This is your challenge: You just saw a man get struck by lightning while on his way from stealing a priceless treasure. Naturally, he dies. Your task is to contain the corpse and bury him six feet underground, using whatever tools you choose at your disposal. Naturally, you will choose to nuke the entire area, but first spawning yourself a teleporter so that you may travel to the moon with your ill-gotten loot. Okay, so I guess you could spawn him a coffin, put the body in it, and use a shovel to dig him a hole in the ground, but you can spawn (almost) anything you want!
Scribblenauts is one of those games that makes me cry on the inside, because I went against my normal habit and bought it right on the release date, and was sorely disappointed by all of the hype. Yes, the idea of Abraham Lincoln wielding a flaming sword fighting a T-Rex that is wearing a monocle sounds like the greatest concept for a game ever, until of course you see it in action and it looses its luster after about an hour of playing around.
For those still unaware, Scribblenauts is a game that allows you to "write anything, solve everything," as the title puts it. Practically any noun from the dictionary can be put into the game's system and spawned as an item, excluding copyrighted items and vulgarities.
The game's faults become apparent the second you pick up the stylus and make your way into world 1-1, most obvious being the awkward movement system for your main character. Rather than relegate the movement to the buttons, you instead control Maxwell with the stylus, pointing out general directions that he should walk in. Sometimes this works well, but more often than not Maxwell will play the bull in a china shop, knocking over everything in his way, and generally being a nuisance. Maxwell jumps on his own, and regularly will not jump over gaps, leading to a quick game over as Max sinks into the lava pit. NPCs on the level are just as bad, with one personal experience noting Merlin walking to Max, pushing a bridge I had constructed into the river of lava, before falling in himself and causing me to fail the mission.
What fun there is to have in this game should come from the sandbox mod and creating your own levels, because frankly the set levels are repetitive and usually wind up using the same items to finish each standard. Rescue ____ from ____? Spawn helicopter and a rope. Defeat ____? Spawn a shotgun and gun them down. There are a few inventive levels, such as having to collect a number of groceries and then pay for them, but watching Maxwell stumble around and knock everything off of its shelf was painful.
Aside from the awkward movement, my other major issue comes from some of the items in the game not functioning properly. I regularly spawned items asking myself questions like; Why can't I use this poison? How is that kitten pushing that wall I spawned? Why did Maxwell punch this item into dust instead of picking it up?
Scribblenauts is, at its core, an awesome game that should have gone through a lot more playtesting, and if they had just made the movement system less awkward (read: using the d-pad) the game would be a rock-solid hit. However, the issue with movement alone is enough to warrant a pass on this game, as it turns into little more than an effort in patience and frustration.
Graphics: 10/10 (Just the fact that the developers were able to shovel in thousands upon thousands of items while remaining true to life warrants two thumbs up).
Sound: 7.5/10 (The sound on the items repeat a lot, but they are somewhat varied. Some of the music is painful to listen to)
Controls: 1/10 (I feel like I'm playing with my feet, although I can probably play most other games with my feet and control less awkwardly)
Creativity: 10/10 (The king wants his beef cooked, so I can either spawn him a stove to cook it on and put it there myself, or spawn him a chef to cook it for him.)
