Nerd Mentality

DS REVIEW – Scribblenauts

Posted October 8th 2009 by Brandon Schmidt.

As a child of the '80s and an engineer at heart, one of my favorite shows growing up was MacGyver. Whether the science was real or not, I was always fascinated that seemingly innocuous items and materials could be combined to get Mac out of any hazardous situation. Twenty-plus years later, Scribblenauts by 5th Cell Media provides that same feeling of on-the-run experimental science.

Scribblenauts at its core is an exercise in imagination and cause-effect relationships, not unlike a Rube Goldberg drawing or a round of the classic board game Mouse Trap. There's no real backstory with the game. You're simply presented with a series of challenges in two varieties: puzzle and action modes. Puzzle mode tasks you with accomplishing a particular task on each stage, while action mode has you trying to reach a "Starite", Scribblenauts' version of Mario's stars. In order to achieve these goals, you type in a noun using the onscreen keyboard, and that item appears on-screen. The trick is often to find the right object for the job and to use multiple objects in conjunction with each other and your on-screen character. While there are limitations to what you can type in - no profanity and no proper nouns for starters - your possibilities are so vast that there are many, many ways to beat the same stage using different items. Need to make your way through a room full of deadly ninjas? You could simply put a couple bullets in them, or you can get creative by snaring them in a trap, freezing them, or whatever your imagination dreams up. There's a real joy in comparing your solution(s) against those of your friends. A level editor is also included that allows you set up your scenarios that can be saved and sent to friends. This gives additional staying power to an already lengthy game featuring more than 200 puzzles.

While the concept of the game is fresh and fun, the execution isn't always the greatest when it comes to the controls. You tap and drag the stylus to move your character around the stage. You also tap and drag to move items around or to drop them on the on-screen characters including your own. This singular control method proves to be problematic. I often found myself trying to pick up and move an item only to have my character run off the edge of a cliff or otherwise into harm's way because the game interpreted my actions in a manner different from what I intended. It's often a frustrating issue when you're on a stage that requires a long series of steps to reach the goal. There were times I felt like was playing a game of Operation in order to ensure I didn't accidentally do something stupid. It's a matter of precision that could've easily been fixed by allowing players to move their character around via the directional pad. Perhaps this wouldn't have been an issue for a user who was playing the game at a more leisurely pace, rather than trying to speed through it to conquer all of the puzzles. If there were any integral part of this game that keeps it from attaining must-play status, though, it would be the control interface.

Graphically, the game isn't technically impressive, but has a pleasingly simple art style. Everything in the game has a childlike, hand-drawn look to it. I'm sure that part of the reason for this was a stylistic choice, and part of it was to keep it simple enough that they could visually represent more than the reported 20,000 objects that are included in their database of acceptable words. While the music in the game is largely just there for the sake of being there, the developers did a respectable job adding plenty of sound effects for the wide variety of objects.

It's always refreshing when a software developer tries to step outside the box of rehashes and sequels to do something new and innovative. Scribblenauts provides you with all of the tools necessary to spark your creativity and resourcefulness. The game isn't perfect, particularly in the control scheme. Although it didn't quite live up to some of the hype various sources were giving it, it's still a very fun exercise in puzzle solving that would be sure to make even Richard Dean Anderson scratch his head.

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Tags: DS, scribblenauts

Posted in: Reviews, Gaming

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