Quirky Puzzler says all the right things but fails to live up to potential.
Scribblenauts for the DS has been much hyped in the gaming press. With a simple mechanic; type in an object and it appears for use in the game's many puzzles, the draw here is the sheer number of summonable objects in the game. As long as it's not copyrighted, a specific person, vulgar, or alcoholic, it's highly likely it is in the game.
So, for example, in one puzzle you are tasked with returning a lost lamb to the flock. Do you attach a leash and pull it? Fly it over in a helicopter? Draw it over by laying out a trail of apples? These are all valid answers, with many more to discover. The second type of challenge, the 'action' stages act more as a platformer, with your magic notepad creating bridges over gaps, trampolines to bounce up to higher levels and weapons to get past enemies. Each level has multiple ways to complete it with a variety of items, and once complete you can go back and redo the level, using different items.
The goal of each puzzle is to unlock a 'Starite', although at the end of each level you are awarded money, in the form of 'Ollars, with which you can unlock new worlds, avatars and music for the game. Generally you should have no problem earning enough money to get through as the game is very generous, rewarding you with enough 'Ollars that you can unlock most things without needing to complete every task.
The graphics are basic and functional, and although charming, especially with the larger items, they can serve to confuse when dealing with more precise elements. Controls also can become frustrating. You use the stylus to place and move objects in the world, and also to direct your rooster hatted character, Maxwell. This causes problems as occasionally you will try to move something and instead Maxwell will come running over, oblivious to any harm he may encounter. The camera too, can be moved using the d-pad but sometimes suddenly snaps back to Maxwell, interrupting you and potentially leaving carefully crafted solutions free to collapse or be destroyed by a stray enemy.
As an impressive toy this allows you to flex your imagination and is entertaining, but as a game more time could have been spent ensuring the player did not get so frustrated. More emphasis could have been put on using a variety of methods to solve the puzzles and object interactions could have done with more time spent on them. Often most puzzles can be solved with a relatively small amount of items, wings and chainsaws being particularly useful, and after attempting more ingenious solutions and failing due to the annoying controls or objects not interacting in the way you would think, it is all too tempting to go back to the obvious few items each time.
All in all, I feel that while the sheer range of things you can get in this game makes anyone curious sure to enjoy messing about on the games title screen- left as a sandpit style area for testing various concoctions without the constraints of the puzzles, but the main game can be too fiddly and frustrating at times to be a must buy. However if you are interested, this ambitious title can provide a lot of entertainment for it’s humour and innovative game mechanic.
Thanks for reading!
Andrew
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