PSP World

Scribblenauts DS Preview

5th Cell is a small independent developer whose DS projects have proven to be both innovative and successful. In their last game, Drawn to Life, players were asked to create everything they needed to advance in the game by drawing it – the main character, weapons, platforms were all at the whim of the player’s stylus. The company’s most recently announced DS game follows from where Drawn to Life left off. Except now instead of having to draw objects, they can simply be summoned into existence in this original puzzle platformer.

The tagline for Scribblenauts is “Write Anything”. Simply write or type a word into the bottom screen, and the object will magically appear above the main character Maxwell’s head. Maxwell can then make use of this object to reach his goal, a magical “starite” thatis constantly out of reach in one of the game’s 100 or more levels. There are some rules to what you can create in Scribblenauts, but not many. The object has to be a noun, but cannot contain any obscure names or copyrighted material. For example, you can’t summon “Mario” into existence, as cool as that would be. But you can create a hammer, bear, pizza, boat, or surf board.

And when we say that objects can be magically created out of thin air in Scribblenauts, we really mean it. Creative director Jeremiah Slaczka and his team promise that every single object in the world that you can think of exists in the game. All you need to do is say the magic word and Poof! The object will appear. Whether or not it helps you accomplish your objectives depends on how clever you are. The possibilities are truly only limited by the player's imagination. 5th Cell has even included a feature in the game whereby once you use an object in a level once, it can’t be used on subsequent playthroughs. This is to encourage people to get creative and find new ways to solve a given stage. There are probably thousands of possible solutions to any given problem, many of which the developers never anticipated.

The amazing thing about Scribblenauts is that each summoned object also behaves realistically with its own weight, movement and behavior. For example, summon a donut and a Police officer, and the player will find that these two things are quite fond of each other. While the developers have not yet committed to a total number of objects to be included in the final game, we expect them to number in the thousands. The team has set up a massive database to handle the creation of new objects, and they have been poring over dictionaries and encyclopedias looking for more words to add to the game.

Scribblenauts features:

Bring any noun to life by writing or typing it in the notepad! All objects behave as they would in real life. Flee from aggressive monsters, save a fairy princess, or swim under the ocean with a mighty whale! Whatever you imagine will come alive!

Hundreds of unique scenarios that range from simple (get the Starite out of a tree!) to complex mechanic based puzzles. Solve puzzles in dozens of completely unique ways.

Numerous environments, multiple game modes, and unlockable content provide a lasting and enjoyable experience