Sunday 25 October 2009

Review time: Scribblenauts!

Ahoy hoy! I've not been around on here for a while, so I thought i'd might as well add a new arrow to my quiver, metaphorically speaking: a new review!

Scribblenauts

Scribblenauts is a game for the Nintendo DS, and gives a simple yet challenging premise: "Write Anything. Solve Everything" This is broadly true.

The game's main attraction is it's ability to summon up any kind of object you can think of so long as it's not Trademarked, a person's Name or a specific Place Name. And that's it. Go nuts.

Example: You're in an aquatic zone. To swim underwater, you can summon up a scuba diving tank, or you can summon up a submarine, or you can summon up a bubble of air. Enemies trying to kill you? Poof; summon up God to kick thier asses. Then, equip God with a Top hat and chainsaw to fight against a Kraken. It goes on and on.

There is a proper adventure mode, as in a series of challenges that test your skill, style and speed in trying to get the Starite. To quote Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw, "It is ALWAYS Stars". For example, you want to get the star down from the tree. How could you do that? There are numerous ways of achieving the goal!
1) Summon an axe and chop the tree down
2) Summon a lumberjack to chop it down
3) Summon a ball to throw at it to knock it down
4) Summon up a beaver to gnaw down the tree
5) Summon a ladder to climb up and get it
6) Summon a jetpack to fly onto it
7) Summon a policeman and throw a doughnut up thier, and watch him scramble up to get them
8) Summon a time machine, go back to the past, ride a dinosaur, go back to the present, knock over the tree with your dinosaur

And so on and so forth. Despite the lack of trademarked things, you still have a huge array of things to summon (22,000 words iirc). So unfortunatley, no summoning Lightsabers or Davy Jones.A complaint I do have, though, is that you cannot summon up any sorts of alcohol. They let you play with rifles, bombs, napalm, nukes, swords, but draw the line at alcohol? Fairly random.

Anyhoo, a good play nonetheless. 8/10, I'd say.
Any ideas for a next review people? Can be a book, a game, a film, a TV series etc etc. Ta!

3 comments:

  1. My friend let me test out hers, first thing I typed was 'Flamethrower'. Didn't expect it to work.

    I recently bought Fallout 3. Might make a good review if you can get it.

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  2. @greenpanda: i agree.

    @Griever: I've had a bash at Fallout 3, it's a great game. Protip: don't rush the main story! Take time to wander around and do side quests, you'll much prefer it then.

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