Bioshock 2’s story begins ten years after the first. After a brief introduction of Delta, one of the first Big Daddies made in 1959, the timeline jumps to 1970 where Delta finds himself awakening in a damp and deserted Rapture. Due to the bond between Big Daddies and Little Sisters, Delta immediately begins the pursuit in locating his Little Sister named Eleanor. Eleanor plays a very important part in the story, not only because of her connection to Delta, but because she’s also the daughter of Sophia Lamb. During the power struggle between Andrew Ryan and Frank Fontaine, Sophia Lamb secretly built her own following, and with the two tyrants dead, she seized the opportunity to build a utopia in her image. Delta’s pursuit of Eleanor puts this at risk, and thus, Sophia Lamb and her cult becomes the antagonists of Bioshock 2.

What I Liked:
Improved combat – The first Bioshock was an average shooter. It didn’t take many risks but the Plasmid mechanic worked well enough to allow for some variety in dispatching Splicers. Bioshock 2 builds on that by allowing duel-wielding a Plasmid in one hand and a gun in the other. It allows for better tactical approaches to fights and offers a lot more variety than its predecessor. The Big Daddy drill is a nice welcome, replacing the wrench from the first game though it isn’t very efficient until fully upgraded. The new and improved Plasmid abilities offer more variety to combat enemies, but they don’t offer too great of a significant difference.

Amazing sound – Bioshock 2 manages to keep you immersed from start to finish with an impressive amount of ambience. Everything from the sound of water dripping to the explosions, Rapture has never sounded better. The voice acting is still great and the soundtrack remains relevant to the time period.

New, yet familiar gameplay – Bioshock 2 doesn’t deviate too far from the original. A lot of mechanics including control schemes and actions have returned so veterans will feel right at home. New mechanics like the hack darts offer different ways to approach turrets and cameras, but the rhythm mini-game that’s replaced the pipe mini-game from the first is a lot more frustrating to use in difficult situations and takes a lot more patience. It’s a risk to recycle old play mechanics in games, but Bioshock 2 manages to successfully reapply them. A completely new sequence that occurs during the end portion of the game provides a peek into the potential of Bioshock’s future, which leaves hope for future sequel(s).

A more focused story – In the first Bioshock the story was divided, and because of that division the narrative suffered some, either because of pacing issues, information not being able to be revealed yet or it just simply not being strong enough. Bioshock 2 somewhat fixes that by focusing on a consistent story path while injecting a reasonable amount of morality that hits a lot harder than before. This allows choices made to have greater impact and context to the narrative, allowing for a much better pace.

What I Disliked:
A less impressive story – As I mentioned, I thought the first Bioshock started and wrapped up nicely. Never once did I question what others people in other parts of Rapture were doing, because the game made it pretty apparent that it wasn’t necessary. Bioshock 2’s story somewhat proves that to be true. Sophia Lamb, when compared to Andrew Ryan or Frank Fontaine, doesn’t pass as a believable leader character, at least one who can command Splicers to do her dirty work. The overall quality of the story is a lot more focused than the first game, but Bioshock 2 really doesn’t go anywhere and by the end of the game, it felt like nothing was really accomplished. The moral choices were done a lot better, but much like in the first game, their significance to the overall experience were very basic and once those moments were over, they really had no impact on later events until the end, which then only determined a good or bad ending. At first, the story was very enjoyable and felt like it would be a solid experience. However, as the story went on, much like the first, the quality began to fall and by the end, the feeling of completeness had begun to diminish.

Weird changes – Although the developers improved on many aspects, some of the changes made to accommodate the additions resulted in some odd changes. For example, Delta is able to refill his Eve meter automatically, and from a design standpoint it’s assumed this is why he can only carry five Eve hypos at a time (as opposed to nine from the first). However, Delta cannot automatically refill his health and requires manual injections. This would have not been an issue but because they added melee strikes to combat, the heal button was moved to the directional pad. This means removing the thumb from the joystick—presumably moving you—to heal. It doesn’t work too well in high-pressure combat situations and ultimately becomes an inconvenience. Also, because it’s assumed that health cannot be administered the same way as Eve, that doesn’t explain why Delta is restricted to carrying only five health hypos in the first place.

