Review: Scribblenauts (NDS)

There’s no story to speak of at all, you're simply a guy named Maxwell in a silly hat who can write anything on his magic notepad, via handy qwerty keyboard or your own handwriting (which the DS won't recognise), and bring it to life. Kind of like the opposite of Death Note. The point of this is to collect 'Starites'. You get the Starite, you finish the level. Why do you need the Starites? Who cares? You're riding around on a T-Rex! At least that's what you'll be thinking initially with the game.

There are two types of level in Scribblenauts, puzzles and action, and a total of ten worlds with eleven of each, meaning you're getting a fair chunk of levels  for your cash. Each level has an arbitrarily assigned par for summoning items. The fewer items you summon to complete the stage, the more points (or 'Ollars') you earn, which you then spend in the game's shop to unlock more levels, silly hats, music, etc. The action stages are the simplest, as they task you with retrieving the Starite in whatever way you can. Sure, there might be some enemies to defeat or a few doors blocking your way, but the method is up to you. You can summon Cthulhu or a dragon to kill your enemies, perhaps both! Or you can simply suck everyone into oblivion via a black hole. If there's a gap to cross, you can summon Pegasus to fly you over, or a helicopter, or build a bridge - whatever you fancy, as long as it's not copyrighted. The trouble with these levels is that, yes, you can summon everything, but a good chunk of them can be solved by summoning the same items constantly. Even if you do create a jet pack instead of a space shuttle to move around, they both produce the exact same results.

The puzzle levels fare better, since you have to think about what items you need to use to complete specific objectives. One early level tasks you with protecting a piece of cake from ants, but a nearby hippie will not let you hurt the ants. Solution? We created a cage and put the cake in it. Problem solved. Each of the stages give you a clue to help you progress. Some are incredibly simple, like "Score a goal" for a level featuring a football pitch; simply draw a ball, pick it up, and run in to the goal (though we're pretty sure that's cheating). Others are fiendishly difficult, such as the puzzle that tasks you with recreating Back to the Future; it took us a few returns to that level to figure out exactly what to do. In these, the items you use are sometimes specific, so it works like a more traditional puzzle game, except you've got all the answers and it can be a simple case of trial and error. There is some replayability in the stages, because you can go back to each level twice more, with the added restriction of not being able to summon items you have before; but since a lot of items do the same thing, it's just creating variations on "gun".

As well as the above issue, you'll sometimes try and summon items  that won't work the way you expect. For example, you can summon a crab, and a Giant Enemy Crab (5th cell know their memes), but typing rock and giant rock gets you the exact same size piece of stone.  And while a good chunk of the puzzles are clever and fun, there's equally as many that are uninspiring bore-fests or just plain frustrating. Graphics and music fare well enough, though we question the weird running animations for Maxwell.

Speaking of movement, Scribblenauts' worst offense is the absolutely ridiculous way which players control the main character, and considering some of the puzzles require platforming, this is completely inexcusable. Players use the stylus (not the d-pad, which is resigned to camera control) to vaguely point Maxwell in the direction they want him to move and hoping he stops when you want him to, instead of wandering off a cliff. It's  like trying to move a drunken, blind dog (incidentally, alcoholic beverages of any kind are not permitted in Scribblenauts, so don't bother trying that combination). You also use the stylus to interact with objects; in theory, clicking on them causes a menu to pop up asking how you want Maxwell to interact with them. However a lot of the time nothing will happen, or Maxwell will just run next to the object. It's ridiculous, cumbersome, and whoever thought this was a good control method deserves a swift kick to the skull.

Scribblenauts is a great idea, with some questionable execution, and some laughable design decisions. When you start the game, you can play around on the main title screen by summoning pretty much any item or character you want and watching them interact with each other. Gamestyle thinks most people will find a bit more enjoyment in having pirates fight ninjas than in some of the game's proper levels. Still, we hope 5th Cell take these criticisms and work on the idea, because they could be onto a real winner if they go back to the drawing board.

Rating: 7 / 10

Words by Garry Webber