There are some moments in life where you hear something that sounds like it’ll never happen, or that it’s too good to be true. The gaming industry is no stranger to such. Like when developers make promises during the hype before a game’s release that tend to come up short or not at all. So with that in mind you can understand my skepticism when I first heard the premise of Scribblenauts, promising I can summon anything I please. I’m pleasantly surprised to say I was wrong and Scribblenauts is unlike anything I’ve ever played before. Unfortunately Scribblenauts isn’t perfect and it suffers from a few things that keep it from being a rich experience from start to finish.
In Scribblenauts you play as Maxwell, who simply serves as your avatar or your slave depending on how you look at it. There are over two hundred puzzles that spread throughout ten different themed worlds. There’s no real story except that Maxwell must collect a Starite in order to complete the level. In order for Maxwell to achieve this, he relies on the player to type out and summon objects and animals to aide him. These objects can span from helicopters to cows, pencils to black holes and even devils and angels. There are two modes: Puzzle mode is slower-paced, often requiring the player to think before acting whereas Action mode often requires the player to think on his or her feet. Level difficulty varies from hilariously easy to hair-pulling frustrating. Completing a level earns you in-game currency known as Ollars, and depending on how well you do, you may earn extra for quicker completion time, less items used and more style. Scribblenauts doesn’t offer many unlockables but the Ollars earned can be used to purchase new avatars and music from the in-game shop. Once you’re done or if you’re just bored of completing levels, Scribblenauts also allows you to create your own levels and share them with friends.
What I Liked:
Summon almost anything – You can summon just about anything (not included are copyrighted names, drugs, alcohol, etc.). What makes it even cooler is everything has behavior so animals will act like animals, objects have weight properties and living beings will react to their environments accordingly. The list of things you can summon in Scribblenauts is insane. If it’s in the dictionary it’s probably in Scribblenauts, and then some.
Beautiful art style – The art in Scribblenauts is excellent. The 2D hand-drawn style is cute, vibrant and has it’s own sense of personality. It’s amazing to see just how many unique images there are stored in this little cartridge.
What I Didn’t Like:
Annoying controls – You don’t necessarily control Maxwell; rather you guide him through the worlds with the stylus. Simply point and tap and Maxwell will head in that direction. If a gap or object obstructs his path, he’ll automatically jump over it. While Scribblenauts is not a platformer per se, the fact is during later levels, precision is important and Maxwell’s careless and spastic movement can lead to him crashing into something or worse, falling to his death.
Poor design decisions – Like Maxwell’s movement, you’re forced to do everything with the stylus. This often causes you to do something you don’t want to do. If you miss placing an object or tethering it to another object, sometimes Maxwell will assume you’re directing him and dart in that direction. Also, because you’re doing everything with your stylus, it can sometimes be difficult to try something new. Imagine spending a great deal of time perfecting your plan to solve the puzzle, and accidentally tapping a little off an object’s hit box. Suddenly Maxwell has just bypassed the contraption built to assist him and he’s taken a dive into the molten lava below. Level failed, try again. It’s utterly frustrating and is the cause of most of my failure in Scribblenauts.
Another issue is the levels themselves. While some allow you to really think outside the box, majority of the levels are uninspiring and linear, which really discourage the player from experimenting. By the end I found myself using the same objects over and over again, which was something I had hoped wouldn’t happen. A few levels are so absurd that the difficulty does not lay with figuring out the how it’s done, rather just figuring out a loophole so you can be done with it. For example, a lot of later levels require you to save people. Usually there’s a hindrance, and coupled with dim-witted AI, I often found myself binding those hindrances to unmovable objects and tethering the people to safety.
Annoying Camera – The biggest issue I have with Scribblenauts is the camera. The d-pad/four buttons control the camera, which allows you to pan the entire level at any time. It sounds simple, however someone at 5th Cell decided it would be a good idea to have the camera snap back to Maxwell after a period of time. By period of time I mean roughly one idle second. At first it isn’t too bad because levels are simple and small, however when you get to the advanced levels, which are quite large and complicated, snap-back is infuriating and annoying. The camera is the main cause for a lot of my other grieves. While experimenting and working on some complicated contraption, the camera will suddenly center on Maxwell, even when he’s still in plain view. This causes me to miss the object I’m trying to attach/place and usually Maxwell assumes I’m calling him and he’ll go off running, either trashing my contraption in the process and/or falling to his death. There’s no reason this snap-camera should exist. Even if you argue this is to make sure players don’t lose track of Maxwell, there are better ways of handling it. Pulling the camera away from the player automatically, especially after such a short period is ridiculous.
In closing, I do stress that my issues may not resonate with everyone; some may feel the camera does its job well and others may feel Maxwell handles just fine. While my dislikes may seem to outweigh my likes, I still highly recommend everybody try Scribblenauts. It’s a unique experience worthy of recognition and despite the flaws and issues I had with the game, the positives without a doubt outweigh the negatives. Scribblenauts does something many games fail to do nowadays, and that’s celebrating imagination.