Scribblenauts Review

After seeing the game at E3 we have all waited with bated breath to see this game launch. A puzzle game which really only requires you, your creativity and a bit of spelling. It impressed me when seeing the first run through of the gameplay and how there is no right or wrong answers, just how you want to solve the game using what you think is the right tool for the right job.

The basis of the game is to collect "Starite" to do this you must complete the puzzles that are presented to you. The trick is that you can summon anything to the game area to solve this puzzle whether it is a cat or even a helicopter: whatever you feel will help you solve the puzzle, you can use. To do this you simply write the name of the object or person on the DS screen. However there are limitations you cannot spawn anything which is trademarked or is a potential profanity.

The game is split up into 10 areas; you start in the University learning the ropes of how the game works and what you can do to the objects around you in the game. As this is explained to you, you are also told that there are two different types of levels - a Puzzle style level or an action level. Puzzle levels are real life situations where you have to solve the puzzle to get the "Starites", this could range from using a ladder to capturing a butterfly or helping someone out that you meet in the level. The "Starites" will then appear once the puzzle is solved. Each of the puzzle levels have a PAR to it, in layman’s terms that is the standard number of objects a person has used to complete the level. You are rewarded for being lower than this, so creative thinking is always good to use. You are also rewarded with merits for doing or not doing certain things within the challenge, for example not using weapons or not hurting any animals within the levels.

The second type of level is an action level where there is no puzzle to solve, you simply have to get to the "Starite" which is located within the level. This is more of a side scrolling puzzle game where there are switches and spiked traps, where some careful thinking before you move is important. Once a level has been complete a silver star is added to the side of it. This allows the level to be played in free play mode, at this point you are then challenged with completing the level three times without using the same object. So if on your first go you used a helicopter to cross the river you can’t use it again. So using a lot thought is essential if you want to get a gold star for that level.

By getting certain rewards like being under par and finishing the level quickly you are rewarded with Ollars. This is in game money which allows you to purchase new areas to play in as well as avatars and other bonus features for the game.

To move your character you use the stylus which sometimes isn’t the best thing in the world. Having played it for a while, I have on more than one occasion accidentally sent my character flying across the screen, or when trying to get them into a car or other vehicle they will just proudly stand upon the vehicle rather than get in it. As well as the niggles with the controls I have also found that sometimes the suggestions that were given to me by the game because of my poor spelling were not what I was after.

Scribblenauts is a fantastic game and you have hours of fun just playing around with the sheer number of limitless things you can play with in this sandbox area. As the puzzles get more difficult I feel that some younger children may slowly get bored of the game. However due to the Ollars you collect you can skip the hard levels and still carry on with the game. With all the challenging puzzle games on the Nintendo DS, it is nice to see this one is refreshing and adds a whole new dimension to the puzzle genre.