It shows that as wide as possibilities can be, they will always be limited by the minds of those who have created it
On Super Scribblenauts players take control over Maxwell, a red-hooded protagonist that can summon anything he wants with his magic notepad, as long as the word is not obscene, copyrighted or too abstract to be represented. Players can enter the notepad by tapping an icon on the screen, and from there either typing – using a virtual keyboard – or writing – via a nicely done letter recognition system. Players can go absolutely wild with the game, it is possible to summon a lion slap a hat on his head and make him face a tie-wearing tiger, or even put God and the Devil in the same scenario for an epic battle. This time around controlling Maxwell is done with the D-pad, a more than obvious solution for the biggest issue of the original game: having interaction with objects and Maxwell's movements both mapped to the touch of the stylus, leading to disastrously maddening situation where Maxwell would jump from a hill to his death like a Lemming when you were actually trying to get inside the car that lay close to the same hill. The controls have been greatly enhanced.
The biggest addition to Super Scribblenauts is the fact that now it is possible to give adjectives to the objects players choose to summon, and there are almost no limits to the number of adjectives that can be put before a word, giving birth to the hilarious – yet pointless – beautiful powerful big old Atomic Bomb, or the more useful gigantic machine gun. Adjectives were not added just for the sake of justifying the release of a sequel within such a short period of time. They are extremely useful in order to clear most of the game's levels and add a whole new bunch of possibilities for players who want to clear the same stage over and over again without repeating any of the possible solutions. In the end, the adjectives add a lot of depth to the Scribblenauts experience, and are one of the big missing items of the prequel that have been addressed with care on this improved sequel.
Speaking of levels, Super Scribblenauts comes packed with nearly as many challenges as the original, with the total being well over one hundred. The stages are still divided into two distinct kinds, action levels that focus on leading Maxwell from point A to point B by using an extensive vocabulary, and riddles that start with a mysterious clue hinting as to what needs to be done for players to grab the Starite and proceed to next one. The big difference this time around is that instead of presenting a balanced number of puzzle and action levels, the game puts a lot more focus on the former as there is a total of eleven constellations – the game's version of a world – of puzzle stages, versus only two constellations of action-based challenges. Overall, as the puzzle stages were the easy creative highlight of the original with action levels serving mostly as uninspired and repetitive gauntlets to make the game longer, that new focus alone makes the experience much better and streamlined. However, some fans of the nice variety in level nature will certainly miss that feature.
Still, puzzles alone still offer plenty of diversity in their design. Some of them will have players summoning objects that would be used in a party by the beach, or that would allow a horror movie to be produced; others, place a lot of focus on solving the problems of individuals on screen, usually relating to their mood or necessities; while another bunch will force players to solve odd vocabulary-centered equations, where – for example - man plus wings equal angel. The list of different designs goes on and on, so there is still definitely plenty of variety despite the fact that action levels are now very restricted in numbers. And if all those levels were not enough, players can truly challenge themselves to solve the same stage as many times as possible without using the same words or adjectives, or reach their goal by using as few words as possible. Those are two activities for which the game provides incentives, in the form of achievements; so many experienced gamers will absolutely go after those vocabulary-defying goals.
It is worth noting, though, that Super Scribblenauts – just like its prequel – has some very defined boundaries, which means this is not the Holy Grail of gaming that shall finally give players absolute creative power as to what can be done in order to accomplish an in-game mission. On the contrary, it is not rare to find situations in which words that you think will be enough to address a problem simply fail to do so, not because they are inappropriate for that scenario, but because they were simply unaccounted for when the stages were being built. In a game that is this vast and gives players so much freedom, hiccups like that were certainly bound to happen; however, it is impossible not to feel disappointed in the title when you try to give a snowboard to a kid who – according to the game - loves winter sports, but still does not seem satisfied by the blatantly snow-sports-related item. The logic that guides Super Scribblenauts is the logic of those who programmed it, and due to their humanity some things have naturally gone under their radar and out of the game.
By the time players are done with Super Scribblenauts' main mode, they will have spent about ten hours playing the game and scanning their brains for a word in the game's ridiculously vast vocabulary that will get them out of a tough situation. However, the game will still hold a few good morsels to be enjoyed after that, the biggest one being a Level Editor that allows players to create their own puzzles and share them with friends by using the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection or just letting family members or friends play their puzzle locally while they watch what they can come up with. Super Scribblenauts' concept is so adorable and alluring that even people who have no contact with gaming whatsoever will feel inclined to put their vocabulary to the test once they hear a brief description of how it works. And just sitting back and watching others fumble with the words as they approach the same situation in a completely different manner than you did is a lot of entertainment.
In a nutshell, Super Scribblenauts is a major improvement over its predecessor. The simple graphics and character models remain the very same; the songs are still very repetitive and bland; and the physics where an elephant behaves just like an umbrella are still here; however, some very significant overhauls have been made, and the clumsy frustration of Scribblenauts will be a long gone memory by the time you start playing this sequel.
Actual Score: 8.6