Delta the weak daddy – Arguably the most annoying aspect of Bioshock 2 is just how weak Delta feels. Not only does he carry less Eve and health hypos compared to Jack from the first Bioshock, but it takes even less damage to take him down. On normal, Delta can have all his health drained in a matter of seconds. Melee strikes can take up to half his health in one hit. It begs the question as to why even a prototype Big Daddy, who was built with the intention to be a protector, would be so susceptible to damage, especially when Jack, who dawned just a sweater and slacks, could withstand twice as much as Delta, even on hard difficulty. When Delta begins to become stronger through upgrades, that feeling begins to go away but there’s never a real significant moment that says, “Yeah, that’s right. I’m a Big Daddy!”

Rapture no more – The things that stood out the most from the original Bioshock were the level designs themselves. Atmosphere and attention to detail in the architecture gave Rapture personality and made it an important part of the experience. The initial moment you gazed upon the underwater city and then every moment after spent in its rooms and corridors just oozed atmosphere. Everything felt like it belonged and nothing seemed out of place. Bioshock 2 decides to go a separate way and contain almost every location to low-level passages or areas blocked off from view of the city. Looking out a window in Bioshock 2 meant seeing some blurry landscape in the distance, a few rocks or coral and a whole lot of ugly. This probably comes at the decision to have Rapture rot for ten years, but the decision to have majority of the game take place in ugly, almost indistinguishable and generic-style levels really takes away some of Rapture’s personality. It’s as if the developers were trying to make a deliberate counter-point to the original’s presentation methods so people could tell the games apart.

Basically Bioshock 2 feels like an honest effort for a lost cause. While it surpasses the original in gameplay with its improvements, the game still suffers from a weak narrative and unbalanced pacing. Despite being skeptical, I felt Bioshock 2 did a lot to try and move the series in a proper direction, but it’s obvious the sequel was never meant to be. It’s almost completely detached from the first and tries to get by on simple references and similar mechanics. The story feels like a build up to an eventual third and in the process manages to ruin a lot of character the original brought.

What I Liked:
Action! Action! Action! – If you’re looking for an action game, you’d be hard pressed to find a game with more action than Bayonetta. Both the introduction sequences AND credits are playable, allowing you to continue kicking butt where other games would halt. There are very few moments where the action lets up and when it does, it picks right back up.

Perfect controls – A lot of action is one thing, but none of that would matter if you had terrible controls, right? Luckily Bayonetta’s controls are some of the smoothest I’ve ever experienced in an action game. The seamless transitions between dodges, combos and counters are so smooth that it feels like you have one hundred percent control over the character. With advanced techniques like the dodge offset, which allows you to stop mid-combo to dodge and then continue that combo, Bayonetta’s combat is unbelievably rewarding to both control and watch.

Sounds so sweet – There are probably people out there who spit at one version of Fly Me to the Moon featured in Bayonetta, but if you can get past that, the Bayonetta soundtrack is superb. Commonly classified as “J-Pop”-esque, the music featured in Bayonetta is a very satisfying comparison to the gameplay. It’s very up beat, fun and yet delicate at its core. Also featured are remixes of music from classics Sega titles such as After Burner, Out Run and a few others. They feel like great little throwbacks to old school gaming, yet feel like they fit in Bayonetta’s universe just the same.

Done Yet? – The amount of unlockables in Bayonetta should keep any completionist busy for some time. Finding gold records scattered throughout the levels will unlock weapons while completing the game under certain circumstances (time, difficulty, etc.) will unlock new accessories to use in combat. There are even costumes and characters to unlock and play through the game as. Even those characters have their own list of things to unlock!

What I Disliked:
Unpolished, afterthoughts – While the combat controls in Bayonetta are exquisite, the Angel Attack mini-game and a couple chapters feature a different control scheme that feels very unpolished. There is less precision and require a type of play style almost completely different from the rest of the game. Due to such a drastic difference, they feel like afterthoughts or unfinished areas that could have used a lot more work. Luckily there are only a couple of these sequences so it’s not that bad. They’re not terrible and that’s not to say they’re unappreciated, but these particular sequences just go on for way too long.

