Scribblenauts (DS)

[dbeth]

I don't know if anyone has heard about or seen this, but this game looks like a BLAST!!

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/05/hands-on-scribblenauts/

Simple, but probably infinitely fun! Just went from "never heard about" to "must-buy" within the past 2 days.

[dbeth]

Re: Scribblenauts (DS)

more HILARIOUS footage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTEUbtgpIgo

[pb4201]

Re: Scribblenauts (DS)

more HILARIOUS footage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTEUbtgpIgo

Anybody picking this up today? Thinking of going to Toys R Us and getting the $15 gift card with it. Anybody got it and have reviews?

[Burns11]

Re: Scribblenauts (DS)

Personally, I think it's a great idea that just isn't implemented in a way that works.

The good:

The main gimmick works to pretty good effect, the dictionary is large and pretty accommodating to what you are looking for.

They include some pretty good interactions between objects.

The bad:

Multiple words often produce the same object, which isn't horrible but it definitely seems like a cheating way to inflate the word list. It also turns part of the game into a thesaurustic exercise (more on this later).

Even though you can summon just about anything, quite a sizable chunk of what you can summon doesn't work as it should, interactions that should realistically work fail. You spend much of the game trying to glean how the developers thought things should fit rather than what should logically fit.

Adjectives don't work. This may sound petty, but it's pretty simple, for instance, to take a balloon and make the sprite bigger and the effects greater if you type in "large balloon" rather than "balloon". Maybe it's just me, because it's such a simple concept, but that it's not there irks me.

The game's difficulty is really uneven, some levels are very simple and done in seconds, others require a lot of trial and error or a lot of precision that takes failures to execute.

On many of the puzzle levels, certain objects will have different properties than the ones you can summon. So, what works one time in another level, might not work in another for sake of making the puzzle harder.

The ugly:

The controls. I can't say enough how bad the controls are. Things that are simple become frustrating very quickly based solely on the controls. Want to jump across a pit of lava? Touch the other side of the pit, sometimes he'll jump across, sometimes he'll just take a long walk into the lava and others he'll jump halfway and fall in. There are a lot of times where precise movement is necessary or you fail. I have turned the DS off way too many times out of disgust because of this.

The camera is just as bad. You use the d-pad (or face buttons if other-handed) to move the camera around the level. This works fine, until the camera decides to, seemingly randomly, snap back to the main guy (don't recall his name off hand). This can be troublesome when manipulating summoned objects on the other side of a level, you spend all this time setting up something, go to move the last piece into place and the camera decides to move right as your stylus is going to hit the screen, making you miss and, because any tapping controls movement, your guy gleefully walks towards your tap often to his death meaning you have to set the whole thing up all over again.

Conclusion:

All in all, it's a great idea that just lacks great execution. I almost think the whole game would have been better as some kind of organic Rube Goldberg, instead of you controlling a player. Even if the controls worked properly, the game feels repetitive and bland. Given a puzzle, because some objects just work better than others you will find the best solution often uses the same objects, so even if you do have all these things at your disposal, you find the same objects coming up ad nauseum. Even if there is some wacky solution, like putting a llama on roller skates with a blowgun to pop a balloon, the game encourages you to find the solution using the least objects so you are best off summoning a dart and doing it yourself. How the game encourages creativity in levels, having you redo the level three times without reusing any object, fails because the game only tracks the words used instead of the object produced so all those synonyms make the solutions extremely simple.

Is there some fun to be had with the game? Sure, but I found that fun extremely short lived. Maybe you can overlook the flaws more than I, maybe you are more interested in this as a toy than a game, maybe you can find more fun after you summon an internet meme or two and put a birthday hat on a zombie. Sure the odd interactions can amuse, if briefly, with putting a mirror in front of medusa a decent example, but searching for those is a bore. Ultimately I think this is one of those games, one of those ideas, that will be good next time when properly implemented.

[Skyboxer]

Re: Scribblenauts (DS)

had it reserved but will wait till later after other more imprtant things are taken care of. Certainly on my get list.

[longshadow11]

Re: Scribblenauts (DS)

One of the things I really like is Scribblenauts making my little girl more interested in spelling and reading.

[allBthere]

Re: Scribblenauts (DS)

I like how it aknowledges my creativity:

type in 'timemachine' and 'teleport' LOL

[goh]

Re: Scribblenauts (DS)

If I had a DS I'd get it....

Rick Astley Vs The Hydra

Duel of the fates! Never has such a pairing fought like this. Actually it was pretty rubbish. Rick Astley danced for a bit, then when the Hydra growled at him, he vanished in a puff of smoke. Never gonna give you up, yeah right! Lies!

Keyboard Cat Vs a Nuke

Although not really a fight, I felt a good sense of satisfaction watching that damned cat blow up.

http://hellforge.gameriot.com/blogs/Idolisides-Blog-Of-Self-Important-Ramblings/Scribblenaut-Battles

[DXZeke]

Re: Scribblenauts (DS)

I took the plunge. I've played about 20 challenges.

I'm pretty impressed with the game. The controls are twitchy, but I'm adapting.

It's awesome how the Main Menu that you start at allows you to toy around with all the objects in the game.

It's pretty cool that when you play a level you can play it again to gain a gold star. The challenge being that you have to beat the level 3x without using any of the same objects on each try.

It was worth the money and I hope that another Scribblenauts comes out.