In lieu of my ability to game — severely hindered at the present by my now dead 360, my I-refuse-to-patch-this-cause-I’m-tired-of-Sony-acting-like-pricks PS3, my PSP’s AWOL charger, and my loaned-out DS — I present a mini review from the person who has my DS instead :)
So, for completing all the puzzle AND action levels in Scribblenauts, you get essentially nothing. A credit roll. And for some reason after finishing every level on both modes you have MORE money than is required to buy all the songs and avatars, about 70,000 more at least. Then you can replay levels in “advanced mode”, wherein you must complete the level 3 times in a row using entirely different objects each time for it to actually be beat. That may make sense in SOME puzzle levels, but in some action levels where the goal is to “race the developers”, there’s only one car that can beat them, so F that. Also, beating it in advance gives you nothing but more money, and one more mystery avatar. No thanks.
So, basically, I’m done 100% of scribblenauts. You can have your gameboy back now, ha.
I wanted to know if it was worth it and also prove to myself that I’m more clever than they are.
Short answer: No, it’s not. And, yes – I am.
Yes, of course, the review was by my brother. I don’t exactly lend out my consoles to just anybody! In terms of a family dynamic, I’m the goody-goody and he’s the smart-ass evil genius. We play well together. Most of the time. See: You actually planned it that way?!?. Being able to game together has become an increasingly rare occasion as the years have gone by, so I jump on every opportunity. When he expressed an interest in Scribblenauts out of the blue, I was more than happy to put my Pokemon adventures on hold to make it happen.
I’ve got a much higher crap tolerance, especially with games. He does not suffer fools lightly. He suffers them hilariously. One of these days I’ll persuade him to let me record us playing together. Then we can all share the joy, together. He’s the one who should be writing a blog but you’ll have to make due with these second-hand postings while he’s off being awesome elsewhere. We both felt that it was too easy to use the same items in the majority of stages to get things done as fast as possible. The art was cool, the music ranged from ‘ok’ to ‘ooh, I think I want this as a ringtone’, and some of the animations were outstanding. I was quite partial to the bear while he loved having Death do his dirty work. The one point I knew he’d go to town on? The lousy action controls. Jump? Don’t jump? Your guess is as good as mine in any given situation. Or even the same situation for a best 2-outta-3. The sequel is expected to fix some of these shortcomings and probably well worth a shot. I can still recommend the first outing if you can manage to borrow it from someone for an hour or so. You’ll know in the first five minutes if you want to keep playing or not.
His game of choice is hockey. He’s on the ice probably as often as I sit down to game. His shape kicks the crap outta mine these days as a result. This cannot stand! So I’m proud of myself for signing up to play hockey again this summer and I am ridiculously excited to hit the ice again! In the interest of self-preservation, I’m not going straight back to guys hockey. The ladies league I got into (after a little bit of arguing) only started allowing slapslots a year or two ago and, at that, only in their top division. Initially they turned down my app after reading the teams I used to play for. Once upon a time I was pretty decent and, yes, played full-contact hockey, but now I just want to kick back and have some fun. As pro hockey players always admit, the hands are the first to go. It’s one thing to take shots on a teeny starting goaltender but shooting at speed on someone who takes up more than a quarter of the net will be more fun! Skating is one of the most wonderful activities in the world. Everyone should learn!
That and swimming are two essential life skills. I need to work on the swimming one… I like my water shallow and frozen ;)
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I’m still a little amazed at the love-fest the enthusiast press gave Scribblenauts before its release only to have pretty much everyone on the forums get it and give a colossal “MEH.”
I still keep meaning to play it again and try Penny Arcade Starite technique.
Bias colors my attitude as I’ve never been good at sandbox games of any type. I wonder what they were going for though when the more complicated and unnecessary the solution is the better is your score.
I agree with your PS3 assessment as I have done the same, but I fear I’m going to have to throw in with the majority so I can play Blue Toad Murder Files: The Mystery of Little Riddle. The comments on the Sony Blog announcing the end of OtherOS are over 7,000 at this point so hopefully someone is listening.
If you are interested in fixing your 360 give me a holler. It’s surprisingly easy.
I saw Scribblenauts at E3, and I shared the general enthusiasm. Part of the problem is that it is a great concept that demos well but has no legs. So it’s all awesome for the first couple of hours or so and then you realize that there’s not much of a game there. Patterns repeat, there are super words that trump other stuff.
Most the enthusiast press also shrugged when the game came out – but the E3 buzz is what people remember because it was so over the top. This is why previews are to be taken with a grain of salt.
Ice skating, blah. I have a mortal fear of cracking my head on the ice and wearing head gear in a non-hockey setting seems dorky. Plus ice skating is an ankle killer. I’ll stick to walking, running, hiking for me. But hey whatever floats your boat right.
It’s not dorky! It’s smart! I’m teaching someone how to skate shortly and you can bet your ass that I’m making him wear full gear to start (to be less afraid of falling and prevent major injuries) and we can strip bits off as he gets more comfortable.
Come to Toronto! I’ll teach you. Trust me, it’s fun!!!
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