Sunday, October 18, 2009

Scribblenauts - Write Anything. Solve Everything

scribblenauts 01

This is one of the best games ever made, and by best I mean intuitive, clever and original. In this age where everybody relies on graphics, gameplay and originality are usually compromised. Unsuspectingly 5th Cell, the makers of Scribblenauts for NDS, was able to pull out from their magic hat a never before seen trick.


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Retrieve the starite


scribblenauts 03With Scribblenauts you can virtually write any object to help you solve each level. You can use the freehand notepad or the keyboard to conjure almost limitless possibilities.

With over a hundred levels, each rated by a four star difficulty, your objective as Maxwell is to complete each scenario and acquire the starite. Earn ollars as you progress to purchase new levels. After completing each level it will turn to a star icon to represent your completion, reentering the level will trigger advance mode where you are to complete the level 3 times in a row with the added challenge that any item used during the attempt cannot be used again for the duration of the challenge.

There are two types of levels: puzzle and action. Puzzles are levels where you are faced with a situation that you need to solve like producing an item that fits the requirement, whereas action usually deals with trap doors, switches and may require some dexterity. Of course, this game is not without flaw and the main problem would usually be the tendency of action levels becoming repetitive, but one would argue that it depends on the limitations of one's imagination.

scribblenauts 02


Here's a list of interesting/useful objects I often use during gameplay.
Note: I'll be updating the list from time to time whenever I find something worthy ;)

Combining objects
  • Glue
  • Paste
  • Tape
Connecting objects
  • Cable
  • Chain
  • Rope
  • Vine
Digging
  • Jackhammer
  • Shovel
  • Spade
Flight Small scale (short flight but useful in tight spaces)
  • Jetpack
  • Magic broom
  • Magic carpet
  • Wings
Medium scale (permanent flight but limited power to tow)
  • Pegasus
  • Pterodactyl (faster)
  • Sphinx
Big scale (bulky but more powerful) Needs runway
  • Plane (all variations)
Omni-directional and floats in air
  • Balloon (hot air balloon)
  • Bomber (stealth bomber and can drop bombs)
  • Rocketship
  • Space shuttle (same as rocketship)
  • UFO (the tractor beam below can lift objects but can also be troublesome)
Hooking
  • Fishing rod
  • Grappling hook
Platforms
  • Bridge ladder
  • Drawbridge
Friendly super powered beings
  • God
  • Superhero
  • Zeus - see God
Interesting Villains
  • Gorgon - turns people into stone, upon defeat, the head can be used once.
  • Medussa - see Gorgon
  • Vampire - turns people into ghouls
  • Witch - uses a wand to turn people into frogs and eats them (ugh)
Unclassified but quite useful
  • Blackhole - destroy almost everything in radius before dissipating
  • Electricity - electrocutes (SPOILER: works wonders on switches)
  • Garlic - kills a vampire upon contact
  • Ghost - for scaring unarmed people, does not kill unless provoke
  • Lightning - see electricity
  • Magnet - easily attaches with glue, attracts metal
  • Mech - mobile and shoots bullets!
  • Poison - very useful for taming beasts such as T-Rex.
  • Metal spike - very very destructive on contact
  • Sun - lights a dark area and kills vampires
  • Thunder - see electricity
  • Toxicwaste (solid) - make animals sick on contact, turns humans to mutants
  • Tractor beam - pulls anything in range
  • Wormhole (destructive) - works exactly like blackhole
  • Wormhole (intergalactic) - pulls from space a random intergalactic hostile being
Establishments These things don't have much use but usually spawn something
  • Heaven - God
  • Hell - devil
  • Tomb - spawn limitless zombies (limited to a few onscreen)
Just Interesting
  • Edy - summons a T-Rex with bandanna and cannot be tamed
  • Maxwell - evil look alike that steals items
  • Meteor - if dropped from sky, destroys everything including Maxwell
  • Nuke - once activated, destroys everything including Maxwell
  • Starite
  • Teleporter
  • Tsunami - destroys everything including Maxwell
  • Time machine
  • Win - gives you a useless starite
You are free to contribute by sending me PMs or post it in the comments below ;)

4 comments:

Che said...

I read about this game even before it was released. Forgot about it. Good thing you blogged about it. I asked Mon to get it for me hehe.. But I'm sure he'll be hooked once he tries it. :p

raichua said...

a very interesting game indeed :). But I tried playing through it in an entire afternoon, the repetitiveness can get tiring :p

ji said...

@rai: so that's why you passed the DS back to me now LOL

raichua said...

hehehe actually it's your turn to catch up XD

my Maxwell is a ninja now, you might want to try the bride like RedKinoko lolz