Video games are mathematical entities. Nothing can occur in them that can’t be accounted for in their programming. The magic of the medium lies where a game is able to hide this fact, to provide an experience that feels unique to every player even if no actual magic is being worked. Perhaps no game has felt more magical than “Scribblenauts,” a marvel of programming in which it seemed anything could happen. The Examiner’s 2009 game of the year gave you a character standing on a 2-D plane — nothing new — and mundane tasks, like cutting down a tree. Only thing is, you don’t have an ax. What to do? Simple: Open up your notebook, write (or type) “ax,” and one pops into existence for your character to use. Anything tree-felling item you could think of could be used to solve the level, and the game rewarded you for creative solutions, from a flamethrower to a wrecking ball.
Even more fun was to ignore the level objectives entirely, creating things like a lion and a lion tamer and watching their interactions play out logically. The developers seemed to have thought of everything, and the core of “Scribblenauts” was trying to stump its inventory of tens of thousands of nouns.
For the sequel, which signifies its sequel status with a retro “Super” instead of a numeral, the game goes beyond nouns and introduces adjectives. This opens up a vast new array of possibilities. A winged polka dot bathtub, like the one on the game’s cover, can fly you through the air. A doglike snow globe prances around, and a misogynist seashell reacts poorly to women. Most impressive is using objects to force adjectives onto others. Firing a cupid bow at a boy turns him into a romantic boy, who makes up for various seashells by approaching women.
| ‘Super Scribblenauts’ |
| » System: DS |
| » Price: $29.99 |
| » Rating: 4 out of 5 stars |
At a certain point, though, after you’ve wished a homesick tree and a leather house into existence, you feel like you’re working magic than playing some aimless Mad-Libs knockoff. What’s worse, unrecognized adjectives are lined through with red by the game, making it feel much less like anything is possible, and compound modifiers can confuse the game. Request a purple glove compartment, and both “purple” and “glove” are crossed out, producing some sort of tent.
Maybe it’s silly to criticize the rare game that dares to reach beyond its grasp, but I’d have preferred the developers work on the basics. What good is creating an acrophobic mermaid if, for instance, something as basic as a frisbee is still treated as a weapon? Yep, throwing one at somebody still hurts them, and they still flee in terror.
Despite having much more visible seams than “Scribblenauts,” the “Super” version, by virtue of retaining the core of its predecessor, stokes the imagination as well as any video game — or product — out there. It just needs its programming to catch up to its concept.
