Archive for September, 2009

So, I tried a few more times.

Following a suggestion from another person, I tried just creating a CHOCOLATE BAR. The girl ate it happily, but I didn’t get the starite.

Then I tried creating a VENDING MACHINE, which dispensed a chocolate bar, but it wasn’t good enough, either.

I summoned a BULLY, hoping the two bullies would be evenly matched and I could run past and get a chocolate bar in time, but the one I created killed the existing one and I failed the level.

Finally, I created a WALL and put it on the level between the bully and the girl. Then I created a NERD. The bully ran over to kill him, at which point I created another WALL, trapping the bully. Now there were two WALLs between me and the vending machines, with a bully in the middle. I created some WINGS, flew over to the vending machine, got the chocolate bar, flew back, gave it to the girl and – hooray! – success! I used four objects and the par for that level is three, which means I got less money for completing it, but I’m really not worrying about that at the moment.

Funnily enough, the last two posts have been about Scribblenauts at its best, as far as I’m concerned. Unlike the action levels, puzzle levels like these usually have goals to achieve to make the starite appear and are a bit more restrictive in their rules. It’s a shame it doesn’t tell you the bully has to survive in the description of the level, but it doesn’t take long to figure that out.

As I keep saying, this isn’t a review site. If you want a review of Scribblenaurs, John Walker’s review on Eurogamer is perfect. Rarely, if ever, have I seen a review that’s just so correct.

My own thoughts are the same, really. This is a huge achievement, maybe even a landmark game, but the controls and some of the puzzle solutions just really make me want to snap my DS in half at times.

Some of that’s down to playing the American version. Over here we leave out mince pies for Father Christmas. But the American Santa Claus doesn’t want them.

Mostly, though, it’s odd things like ducks not counting as farm animals. Or your character running through a tripwire and blowing everything up when you were trying to grab the end of a rope.

It’s deeply infuriating and broken and glitchy and it makes me more angry than any gave ever has… but it’s also genius. When a clever solution works, it’s the best game ever. And when you’re just messing about on the title screen summoning Mothman and Sasquatch and Champ and making them fight each other… well, yes, it’s just about the most joyful, surprising and wonderful thing ever.

It’s basically an impossible thing. It shouldn’t exist. It’s a harebrained, crackpot idea for a game. The fact that it really, actually does exist and almost, mostly, sometimes works is a miracle. Yeah, it’s all sorts of broken, but you have to play it.