Scribblenauts

Jip

Saw a preview of this months ago and thought it sounded great, Eurogamer have a preview today and it still sounds great. Unfortunately it's months away but on the bright side you could create your own scenarios that you wished to have seen in cartoons when you were a kid.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/scribblenauts-preview

IsThatSo?

It sounds very interesting, Autumn 2009, not too long to wait

mise

Just read this, still looking good!

http://kotaku.com/5261531/scribblenauts-stumpability-update

abelard

Don't want to get my hopes up too much for this one - it has the potential to be absolutely amazing or a complete let down.

Really hoping it's the former...

Dozen Wicked Words

Its a brilliant idea and hopefully it will be half as good as its shaping up at the moment. If it works on a DS with all its limited capacity there is no reason it couldn't go on to be massive in home consoles. I know you wouldn't be able to actually write words but onscreen keyboards work up to a point.

Its a genius idea for a game and fingers (and toes) crossed for it.

abelard

Keyboard cat and longcat can apparently be summoned in the game!

These devs are serious about the scope of what you can do!

Dozen Wicked Words

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/07/10/interview-scribblenauts-creative-director-jeremiah-slaczka/

EVERYTHING I have read about this game is encouraging me to buy it. It looks the absolute business.

Josey Wales

I can't wait to play this. Might be the first game bought in this house for the DS in a long time. Still no definite release date as far as I know.

abelard

Finally have gotten my hands on this.

Have only got to play a couple of the early levels so far and they're pretty basic, in that it's extremely obvious what you need to do to pass them. They're still fun, as there's such a multitude of possible ways of solving the levels, I just hope they get a bit more difficult as the game goes on.

It seems to be everything promised so far though, in terms of how wide it's range of possible objects is.

Impressed on the whole - as long as level design gets more complex and clever as the game goes on this will be something special.

Josey Wales

I've played this today as well and am highly impressed. There are two of us here tackling the level separately and it is funny to see the differences in how we beat each level.

So much happens randomly that it will make you laugh.

peanuthead

This game starts off pretty stupid, but you will be hooked in no time!! I'm stuck on one part now the last 2 days!!

~Marky~

Which level you stuck on?

alastair_doom

I got stuck on the one in world 2 with the tornado. Eventually ended up checking the internet for a solution, and it really is amazin the variation in the solutions:

Blackhole in the way of the tornado, ropes on the star to let the tornado pull it towards you, and even using a shrink ray! Brilliant stuff.

Josey Wales

I got past that level with the tornado after a little while. It had me stumped until I created a

shrink ray

. A

tornado shelter

will also work.

Dozen Wicked Words

Hopefully then, if its as good as it sounds, you will all be buying the game when its actually released? (September 15th for the US is the earliest).

I am sure you will, to encourage development of innovative games and prevent a world filled with "imagine" chiropodist or my first guinea pig.


4163

Gummy Panda

People are queuing outside Nintendo World in Settle for this

Josey Wales

Great picture.

Dozen Wicked Words

The hats are the bees knees!

~Marky~

I want a hat

Gummy Panda

apparently 5th cell (the developers) put one of the lads from NeoGAF into the game because he pm'd on the official forums before the hype machine started.

If you write Dac, some android or something appears.

CiDeRmAn

It's the most awesone thing since Mr Awesome graduated Awesome college where he did a masters in Awesomeness and came out top of the class with a grade of, AWESOME

Amalgam

You can summon Cthulu, looks cute, then a priest, then a Mecha.. not often you get that in a DS game.

I didn't honestly think Cthulu would work..

alastair_doom

I summoned God, gave him a magic wand, then put him on riding a dinosaur. I was hoping it would cause the end of the world.

There are a lot of internet jokes in the game aswell, try "rickroll" or "ceiling cat" (not my finds).

CiDeRmAn

I also tried Chtulhu, and it worked, a lovely representation of the thingy as well, clone also works well.
Type matter and anti-matter and put them together, it's brilliant.

Bodhran gives you a drum as well, nice that!

Amalgam

Terrorist, looks decidedly Taliban-ish.. has sparks from a waist belt of some sort.. Soldier doesn't like them.

Heaven, Hell..

CiDeRmAn

It could be the best argument for bold people to buy an R4 thingy, whatever they are...

I, worryingly, seem to be playing about on the title screen as much as in the game itself, hmmm....

Jip

Eurogamers review is up now
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/scribblenauts-review

The reviewer isn't too impressed with the controls.

How do you guys who've played it find it ?

witnessmenow

I dont think he's a million miles off at all. Controls really let the game down in my opinion

CiDeRmAn

Don't mind really, just a little thing to become accustomed too, and the instant restarts go some way to alleviate this problem.

alastair_doom

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Don't mind really, just a little thing to become accustomed too, and the instant restarts go some way to alleviate this problem.

Been playing a while, and I still move the character by accident while I'm trying to place something, or pick something up. Very annoyed last night when at the very end of a level, i went to move a drawbridge, and Maxwell took it as a command to jump into some lava.

