5th Cell seems to be taking a literal interpretation of the idea that video games are art. Drawn to Life and its sequel (which came out after Scribblenauts), were imaginative titles wherein you had to design chunks of the world yourself. Scribblenauts puts a similar power of creation in the hands of the user except that you’re working with words rather than a paintbrush. Let’s see what a game does when your power stems from language.
Disclaimer: This game was generously provided by Warner Bros. Interactive Studios
Developer: 5th Cell
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Studios
Genre: Puzzle
Console(s): DS
The verdict: Scribblenauts is creative and a great puzzle fix, but it falls short of the massive expectations it sets for itself. As long as you can forgive the movement physics, you’ll have a lot of fun.
Omnipotence takes many forms in video games. In many situations you’re the puppeteer of an adventurer, while other times you can create and destroy houses and cities and then destroy them with fire and meteors on a whim. Scribblenauts gives you omnipotence by giving you the ability to create virtually any person, creature, or object you desire in your quest to solve puzzles. 5th Cell stepped up to the plate in developing this ambitious idea, and while there are some pitfalls in terms of content and movement physics Scribblenauts is an engaging, innovative title.
Spawn “review”
In Scribblenauts you are Maxwell, the curious fellow on the box cover, and you must partake in different puzzles where you need to recover “Starites” to solve them. There are 12 different themed worlds with 22 levels each, with a huge variety of objectives to clear in order to get the Starite you need. On one level you might need to simply reach a Starite at the top of a tree, but in another you’ll have to solve a rodent infestation without hurting them for fear of offending a hippie (seriously). In each world levels are split into puzzle and action segments; the puzzle segments will involve…well, puzzle solving, while action components will deal with clearing out hostile targets. Both components are definitely solid, but the puzzle segments feel stronger and more in tune with the game mechanics.
The stylus is mightier than the sword
The trick is you can use virtually any tangible person, object, or animal to solve puzzles by writing what you want to appear, whereupon it will pop into existence. So if you type in “baseball bat”, a baseball bat will appear and be ready for your use. 5th Cell has really gone all out –you can spawn just about anything you can think of. Want to ride on a pterodactyl while wielding an SMG as you shoot at raptors on the ground? You got it. Maybe you want to see what would really happen in a pirate versus ninja fight if both were armed with flamethrowers? Go for it. Even God appears as a Father Time-like figure, or you can have fun with fantastic creatures like the Loch Ness monster and Cthulu. The sheer amount of available content is staggering, and odds are if you think you can spawn it, you can as long as it’s not profane or copyrighted.
This system lends itself to a diverse method of ways to solve puzzles. While you can generally use the same few objects to solve most of the puzzles in the game, it’s entertaining to tinker with the system and think outside the box. There are badges that can be earned by fulfilling optional achievements within stages, such as not using any weapons. Alternatively if you’re faced with a hostile, your options for clearing it out include a flamethrower, bazooka, SMG, Cthulu, and everything in between. People and animals that you spawn also act fairly realistically to one another; a baby deer and a deer will migrate towards each other, but spawning a wolf will cause it to attack both of them. My favorite instance of this was acting out Biblical prophecy by spawning both God and the Devil to watch them briefly duke it out. Situations like this never get old, and they wind up being as entertaining as the puzzles themselves.
Scribblenauts’ greatest strength is that it rarely forces you to do anything. It would be easy to just use a helicopter and a length of rope to solve most of the puzzles, but you can also be much more inventive than that. The ability to easily solve puzzles by option isn’t a weakness as much as a convenience; aside from some occasional rules you can pretty much help yourself to whatever you want to solve the challenge. You may find yourself humorously fiddling with the in-game dictionary spawner to come up with the most elaborate solution using dinosaurs, ninjas, a pulley system, and a UFO – this sort of freedom is where Scribblenauts shines.
Spawn “better movement physics”
As clever as Scribblenauts is, the item spawning mechanic stumbles over its own ambition. The first problem is that a lot of items feel like copies. For instance, a bazooka, SMG, and pistol all produce the same projectile. “Bridge” and “Beam Bridge” also produce identical bridges of the exact same size, as do “Tree” and “Tarap Tree”, and I ran into this several times when I tried to spawn variations of what I was trying to make. There’s also an issue with item sizes and proper phrasing: I wanted to spawn a taller ladder than the one I had, but “big ladder” or “tall ladder” weren’t recognized. Eventually the game pointed me to the phrase “turntable ladder” which gave me the ladder I was looking for.
The biggest problem which nearly breaks the game in terms of fun is the movement physics and the imprecision of the touch screen controls. The game is 2D, and you move Maxwell around by pointing the stylus at wherever you want him to go. Additionally, you tap whatever you want Maxwell to interact with, so for instance he would climb a ladder. This sounds simple on paper but there are serious recurring problems throughout the game. Tapping on an object you want to interact with doesn’t always register the first time, which can potentially cause a game over. Once I wanted Maxwell to climb a ladder that was next to a lava pit, but he ran right past it and fell into the lava. Maxwell also automatically jumps since there’s no jump button, which lends itself to further difficulty since he has a habit of jumping when you don’t want him to and vice versa. It’s irritating enough to cause several setbacks and possibly a few game overs, but it never prevented me from quickly fixing any mistakes.
No need to try and spawn “replay”
There’s a lot of content to be had with as many puzzles as there are across 12 worlds. On top of that there’s also a level editor that lets you spawn your own items, place them where you want, and even set the temperaments of living beings. All in the puzzles will take a good several hours to solve, but again, your entertainment of the game can go far beyond that. Even if the game doesn’t necessarily force you to come up with outrageous solutions, the curiosity and innovative spark behind it are sure to push you to think outside the box.
Closing thoughts
Scribblenauts had a lot of ambition behind it which pays off with the staggering amount of content and variation of puzzles to be had, but it’s not without issues. The movement physics are punishing at times, and despite the extensive dictionary it feels like the team was cutting corners with copies at certain points. Ultimately, what any puzzle game boils down to is how much fun you’ll have and how well it flexes your brain muscles. As long as you can forgive the sketchy physics, puzzle enthusiasts will have a lot of fun and the game gives you a lot of room to think creatively with the power of a vocabulary.
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