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Scribblenauts Impresses Critics
Despite all the announcements for popular, big-budget game franchises at this year's E3, one of the most talked-about titles is a puzzle game for the Nintendo DS called Scribblenauts. In a hands-on preview, Joystiq described it thus: "The premise of the game is simple — you play as Maxwell, who must solve various puzzles to obtain Starites spread across 220 different levels. To execute the aforementioned solving, you write words to create objects in the world that your cartoonish hero can interact with. It's a simple concept that's bolstered by one astounding accomplishment from developer 5th Cell: Anything you can think of is in this game. (Yes, that. Yes, that too.)" They even presented it with a test of 10 words they wouldn't expect it to know or be able to represent, including lutefisk, stanchion, air, and internet, and the game passed with flying colors. The game will also allow players to edit and share levels. A trailer is available on the Scribblenauts website, and actual gameplay footage is posted at Nintendorks.
I'm surprised how little attention this received during E3. I'll definitely be ordering this if only to use it to prove you can solve all problems with poo.
The gameplay footage was really quite interesting, but I'd give good odds that within a week of release people will have identified thousands of common words that don't work with it, or have found one word (jetpack?) that lets you solve all levels.
If I'm wrong, though, it could be amazing.
Wait 'till some 14 yr. old writes in a naughty word. If the game doesn't have the items, rest assured there are people that will make some for it.
I hope they add Obama for the final version.
xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
I wonder how many regular nouns there are in English for them to have created? It seems like a lot. If Einstein is in there, how many other famous figures are also in there?
Sharks with lasers!! FTW
I'm not sure why there's so much buzz about this game. It's quite similar to other recent "indie" games like "World of Goo" and especially "Crayon Physics" - action puzzlers that involve using lateral thinking to build structures and get to an exit. And Scribblenauts doesn't look nearly as impressive as either two of those games. Besides, all these titles have the same basic premise as good 'ol "Lemmings."
Freedom is drinking a beer in the park when you're supposed to be at work.
Sorry what is this guys problem? Is he saying that whisky isn't a word? What an asshole. Sorry I meant, arsehole.
"Allah"
You can't copyright a name. But I found over 20 live trademark registrations at USPTO.gov for "CHUCK NORRIS", "CHUCK NORRIS FACTS", "CHUCK NORRIS IS THE FACT", and "CHUCK NORRIS APPROVED". Unfortunately, USPTO.gov's TESS search engine does not give out persistent links to search result pages, but individual results from TARR are persistent. These include CHUCK NORRIS APPROVED nutritional supplements, martial arts clothing, and action figures; CHUCK NORRIS T-shirts, and CHUCK NORRIS FACTS mousepads.
This game is truly an amazing concept, and I don't minimize the difficulty of having such a large set of objects that interact with the game world in a meaningful fashion - indeed, I'd like to see something like this in a PS3 game.
However, I think these 20-Q games are also amazing: they are a small ball, running off IIRC an AAA battery or two, that plays a pretty good game of 20 questions. I've thought of some pretty weird things and it has gotten it right amazingly often (OK, I'll be fair: if I'm thinking "Airwolf" and it guesses "helicopter" I'll give it a pass). All that on a device that you can pick up in stores for $10.
www.eFax.com are spammers
I hope this game is as cool as it sounds, but I have one major concern - balance.
Lack of balance has never stopped other sandbox games like Animal Crossing, which really is that easy. If they make Scribblenauts too easy, players will create self-imposed challenges: "Try to beat level X of Scribblenauts with only words meeting criteria Y and Z."
It's one thing to balance 20 races in a game
In some fans' minds, NASCAR has failed to balance even two of its highest profile races: Daytona and Talladega have become bumper cars. Or did you mean something else?
I still haven't forgiven J.S. for that ghastly 'secret flower' gag in Drawn to Life. :(
He probably didn't write his own character's dialogue, though... who knows.
Their previous DS game, Drawn to Life also had a great premise, you can draw your main character and then draw platforms, and ships, etc. basically you're the game's main artist. That was okay, but the actual gameplay was simply awful and the story was directed at three year olds and bogged the entire game down incredibly.
My full review if you're interested.
http://firsthour.net/beyond-the-first-hour-review/drawn-to-life
Anyways, not to be a downer but I hope this game doesn't have a story. Let me just go crazy with summoning items and give me puzzle after puzzle.
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
Pirates, or Ninjas,
and is the FSM in it? We can't allow "God" to be represented without the FSM!!
They forgot to include "Teleprompter"
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Oh boy.
So was this is how Open Mind and Mindpixel ended up being implemented? What a shame that neither creator lived to see it.
-FL
Scribblenauts reminds me of things like the Fantasy Game from Ender's Game, and the Young Lady's Illustrated Primer; a Propædeutic Enchiridion in which is told the tale of Princess Nell and her various friends, kin, associates, &c. from Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson.
I can see the fnords!