Unforgiving moments – As amazing as Bayonetta is, it is no walk in the park. On Normal mode alone you may find yourself dying a lot. The learning curve can be quite steep if you’re not used to Bayonetta’s level of on-screen insanity, and that wouldn’t be an issue but the developers decided to almost never throw you a bone. Sometimes the game throws an a lot of difficult battles one after another and you’d be hard pressed to ever see them drop any items that replenish your health. Even on Easy. You’re offered the ability to concoct herbs that’ll heal you and help you in battle, but the game actually considers this a bad decision and penalizes you. This frustration extends to Quick Time Events (QTE) as well. Any failed QTE in Bayonetta either means death or a large health penalty. Unless you know they’re coming, the precision required to hit the right button at the right time feels extremely unforgiving. Luckily there are only a few QTE moments in the game, but overall, it still ruined some of the experience.

Unjust penalties – In Bayonetta, you are graded on everything you do from combo quality to how much damage you take and everything in between. At the end of each “chapter” (or level), you’re given an overall grade. If you die during a fight or use any items, the game will penalize your overall score, so even if you’re flawless throughout the game, if you die more than twice at any time, your overall score is a big, fat zero. In other words, you’ve failed. This is a personal issue, but it’s a little hard to swallow sometimes with cheap moments like failing a QTE event or missing a battle you had no idea existed. This issue shouldn’t hinder anyone from playing the game, but if you’re a completionist like I am, this could cause a lot of grief.

What’s going on?! – The story in Bayonetta is somewhat of a mess. The main line of confusion comes from the tone of the story. Throughout most of it, the story never seems to take itself too seriously, balancing on the lines of bizarre and absurd. However there are moments where the story begins to get way too serious leaving the question of whether to interpret it as satire or something else entirely. I have to admit, if you’re going to play Bayonetta for its story, you will be disappointed. However if you can get past it, you’ll probably enjoy the game a lot more.

Overall I found Bayonetta to be well worth the money and would recommend everyone at least give it a try. I played the God of War Collection a couple months before Bayonetta and I do think Bayonetta’s going to change the standard for good action games. It without a doubt deserves praise for having such a smooth and different approach to the beat-em-up style genre than we’ve seen lately. Despite a short length (it can be beaten in seven or eight hours), the amount of replayability, unlockables and overall fun factor can hardly be matched by other games of the same genre.

What I Liked:
Atmosphere – From the first moment you set foot into the world of Demon’s Souls you are surrounded by the overwhelming fear of the unknown. Trapped in a world with creatures waiting to kill you behind every corner, the only thing protecting you is a dainty shield in one hand, rusty sword in the other. Slowly trekking forward in the darkness, the only thing visible is you and a tiny crystal that lights your way, hearing footsteps pattering on the cold, hard concrete below you. Suddenly you’re ambushed and stabbed from behind! As a scream of shock leaves your lips, you notice you need new pants. It’s a feeling you never quite shake when traversing the world of Boletaria. The game does an excellent job of placing you in a world where you truly feel alone, and the fear of the unknown keeps you paranoid. Even when covered head-to-toe in armor, the mightiest of knights still shake in their boots.

Simple yet effective combat – Fighting in Demon’s Souls is hardly revolutionary. You have a weapon, and so do your opponents. You swing at each other until one of you dies and move on. However, as simple as it sounds, in order to fight effectively in Demon’s Souls, you have to master the mechanics. Everything from weapons, armor, stats and knowledge of your enemy can affect how you fight. You may be a hulking knight with a sword as big as he, or you may be a swift and crafty mage, weaving and dodging your way out of trouble. While Demon’s Souls starts out with the basics, it quickly forces you read your opponents and learn to adapt.

