Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

10 Hours or Less

The Bottom Line:

"Almost, but not quite"

Scribblenauts was a game that seemed to come out of nowhere. When it was shown at E3 2009, it was getting a lot of hype, winning awards, including Game of Show, which was the first handheld game to win such praise. Did the game live up to it's hype? Yes, but there was still more potential. Let's review this.

You play as Maxwell, a person with a rooster hat. The goal of each level is to collect Starites in each level. There are two different types of levels, Puzzle and Action. Puzzle levels were my favorite. For those levels, you have to figure out how to solve the objective, and then a Starite appears. For Action levels, there is a Starite on the screen already, and you have to find out how to get it. When you begin, the game gives you a hint, which will tell you what to do. Sometimes that hint is very vague.

The main gimmick of this game is being able to draw up stuff. The title screen is pretty much your own sandbox(In fact that's my favorite part of the whole game!). You can test out a whole bunch of things that you can write. To bring up your notepad, you press the notepad button. Once you are there, you can type up almost anything. I say almost because you can't type up anything that's trademarked or profanity. Also, if you spell a word wrong, the notebook will try to come up with a word, or if a word has a multiple meaning, for example, a submarine, then it will ask you to elaborate.

The game is very fun. The puzzles have many ways to solve them. You can use many things to solve puzzles. Plus, if you play a level again and beat it three times using different items every time, you get a gold Starite.

Sometimes you might get stuck on a level, and you feel like taking a break from the game. But then later in the day, your mind starts thinking of tons of ideas. That happens all the time with me. See, I have a vast imagination, and I seem to daydream all the time. I always imagine up crazy stuff, and thanks to that I always come up with stuff to solve puzzles.

As much as I have been giving the game praise, there are some problems with it. First of all, the infamous controls. The game uses the touch screen to move. The controls are slightly unresponsive, and there are no seperate buttons to jump, etc. I wish you could use the control pad to move. And you before you tell me, I am aware that Super Scribblenauts fixes this problem, but this the original Scribblenauts, and the controls are problematic. Another problem is a lack of clues. You can't ask for anything to help you. You are on your own. And just like the controls, Super Scribblenauts fixes this problem as well.

The game also has a level editor and you can come up with some crazy things. You can write down a whole lot of stuff, create a goal and more. You can then share them with friends with DS to DS Multicard and over Wi-Fi. It is a bit confusing, at least for me. But with a bit of trial and error, you can come up with some of the best levels your mind can make.

When you beat a level, you get Ollars, which is the currency of the game. You use the ollars to buy songs, avatars, and more worlds. You also get merits, which are awards that you get from making and using different types items.

THE VERDICT!

Scribblenauts is a fun, charming, innovative game. However, I think there is still more potential. All the game needed was a few more monthes, and it could have much better. But the game is still one of the best titles for the DS. So I think it's worth buying.

Final Score-
8 Great