And the restarts arent totally instant. For some reason, it pans the camera over the map on every turn which can waste a few seconds, not much time admittedly, but still annoying when you only have a few minutes to play.

Turtwig

A part of me is unreasonably and most likely wishfully thinking that they will fix the controls for Euro release:(

Anyways, I'm sure I'll get used to them, because I just cannot ignore this controversial video game

Amalgam

Run over a pig, at speed, with a car, a ham will roll out from under it.

smokingman

Absolute cracker of a game, the character control can be annoying at times as per above but after starting to be careful what I'm touching, it's no problem at all now.

Things I've learned;
-piranhas don't like toxic waste
-helicopters are better than planes
-Ninjas are good for everything!
-riding a uni-cycle is easy

...more to follow

wayne040576

smokingman wrote: »

Absolute cracker of a game, the character control can be annoying at times as per above but after starting to be careful what I'm touching, it's no problem at all now.

Things I've learned;
-piranhas don't like toxic waste
-helicopters are better than planes
-Ninjas are good for everything!
-riding a uni-cycle is easy

...more to follow

This came through the post yesterday. Great laugh.
The controls are a bit annoying but it's made up for by the range of things you can try such as:

I tried to use dynamite to cut down a tree for a lumberjack. It blew up the tree and the lumberjack.

I had to knock down a stack of bottles behind a girl. I used a vampire to chase her into the bottles. Unfortunately he also got to me before i got the star.

An air gun is a good alternative to a fly swat. Plus when I asked for a fly swat it gave me a soldier.

allanb49

Zombies will turn other people into zombies lol

corcaigh07

really looking forward to this one although I doubt I have a vast enough imagination to fully succeed at it! sounds bloody great, my ds needs dusting. pity the wii remains frustrated....

corcaigh07

bloody love this game, only got it there lately. controls are a bit off but it is made up for with the most charming and original game ive played this year. you can even summon a hurley!

johnny_ultimate

I think this game is fun in the same way that damn blasted 20 questions device is fun - it is great to try and break the system. Initially Scribblenauts left me a a little underwhelmed, mainly because of the controls (although the more I play the more I realise that full DPad control of Maxwell would probably have borked the engine!).

However, today I just spent ages playing around on the menu screen and I there were plenty of moments that made me laugh aloud (scientist or Atheist -v- God is the old reliable, but conjuring meteors or such destructive powers are equally pleasant).

Game itself is a mixed bag. Some moments are inspired, and the fantastic thing is you're the one feeling inspired. It is the kind of game where using traditional logic (e.g. building ludicrously complex rope based devices) will only get you so far. It is so much easier just to make something bigger. The moment I realised wings would do the job of three ladders initially made me feel proud, but then an idiot for not realising it earlier! Puzzle levels are probably the most fun - generally quite easy, but always pleasant thinking up alternate solutions (had lots of fun with the trick or treat one - ghosts ftw!). Games have long thought me that all problems are needlessly complicated, but it is entirely satisfying to realise all that is needed to navigate a sick patient up a dangerous mountain is a helicopter and a rope.

Action ones are a bit more mixed I think. The need for more complex situations and set ups really shows up the weak controls IMO, and the unnecessary complications - in the most horrific and 'gamey' example I've come across so far, the unbreakable metal spikes - can be very frustrating. Still satisfying when you finish them, but the weaknesses do show up.

Probably the best database I've ever come across though, and definitely worth the 30 euro XtraVision and Smyths are charging for it!

Jip

Have been playing it myself the last couple of days, really liking it. Yes, there can be issues with control, such as when you attempt to click an object and you're not pixel perfect therefore sending your character to his death, or one frustrating one I had last night when I was trying to dig a hole with a JCB and kept jumping out of it instead, but it's a good game none the less.

As Johnny said, games over the years have led gamers to expect solutions to be complex and that's usually the solution I attempt first using all manners of objects, and after many frustrating attempts in one level I realised all I needed was a fishing rod and solved it within 2 seconds.

The metal spikes one referred to above, if it's the same one, I found quite easy. That's the genius of this game, it all depends on what approach you take, there is no fixed solution.

Turtwig

Picked up this Game on Friday and having a blast with it! Sure the controls can be annoying but I find that if you leave maxwell offscreen whenever possible he doesn't become a problem:) If worst come's to worst just box him in.
This game has me trying to see how many different ways I can beat the same level without using the same items...some of them can be tricky enough.
In Short : Loving It so far, early days though.

Lanaier

Been playing this for a few weeks.

The controls are a problem, but its not a big deal.
The main problem is that the game is just way too easy.

o1s1n

Wings! ah! I kept summoning Pegasus. Somehow managed to think of a winged horse but not wings for myself.

Jip

The Scribblenauts Wiki may have some useful tips for people
http://scribble.wikia.com/wiki/Scribblenauts_Wiki

Josey Wales

I'm finding myself not playing Scribblenauts as much as I expected to. I think it is mainly due to my frustrations with the controls. I just don't understand why you can't control Maxwell with the d-pad.