Punishment is punishing – Let’s put this into perspective: The game purposely kills you in the tutorial. This serves as a warning of things to come: you’ll die. A lot. Not only does Demon’s Souls have no difficulty but the game never, ever gets any easier. If you die in a level, no matter how far you’d gotten, you have to start at the beginning or the last place you killed a boss demon. It doesn’t stop there. Many things you do in the world change the difficulty of the game as well. For example, if you die in human form, the game literally gets harder. Enemies become stronger and you do less damage. If you die in soul form, you better hope you don’t die again or all those souls you’ve been saving are gone, forever. In most games you’d have to be a masochist to continue on, but in Demon’s Souls you never feel like your deaths were unjustified. You feel like you could have done better. It encourages you to keep trying and when you’re finally successful, it feels like a well-earned victory.

Online features – Demon’s Souls brings a lot of new ideas to the multiplayer concept. You can read messages left by other players and see how others died by touching their bloodstains, which can sometimes come in handy, especially when fighting a boss or exploring a new area. There’s co-operative play and player-versus-player duels, both of which come in the form of summoning players into your game. By placing the proper stone down, it’ll allow other players to enter your world to either help you or slay you. One of Demon’s Souls bosses will actually summon another into your game to fight for it, and the only way to proceed is to defeat that player. These features not only make the game more immersive, but a lot more intense by increasing fear of the unknown.

What I Disliked:
Annoying camera – For the most part, the camera does its job. It follows the action well enough that you know what’s going on. Unfortunately, the lock on is almost completely useless. In order to lock on to an enemy you have to click the right stick. At the same time, in order to reset the camera behind your character, you have to click the right stick. This means if you’re not directly focused or in range of your target, the camera will instead reset to behind you. Another issue with the lock on is it tends to focus on enemies furthest away from you. These issues can sometimes cause you to walk off edges accidentally because the camera’s swung around to focus on an enemy in the distance in another direction. As a pure mage, it was impossible for me to actively rely on my spells due to the inability to manually aim. Instead I was forced to use the lock on system, which only worked forty percent of the time in difficult scenarios.

Multiplayer grief – The online aspect is a wonderful concept, and it does in fact bring a lot of new ideas to the multiplayer aspect. However, one personal annoyance with Demon’s Souls online play came at the hands of “Griefers”: the players whose sole purpose is to annoy, irritate or harass other players for the sake of their own amusement. As fun as I’m sure invading people’s games and inviting others to duels are, a lot of people abuse these features and there’s no way to avoid them. If you’re in human form and you’re doing a quest, any one at any time can summon themselves into your game and if they are successful in killing you, all the progress, souls and time you’ve invested are gone. It’s not really a burden but the annoyance of having to redo a quest or retrace your steps because of this mandatory feature can be frustrating.

Not the sharpest tools in the shed – There were a few moments in Demon’s Souls where enemies would get stuck on terrain or allow me to exploit invisible walls. It’s not a game breaker per se but seeing some of the more menacing enemies foiled by debris had me face-palming sometimes.

Personal issues aside, Demon’s Souls simply requires patience. With an old-school style aesthetic, unique level designs and new approach to multiplayer, it’s obvious how Demon’s Souls has become so popular by simple word of mouth. It’s a game that requires discipline and focus, demanding players recognize, understand and learn to improve. It’s one of those games that changes the way you play, and a definite must-buy for gamers looking to try something fresh, yet remains reminiscent of old-school gaming.

The music in Flower is fantastic, and the way it progresses is completely dependant on how you gather petals. Beautiful acoustic and orchestral pieces fill the player’s speakers with peace, tranquility and an overall calmness that compliments being able to fly freely anywhere within a level, gathering at your own pace. As the game progresses and introduces dangerous obstructions, the tone of music definitely drops, furthering the immersion and sense of dread coming. As the tone picks up however, the final moments of Flower are rewarding and uplifting in an indescribable manner.

It’s not a very long game. In fact, you could probably beat all the levels in one sitting, but Flower is not a game to be played just to beat. The gathering of all the petals in a level, experimenting with the wind and just flying around the beautiful environments to the amazing soundtrack is a wonderful relief of stress, especially after a long day at work. The nature of Flower’s concept is simple yet so well executed that it shows games don’t need blockbuster-budgets to create something amazing. It’s truly a work of art and I’m glad the developers, thatgamecompany are getting some well-deserved recognition for their efforts. If you’re looking for something new in your games, Flower may be just what you’re looking for.

