Scribblenauts Review (DS)
Here is a game that should have been great, it sounded great, it sold great, and it even looked great. Turns out, the idea of the game was far better than the execution.
The premise revolves around a boy character that can draw things to life. A skill he desperately needs to be able to solve all the puzzles that are popping up in his life. Each level contains a star that he must reach. If the star is on the top of a tree, he draws a ladder to life and climbs up it.
It’s a really neat idea and with over a thousand different items that register on the drawing board one would think there would be an incredible amount of flexibility and creativity involved with solving each puzzle. The thing is, I couldn’t come up with more then twenty items that were useful. Ladder, helicopter, rope, box, trashcan, ax, ramp, and rock; okay maybe more like ten items.
So maybe it’s more my failing than the games’, but it was pretty clear that when I was stuck I was really stuck. None of this multiple options available for a solution, nothing I came up with would work.
Also the physics of the game left much to be desired. After being drawn into existence, items would just flop around until they hit solid ground. Turning and positioning became excruciatingly painful.
To make matters worse, the character could hardly interact with any of the items that would be drawn into existence, and in the end, it was much more of a rag doll that would be dragged to the finish line. No help there.
Never the less the game is quite playable and fairly fleshed out. I was just incredibly disappointed with the end result. It turned out to not be the game I was expecting to buy.
Release date: September 15 2009
Website: http://games.kidswb.com/scribblenauts/
Developer: http://www.5thcell.com/
Platform: DS
Genre: Action Puzzle Game
Time played: Two hours
