Scribblenauts is the next game from the team that made Drawn to Life and Lock's Quest. It puts players' imaginations to the test, letting them summon almost any object, animal, or fantasy creature they can think of, using them in intuitive ways to solve problems like reuniting a girl with her cat, reaching a star that's blocked by water or a hill, and who knows what the hell else in the course of the game's 220 levels.
What's New for E3?
This game was announced a long time ago, but this was the first time that anyone's had a chance to see for themselves just how expansive its library of objects is. While you can't summon licensed properties (i.e. Godzilla) or things inappropriate for children (i.e. dildos) you can create virtually anything else you can think of. Seriously... numerous people put this to test, and they all came back blown away at the game's ability to render anything from scuba tanks, to unicorns, to Cthulhu, to the Internet meme keyboard cat.
It was equally impressive that beyond just summoning anything I could think of, that these objects or creatures then worked with the environment in ways that made sense. Summoning Cthulhu and a wyvern resulted in a battle to the death, while summoning objects like wings allowed my character to soar and reach objects that would otherwise be unobtainable since they were up high (alternatively I could have probably summoned a ladder to reach higher objects).
And while playing and interacting with objects was a lot of fun in puzzle worlds, the starting menu might be where I had the most fun. The menu works like a small sandbox, where the player can summon items just for fun and see how they interact with one another. One person I know summoned a bunch of vampires and then typed in "vampire hunter," only to watch as a cowboy-esque man entered and started slaying undead abominations. Another friend of mind typed "atomic weapon," instantly watching as the screen was taken over by a blast that killed their character. It's pretty telling when a game's opening menu is fun enough to literally cause people to giggle with excitement.
Anthony says: Scribblenauts is incredible. The puzzles I played were pretty basic, but they also took place in the first of the game's 10 worlds. And hell, even if they are easy, half the fun is just in exploring all the various ways you can get through them, challenging yourself to get more and more ridiculous along the way. Amongst a horde of games that catered to my more violent side, I was simply blown away by how delightful and refreshing Scribblenauts was during my time at E3.
