to all ages.
You can buy extras, like skins for Maxwell and extra music for the game, at the Ollar Store. There, you spend the points you receive after completing a puzzle. There are other features such as the level editor. Players can create their own worlds and share them through a Wi-Fi connection with other Scribblenaut players.
Scribblenauts does have the thumbs up for creativity and originality, but the controls are lacking any of that. You use the bottom screen to interact with the world, things you create and move Maxwell all at the same time. It can get very frustrating when you’re trying to move Maxwell to a basket and place a flower in it for a woman while at the same time trying to battle a bee. Sometimes, Maxwell does not want to go where you want him to or do the things the game wants you to do because the controls are so cracked, it can get frustrating at times.
Scribblenauts is a creative skid mark on the road of originality that won’t go away for a while. The game is so packed with hours upon hours of game play that it will be almost impossible to mix every single creation in the game with each other in one life time. The only downside to it is the controls, which are a little clunky, but that still won’t take the fun-factor away from anyone who manages to grab this at their local game store. If you’re looking for a fun, original game that will suck hours of your life away from you, let it be Scribblenauts.
