Scribblenauts

Brother came home with this on his DS, and I had a few chuckles on it.

At the start you'd go with massively awesome stuff like a Mech or Tank, something all little boys would do.

Then I went a little evil and set a few piranhas on a professor.

What really got me laughing was when I tried to make a knight. I end up wearing almost a full plate of armor, with a girly bracelet wearing rubber boots and fishnet stockings, riding an alpaca trampling a plate. Hilarious.

(full plate, armor, helm, gauntlet, bracer, alpha squad, boots, plate leggings)

Interested to hear more. One report I heard was that this game is totally open ended, and the possibilities are limitless.

Comes out the 15th, doesn't it? I was thinking of getting a copy, and I haven't used my DS in ages and ages

Hi, long time lurker.

I just had to post this, because it's the best impressions I've ever read about any game. It's from the neogaf forums.

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Originally Posted by Feep:
I had played all the big titles at E3. Private showings of God of War III, Heavy Rain, Alan Wake. But at 4:00 on Thursday, I was wandering around the show floor, wondering what else I had to see. I saw a small little booth for "Scribblenauts!" in the Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment section. I mean, who goes to that booth? But I remember hearing about it on GAF, and so I decided to check it out.

Best game of E3? Without a fucking doubt. Anyone who says otherwise did not play Scribblenauts. Best game of all time? Jesus Christ, I don't know, maybe. It's a game that challenges your IMAGINATION. No other game has ever done that.

So listen to this story. I was in the early levels; I didn't quite have an idea of how ridiculously in-depth the database was. I was summoning things like ladders, glasses of water, rayguns, what have you. But I reached a level with zombie robots, and the zombie robots kept killing me. Rayguns didn't work, a torch didn't work, a pickaxe didn't work. In my frustration, I wrote in "Time Machine". And one popped up. What the fuck? A smile dawned on my face. I hopped in, and the option was given to me to either travel to the past or the future. I chose past. When I hopped out, there were fucking dinosaurs walking around. I clicked one, and realized I could RIDE THEM. So I hopped on a fucking DINOSAUR, traveled back to the present, and stomped the shit out of robot zombies. Did you just read that sentence? Did you really? I FUCKING TRAVELED THROUGH TIME AND JUMPED ON A DINOSAUR AND USED IT TO KILL MOTHERFUCKING ROBOT ZOMBIES. This game is unbelievable. Impossible. There's nothing you can't do.

Holy fucking shit.
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The game probably doesn't live up to that kind of hype, but I figure any game that lets you make a time machine deserves at least a look in my opinion. You can also make Cthulhu and God .

Back to lurking.

There's also a great impressions post on kotaku from awhile ago

So yeah, I'm on level 1-10 and I have to protect a picnic from these ants but I have to do it in such a way that does not upset a wandering hippie.

So I think "what better defense than a steadfast Spartan warrior to turn back those pesky ants...maybe the hippie will think that's cool and not care."

The Spartan warrior drops down, and eats the picnic.

This is a really, really unique game. I've seen some mixed reviews on it, criticizing the control and the fact that some items are essentially the same (type in "biscuit" and you get a loaf of bread), but I've never played anything like it. Fundamentally, it's kind of like CRAYON PHYSICS where you have to figure out how to get a star, but you have to come up with items to do it with. It's not "limitless", and I'm sure that after a full play-through you'll likely see most of the items under one name or another, but the concept is extraordinary. Control, who cares. It's not a platformer.

Besides, a biscuit and a loaf of bread are the same thing to a video game character anyway.

The controls can be very frustrating and wonky. I spent a lot of time repeating a mission because I kept dropping my jetpack on a flower I needed. Still, the game is fun. A bit challenging if you try to get a gold star on each level (complete it three times in a row without reusing any items)

It's not as awesome as I thought it would be... but that's because my imagination is apparently not as extensive as I thought. I keep going back to my old trusty gun and jetpack combo to fix most problems. Oh, if only life were that easy.

Yeah, you can screw stuff up like that...but this is a very experimental game. I can cut it a lot of slack because of that, and it's not like dropping the helicopter in the piranha pool (oops) sets you back 10 minutes of gameplay or anything. Some of the screw-ups I've had were hilarious and as fun as the game itself, like on that flower level...I wound up holding the bee somehow and running around while that girl watched on. Eventually, I fell in the pirhana pool and died.

Cthulhu versus Shih Tzu was pretty funny too.

Bummed I won't be getting it till Christmas. Buying a house is really cramping my gaming style.

Yeah, I've heard that the core gameplay (i.e. controlling your character) really hampers the experience.

I think that's crap...the core gameplay isn't about controlling your character, it's about coming up with items to accomplish tasks. It's not a Mario game, pinpoint control isn't necessary at all. There are no timing or precision elements, so it doesn't matter if the control is clunky.

During our weekly Jyhad game, one of our players was also playing Scribblenauts. I sat next to him in the first game and kept suggesting weird stuff. I was paying more attention to Jyhad, though, so I didn't always see what happened. He was trying get past a bully to get at a vending machine. I suggested GUN and he shot the bully. He tried again, just for laughs, a bunch of other things that I suggested:

Bully: a clone of the bully shows up and fights the bully. It wasn't clear which one won, but the winner acted the same as the original bully.

Taser: didn't work.

Pepper Spray: didn't work.

Sperm Whale: fell on the bully and crushed him.

Moby Dick: some dude shows up, probably a dick named Moby, and the bully beat him up.

It gets a lot trickier when there are stipulations...right now, I'm in this one where I have to steal the starite from a museum and not harm the two guards, one of whom will run you down and shoot you if he sees you. There's also a security camera that raises a wall in front of the starite. I tried summoning a mummy, but that just killed one of them. I've tried sleeping gas, but it did nothing. I gave the cop a donut and he proceeded to beat me to death with it AND THEN he ate it. I've tried spray painting the camera, an EMP gun, tranquilizer darts...just can't figure it out!

On one last night I had to kick a soccer ball into a goal without the goalie getting it. I handcuffed his ass to the goal, that worked.