Scribblenauts Review

I love creativity. It’s not all that often that you can look at a game and say that it does something new. Scribblenauts is exactly that type of game. Not only is it an original idea, it is the type of game that people of all ages can enjoy. It’s simple, fun and conducive to inventive thought. This is simply one of the best Nintendo DS games out there.

You play as Maxwell, a happy-go-lucky type that is only looking to collect Stars. The stars are often in trees, on ledges too high to reach or maybe across a chasm. How do you collect these stars, you ask? By using your creative juices, of course! This is a game that requires thought. A little bit of common sense doesn’t hurt, either.

Here’s why: you need to put your ideas into action. Anything that you think of can be written. They then appear on the screen for you to use. Literally, think of anything and it will most likely be included in Scribblenauts. It has to be an object though and can not be a specific person. So while you can’t type in “Barack Obama”, you can put “president” and a man will appear. You can create everything from submarines, cars and airplanes (which you can ride) to weapons.

There are ten different worlds for you to unlock. Each of them have a different set of challenges. Most of the early ones have you drawing objects that are specific to the situation. It may ask you something like “what kind of equipment does a police officer use?” Later ones become more challenging and complex, requiring multiple items and outside the box thinking. How do you take a dinosaur egg away from a giant dinosaur without getting injured? That’s a good question!

While I admittedly got tired of playing after extended periods, that was mostly from the fact that I was stuck on the later levels and could not figure out what to do. Some of the replay value comes from replaying old challenges using new ideas. If you replay the same mission using different items each time, you will get a second star.

Aside from some questionable physics, Scribblenauts is a strong pick-up-and-go type game. It makes good use of your imagination. If you don’t like to think, this probably is not a good game for you. That said, it is a lot of fun to play in short bursts of time. You’ll be testing your own vocabulary as well. There are very few items that the developers left out. If you are looking for a new Nintendo DS game to play, give Scribblenauts a try.