What I Liked:
Undead slayer – You fight zombies. You fight lots and lots of zombies. If you’re a fan of zombies like I am, you will not be disappointed in just how many zombies you mow down at a time, and surprisingly, they’re difficult to kill unless you shoot them in the head! These aren’t your average Left4Dead infected; these are the true old-school zombies from the Romero films and they’re a blast to slay.

A great place to die – Surprisingly, the overall map size in Zombie Island is quite large for downloadable content. They’re fully developed locations with levels of terrain and manage to do quite well when compared to the rest of Borderlands. The atmosphere, which is almost a complete one-eighty of Pandora’s wastelands, is done very well, too. Murky and damp swamplands make up most of Jacob’s Cove along with a lumberyard and graveyard to boot. You can almost smell the stench of rotting corpses and zombie bile filling the dead air of Jacob’s Cove.

Humor – Though there’s a lack in story, the developers manage to squeeze in some great little comedic nudges. For example, Dr. Ned looks awfully a lot like Dr. Zed, only with a mustache cleverly taped on his face. Throughout the game, there are constant references to the already seemingly obvious, but by game’s end, it’s apparent Dr. Ned was not in fact Dr. Zed. Most saw this as a waste; I saw it as a great poke at the players. There’s a lot of subtle humor, especially if you’re a fan of old-school horror and zombie movies, and if you’re like me, you’ll probably enjoy those little references a lot more.

What I disliked:
Lack of story – Much like Borderlands itself, the story takes a backseat to the action. If anything, the story feels very B-movie with an absurd plot with no real direction. It seems to only exist to keep the gameplay moving forward and feels like an afterthought. It’s nice to see consistency in the story department, but I’d like to see an actual fleshed-out narrative sometime in Borderland’s future.

Poor design choices – There’s only one spawn point in Jacob’s Cove and it’s at the very beginning where you enter. It wouldn’t be so bad if there were checkpoints or other key locations, but having to traverse area after area over and over again can become tedious. Especially if you have to stop playing and you’ve gotten pretty far, it can be a real annoyance to have to trek all the way back when you boot the game up again.

Stop spitting on me! – It seems that a good number of the new enemies featured in the DLC have attacks that literally slow you down. Explosives, zombie puke and even being struck by the undead will often leave you stuck or moving extremely slow. It’s funny at first but after a while, the constant rain of zombie bile and slow downs really started to test my patience.

The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned DLC isn’t very long and if you’re not a huge fan of the zombie genre, you may not find a lot to appreciate for its price. However, it’s still a fun expansion and if you’ve got the extra money/points, I recommend purchasing it. Great subtle humor, old-school zombies and quite a bit to do in a great amount of space make the Zombie Island of Dr. Ned a must buy in my book.

What I liked:
Loot, guns and more guns! – The greatest thing about Borderlands is the randomly generated loot system. Each gun, heath and shield modifier carries its own stats, which means your chances of picking up the same item with the same stats twice are extremely low. It’s possible to spend hours simply looting locations over and over to find better and stronger stuff and it never ever gets old.

Presentation style – Everything from the music to the characters makes Borderlands very unique and gives it individual style like nothing seen lately. The art style especially makes Borderlands stand out in such an overcrowded genre. A cell-shaded comic book style provides Pandora, its inhabitants and the overall presentation with a unique and fun alternative to the dull-colored, realistic approach of other modern day shooters. Its actually a nice change of pace and compliments the comedic undertone of the entire game.

No rest for the wicked – Each class in Borderlands plays very differently, and on top of the looting mechanic and online co-op, there’s a lot of replayability to be found in Borderlands. Not everyone may agree with that, but again, if you’re a big fan of looting in games, you should feel right at home in Borderlands.

What I disliked:
The story – There’s almost no story in Borderlands and instead tries to mimic Bioshock by putting back stories and narrative in audio files you can find in the wastelands of Pandora. It’s a nice touch for completionist and explorers, but the overall story doesn’t feel very fleshed out. I guess Gearbox wanted to leave something for a sequel to touch on, but that also leaves a lot to be desired from Borderland’s story.

