Scribblenauts [DS]

[Silvergun X]

I've been playing this a lot. I've really, really been enjoying it, and my partner's been absolutely loving it also despite not being much of a game person outside of World of Warcraft.

I agree in a way that a lot of the puzzles can be done with the easiest possible option, IE Jetpack and gun, but there is a lot of fun to be had in using your imagination.

And a LOT of neat touches i'm noticing aswell.

->Open Spoiler<-

Typing in 'Engineer' will spawn someone who will automatically press any nearby buttons or switches - This little discovery helped me do a couple of 7 or 8 par levels in about 2 objects.

Try typing in 'Particle Accelerator' and using it. Portal too, and Teleporter too.

The last level of World 8 is absolutely EPIC:

->Open Spoiler<-

Back to the future!! There's a scientist setting up a cable ontop of a clock tower in a thunderstorm, and to get the starite to appear, you have to put a metal rod with a hook, on the end of a car and drive it into the cable. Put a massive, massive smile on my face!

In regards to the mission with the broken car:

->Open Spoiler<-

Just spawn a car battery and wire it up

I agree that there's an easy way to all of the puzzles, but it's just so much more fun trying to think of other ways to do it.

On missions where you have to get past aggressive people without harming them...

->Open Spoiler<-

Equip some armor to take a bit more damage and try Chloroform. Works like a treat. And you get the Bioterrorist merit too

[briareos_kerensky]

->Open Spoiler<-

Try typing in 'Particle Accelerator' and using it. Portal too, and Teleporter too.

There's the Large Hadron Collider, too. Thanks to Xkcd for the info
BTW, I'm playing more the sandbox intro screen than anything else. Summoned an astronaut, an alien and saw they didn't attack each other...mhmm...what could an astronaut use against an alien, or vice versa? Oh yeah, of course!

->Open Spoiler<-

The anal probe!

I started laughing when I get the thing and the astronaut started to run around scared.

[endo]

Anyone stil playing this or did it get boring in the end? Is the lack of activity in this thread indicative of something? I only arkse because I'm wondering whether to pick it up or not.

[Dogg Thang]

I picked it up a while ago and, while impressed with the amount of items it correctly identified, the game itself underwhelmed me and I ended up putting my DS time into Layton instead.

Oddly, the wonderful work they've put into the amount of items really makes it stand out when they get something wrong or when choices are too limited. And, when some work in ways I don't want them to, I found myself falling back on favourite items to solve completely different puzzles.

And, as mentioned here, the controls aren't great at all. And, in my own personal opinion, it looks very ugly.

It's a curiosity and one that has such an admirable goal but I'd struggle to recommend buying it.

[abigsmurf]

I really should give it another go. Once I'd stopped playing about with the items you can spawn and actually started doing the puzzles, the awful control scheme was stopping me from having any fun.

That and "black hole" is a really broken item to use (will kill anything it touches then dissapears)

[abigsmurf]

I kinda had to laugh at the PR I was sent:

Ghoulish, new, Scribblenauts level available free on Halloween for those brave enough to visit the London Dungeon!

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment to offer unique, virtual giveaway of exclusive, Halloween-themed level for the pluckiest gamers

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment will be celebrating Halloween with a very special giveaway for Scribblenauts owners daring to meet at London Dungeon and seek out its scariest representative.

Players over 12 years old, or accompanied by an adult, that bring a Nintendo DS and a copy of Scribblenauts to the queue at the London Dungeon on Halloween (Saturday, 31st October 2009) between midday and 3:00pm can receive a newly created Scribblenauts level via the Nintendo DS Wi-Fi Connection.

This will be the only time this macabre level will be available to the public.

So... they're going after the vast numbers of people who will be visiting the London Dungeons and not only happen to have a DS with them, but scribblenauts too? And only offering it for 3 hours?

Warner Bros. really need to get new PR people for their games division. It wouldn't surprise me if they didn't get a single download.

[Tig]

5th Cell have just given a big postmortem interview about this game. It includes a lengthy answer to the question every reviewer was asking- why are the controls so bad?

The sensitivity of the stylus controls is easily the biggest issue in Scribblenauts, a fact that has been reinforced by reviewers and users. We knew this was going to take a big hit from reviewers, but we could only spend a limited amount of work on it. We discussed a secondary D-pad control option midway through development only to come to the conclusion it would take a single person 3–4 weeks to integrate it. On our self-funded schedule, that route was not an option.

only 3-4 weeks away from being twice as good a game!

The pain of deadlines eh.

[abigsmurf]

Incredibly poor organisation. They should've got the gameplay mechanics sorted first or at least noticed the controls were ruining the game early on in play testing.

[Jebus]

3-4 weeks was what eventually came between this being an okay/frustrating game to a genius/enjoyable game?

Whoever decided they couldn't take another month needs shooting, seems kinda amateur to me.

[merf]

that's rubbish, Edge were on about the controls a few months before launch and can't believe they were the first to mention it.

my suspicion is that the devs were blinded by what they were trying to create with the dictionary and forgot to make it any fun to play cos they didn't bother playtesting much or were too busy patting each other on the back that god kills chutulu etc.

this is backed by the next bit where they list the controls as secondary to the dictionary side of things, sorry but if its as crappy to play as this doesn't matter about anything else, control is everything.

[gunrock]

doesn't matter about anything else, control is everything.

"Power without control, is nothing!" Mwah-hah-hah-hah!

[Skull Commander]

I just got this for my Christmas and so far it's great fun. I sepnt ages just on the first screen trying out different things, and eventually went into the game proper. I have finished the first worlds puzzles (all but two on advanced so far) and have just started the action levels.

The controls can be a bit fiddly, but they are nowhere as bad as has been made out. Yes, Maxwell has been stuck a couple of times, but for me it's easily forgivable at the moment.