The Nintendo DS has repetitively become a location for less and less enjoyable gaming experiences since it was launched, so much so that to some it has become an area only inhabited by Pokemon continuations or rehashes (depending on which side of the fence you live on). There have been a few titles over the past few years that have spiked interest in me, only to become a disappointment, like Drawn to Life and FFIII and IV, even my beloved Pokemon finally became a let-down to me. This isn’t to say that the DS hasn’t been able to provide me with some small level of satisfaction, namely in Line Rider Unbound and Professor Layton and the Curious Village, and it was with these in mind that I picked up Scribblenauts, by 5th Cell, ignoring their previous disappointment in another of my blind attempt to justify having a DS at all.

Scribblenauts has a simple yet intriguing premise; you control a yellow man that wears large headphones and a chicken hat, named Maxwell, as you face a heap of puzzles thrown against you. The execution of these puzzles is what makes the game intriguing and this is through the player’s ability to create most any object for use in the game environment simply by entering in its name.

There are two types of puzzle levels in the game, adventure-styled ‘map’ levels in which the “starite” (collectable goal for each level) is located beyond a series of obstacles that you must use your cunning and wit to overcome or bypass, and ‘solve’ levels in which you must create objects to fit the criteria set aside by a clue given at the start of the level that, upon completion, will cause the starite to appear.

The map levels create the most enjoyment, and early in the game there is a certain amount of fun that can be had in testing what objects you can use, and how they can be used, to get you from A to B. The solve levels, especially at the beginning of the game, are so far from enjoyable that you can start to relive the hour or so you spent on “Drawn to Life”. Puzzles include being shown a classroom with a cartoon-ish representation of a teacher standing by the blackboard, and the goal is to “Give the teacher something they need”, the extent of this level was to type in “student” and voila, you win a starite.

As you progress through the 10 different game-worlds, each with levels set in different settings based on that world, it becomes clear to the intelligent gamer that solving the puzzles is not the cause of the difficulty in this game, but difficulty is found working with the controls and obscure physics. The directional and “letter” buttons control the camera, although any more then a second of stillness will result in the camera snapping back to Maxwell, and Maxwell’s movement is controlled by tapping at the place you wish to move to, or sliding along the screen in the direction you wish to move. This creates a problem in that the stylus is also used to move and interact with objects on the screen; and so on many occasions trying to move the bridge you are building to get over a lava-pit will result in Maxwell running foolishly into his fire-y death.

The massive amount of objects that can be created get quickly narrowed down to a few select objects that the player will discover suit almost any problem, A rope, or chain becomes the most useful item early on, followed by any blunt instrument for destroying physical obstacles, and then either a helicopter or pterodactyl to fly around on. In the first levels the player can be expected to use a T-Rex or Cthulu to easily kill all the enemies, but in about world four, possibly even earlier, you are faced with an enemy which is considerable smaller and therefore more useable then either mentioned “kill-all creations” and I say it’s name with a feeling that I should restrain myself, as this could possibly be considered a cheat. The “ooze” which is, so far to my testing, only destroyable with lava becomes the player’s greatest friend, but the worst enemy of fun and original puzzle solving. This discovery makes any level with enemies involved a simple time-diversion. This discovery is only less useful to the rope in that, with the correct use of a rope, you can move any object to any reachable location, and reachable is a matter of opinion to a rope. Attaching a rope to a starite behind a closed door, with the correct use of the ropes weight, can result in having a starite throw itself through the closed door and right into the waiting arms of our poorly dressed hero.

Graphics:
The graphics are as to be expected from 5th Cell, very similar to that of Drawn to Life, though on the DS that’s nothing to be ashamed of. 8/10

Sound:
Sound-wise this game takes full advantage of the DS’s audio power. Hence, anyone within sound range of you whilst you play will quickly become immensely annoyed. Beyond that the sounds are appropriate for all the actions that you can undertake in the game environment. 7/10

Gameplay:
Gameplay is the major failure of this game. Whilst there is some fun to be had at first experimenting with all the objects you can create, this fun quickly wears off and you are left with a shallow game, plagued by terrible controls and poor operation, puzzles soon become very familiar and typing the same objects over and over again for every puzzle becomes arduous. Sure, you could push yourself to solve puzzles in original ways, but it shouldn’t be my responsibility to make a game fun. 4/10 (6/10 if you are 12 or under, physically or mentally)

Overall:
Overall the game had an interesting idea, but a poor execution, much like Drawn to Life in fact. When I started I could see a glimmering array of possibilities but I am left an empty husk. 6/10