Super AI – For the most part, combat is pretty satisfying. However, Borderlands suffers from having unfair AI. Enemies are able to shoot you from miles away and even throw grenades way further than humanly possible, and they never, ever miss. It’s manageable once you’re used to it, but that doesn’t make it any less cheap.

Weapon quality – Although there are an almost infinite number of guns you can obtain in Borderlands, very few are actually useful and seldom differ in variety. Rarely will you ever come across a gun that exceeds your current weapon’s stats without sacrificing another feature or stat in return. It makes for some difficult decisions, but considering this decision comes with almost every single weapon you ever find, having to weigh the pros and cons of switching a weapon can sometimes be a tedious chore that stops me from continuing. Add to the fact there are no storage containers and the dilemma of throwing away a possibly good weapon becomes even more difficult.

Borderlands may only appeal to a niche fan base, but those fans are without a doubt ecstatic. With style like no other, attitude and presentation that make up for the lack of story and a loot system that heavily resembles Diablo II, Borderlands is a winner in my book. If you’re looking to try something new that doesn’t try to be like any other shooter on the market, Borderlands is definitely one of them.

It all started with one name: Phoenix Wright. With Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, the developers somehow made being a lawyer cool. Using a first-person sort of perspective, you were able to gather clues, interrogate witnesses and confront suspects and once you’ve gathered everything you could, it was time to defend your client in the courtroom. It was unlike anything I’d ever played before. Somehow mixing old-school point and clicks with reading comprehension really brought a fresh type of style to video games, and honestly, I wish we’d see more of it these days.

Everything from Phoenix’s hairdo to the crazy characters you meet is over the top. That defining sense of craziness is what gives the Ace Attorney series such a brand identity. Each character is crazier than the last, and especially when you finally manage to figure out the guilty party, their reactions are hilarious. Some of them explode into a fiery blast of anger, others break down into a shell of their former personas and others well, seem to cause earthquakes. The presentation is hard to describe but always felt like a worthy payoff to constantly being the underdog.

As the series progressed with Justice For All and Trials & Tribulations, the Ace Attorney series brought with it some great characters. Over time their importance became critical and by the end of Trials & Tribulation (the last game featuring Phoenix Wright as the main protagonist) your idea of victory and pursuit for the truth were forever changed. Knowing it was the last time I’d regularly see a lot of characters from the Ace Attorney series made me sad.

Unfortunately, in an attempt to reboot or take the series in a new direction, a new protagonist was introduced named Apollo Justice. A rookie defense attorney finally gets his first client and it’s… Phoenix Wright. Apparently, when working on Apollo Justice, Sega asked the developers to include at least Phoenix Wright to tie the games together, or at least feature someone familiar. It seems the developers’ answer was to include Phoenix Wright, after he’s already been stripped of his defense attorney badge. Yeah. Despite losing his badge though, Phoenix remains incredibly important to the story while guiding and helping Apollo throughout the entire game. It’s great that they kept Wright in such high regards, but a lot of fans felt stripping him of his badge was a bad move, and some even go so far as to pretend Apollo Justice doesn’t even exist.

When the series was ported from the GBA to DS, the first Phoenix Wright game featured an extra chapter, which utilized a lot of the new DS features. Everything from dusting for prints, spraying for bloodstains and investigating evidence in full 3D were featured, but were never seen again until Apollo Justice. It was great to see those features come back, but again, they weren’t utilized to the same degree as before, and overall Apollo Justice’s gameplay was unsatisfying. I can see why a lot of people were disappointed with it.

But now, we’re finally getting a new Ace Attorney game and it’s based around Phoenix Wright’s old friend and rival: Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth. Not much is known about when it takes place or why Edgeworth is now an investigator, but we do know instead of “Objection!” his catchphrase will be “Eureka!” and that majority of gameplay will be based outside of the courtroom. I’m not sure what to think of it, but I am excited. I certainly hope the game makes better use of the DS, doesn’t ruin any more characters from previous games and provides us with that top-quality Ace Attorney game all the fans are craving.

Stay tuned for my review after the game is released in North America on February 16th.

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.