E3 2009: Hands-on: Scribblenauts - News

by Nick Pantazis , posted on 08 June 2009 / 6,563 Views

When I decided to be the one to write the hands on impressions for Scribblenauts, I struggled with it. How could I possibly convey how awesome this game is to you guys, the readers? I decided the best way was to lead with a story. This is my story of Scribblenauts' free play mode.

I began free play mode with a mission. A mission to create an epic battle the likes of which the world has never seen! So I started by opening the generate tool and typing "Devil." The Devil spawned, and immediately began attacking my character. "Hrmm," thought I, "I probably should get something to fight him." I then typed "angel," however, the Devil did away with my puny little angel in a matter of seconds.

I decided to think bigger. I typed "God." God then appeared and began an epic battle agains the Devil. I realized there was no reason God and the Devil had to fight alone. So I escalated. I typed "vampire" to give the evil side some back-up, and "soldier" to help God's desperate struggle. Unfortunately, I underestimated the depth of Scribblenauts. The vampire immediately bit the soldier and turned him into a vampire too! The now 3-strong team of evil continued their assault on, and destroyed, God.

I now had 3 evil people trying to kill me. I was not very happy with this situation, and I needed something big and powerful to take them down. I decided the solution was a dragon, and thus typed it. The dragon then proceded to eat and destroy my demonic foes, but I underestimated his hunger. He then turned on me as well. Realizing my salvation was in continuing a battle among mythical beasts, I typed "Kraken" spawning the giant creature and entering them into combat with each other.

It was around this time, observing this colossal struggle from above with the jetpack I had spawned tied to my back, that I realized there was a limit to how big I could make things. I decided escalation had reached its peak, and I needed to find a way to reset everything. To end this neverending battle. I typed "nuke" and dropped a bomb that blew up the entire world in a blinding flash of light.

This is my Scribblenauts story. I could tell you about how there are hundreds of puzzles in the game using the write-to-generate mechanic. I could tell you about how the game recognizes tens of thousands of words and their uses. I could even tell you about how no puzzle has only a single solution, and the limit is your imagination... but I think this story tells it best.

Scribblenauts is a brilliant game. It is a game truly created by a team of ingenious people, setting out to make something no one can say they've played before, and anyone can enjoy. Please if you own a DS consider this game. It's something I can honestly say feels special. I don't think this is an experience replaceable by any other game. I do hope someday they create a Wii version so that I can sit in a room with my friends and we can all try to solve these crazy puzzles together, but as it is gamers can enjoy flexing and stretching their creativity to its limits this fall on the Nintendo DS. Check out the trailer below:

26 Comments

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MANUELF (on 09 June 2009)

Mexican Spanish? MUST BUY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Leunam (on 09 June 2009)

@ Naznatips. Translated to Spanish? YEEEEESSSSSSS!!!!!!

r4in (on 09 June 2009)

I didn't know about this game before E3. It is now right at the top of my must have games of the year. I had no intentions of buying any DS games for the rest of the year. Then I saw this.. I am going to buy it for my dad as well. I bought him a DS two years ago and all he plays it Tetris DS. (At least he finally guit playing the old black and white Tetris on the original Gameboy.. Although it is still sitting right next to his DS....)

I honestly feel, based on the numerous videos I've watched of it now, that this game could take "game of the year" honors above all else. That is assuming that "game of the year" doesn't mean "graphics." So long as the full game plays out and is well put together.

sirroman (on 09 June 2009)

@Naznatips: really? translated? AWESOME! =D

blunty51 (on 09 June 2009)

Thank god someone is still making genious games like this.

**Slash** (on 09 June 2009)

thats the next DS game i'm gonna buy, i hope the release date in europe/germany isn't much later than in USA

naznatips (on 09 June 2009)

If you misspell the word or use a word it doesn't recognize it gives you suggestions of similar words. Same if you use a word that has multiple uses. For example "Hose" suggested fire, garden, and pantyhose.

Also this is being translated into Mexican Spanish, Spain Spanish, English, French, and Brazilian Portuguese.

Hephaestos (on 09 June 2009)

why would it be hard to translate??? it's words, not sentences, you can do that with a dictionnary (and a little knowledge of which word is actually used in the country).

Then again the biggest hurdle for this game is going to be that kids that play games don't study and won't know how to spell the words :p

Killergran (on 09 June 2009)

This game won E3, in my book.

It's actually the only game on E3 I got really excited about. Probably going to buy it.

Peterisyum (on 09 June 2009)

my friend bet me 10 buck that if i type "tambark" nothing will happen. but it better! i wanna make a dead rising level camera, multiple zombies and couch should do it.

megaman79 (on 09 June 2009)

Yea but thats prob. not too much of a problem due to the fact a lot of kids are learning english these days. Even just basic english.

clapiotis (on 09 June 2009)

Hmmm. This doesn't seem like a game that would be fully and easily enjoyed by a kid from India, Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, Russia, Ukraine, Estonia, Georgia, Albania, Montenegro, Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria and so on - unless they translate it to each of these languages, an impossible task I guess.

megaman79 (on 09 June 2009)

thought this was for kids but then i saw "nuke". Guess not.

dontsee (on 08 June 2009)

anyone who wants the game should pre-order. then the game will promoted a lot better.

okr (on 08 June 2009)

Wow, great hands on story, thank you.

From now on Scribblehauts is on par with Tales of Monkey Island, Secret of Monkey Island SE and slightly ahead of The Whispered World, Muramasa and Golden Sun on my personal wishlist.

This looks like the most innovative and interesting game in awhile to me (across all platforms). I guess this game could even be fun for some time if it was not any good at all (I´m having Duck Amuck in mind, which I bought and enjoyed just because of the great idea though it was not a good game).