Scribblenauts series review
Scribblenauts is a video game franchise of 4 games published by Warner Bros Entertainment and developed by 5th Cell. Games appearing on (3)DS, mobile, Wii U, and PC. I have played all of the games and I quite like them. Some I like more than others so, this is a series review of all 4 for the nintendo (3)DS.
Scribblenauts (2009)
Before I discuss my thoughts of the original game I need to introduce it and its mechanics, Scribblenauts is primarily a puzzle game. It is a very unique puzzle game in which you make items by typing them in to a notebook and use and equip them to solve the puzzle at hand. The main character is named Maxwell and he wears a chicken hat, why I don't know, but it probably has to do with this game promoting creativity and spontaneity. Which is my favorite aspect of this whole series. They even give you a whole open playground before you start the game to do whatever you want. The only thing I dislike about the game is wacky controls of having to use the stylus. Overall the game is epic and was great start to the series back in 2009.
Super Scribblenauts (2010)
The sequel one year later introduced adjectives applied to objects, which changed so much. In the first game you couldn't change the size or traits, or attitude of a character. Now you can, which alters the object of the game. Other small improvements include more profile slots, better music, an awesome level layout, fixed controls, and much more. The game has some cool easter eggs, like making an arcade allows a playable game similar to Missile Command. You can really just do so much, it is intensely creative and the first game in the series to promote customization. Personally, I've played this so much and it is one of my all-time favorite video games.
Scribblenauts Unlimited (2012)
Scribblenauts Unlimited was the first title in the series to be on the 3DS and in my opinion a step down in the franchise. Now, I think it is really fun but not on the level of its predecessor. Unlimited has a totally different layout, and a weird way to gather starites (a sort of token in scribblenauts.) There are no levels per se, just different places where people have missions for big and small for starites. These different environments while a bad level format for this game are fun and have great and different music. Sadly this game lacks editors, both of the preceding games had level editors this one does not. Nor does it have a object editor, which was to be the gimmick of this game and was present on the Wii U and PC versions but nowhere to be seen on the 3DS. Unlimited's the first to include a story, which was meh. The best part of that was introducing Maxwell's family and giving him a backstory, because he is an awesome character. It struck me how easy it was to make his family want to kill him, but that is par for the course in this. Luckily, in this game you can just make a hostile person dead. That is other neat additions are a tool that lists items similar to what was being made, a tool to keep items stored to make without recreating them, and enhancing 5th cells engine, objectnaut for the 3DS giving better graphics.
Scribblenauts Unmasked (2013)
Since scribblenauts is published by Warner Bros, for the 4th game they decided to bring DC comics to scribblenauts. In unmasked you are in the dc comics world and you can make DC characters, items, and teams with your notebook. They could've went lazy on the wonderful and magnificent holy scribblenauts fan-base but they did not. There is a wide variety of characters, items, and even different versions of characters. All that said, it's pretty much just Unlimited with superheroes. And when you summon a ton of heroes and villains, it breaks out into an epic fight that takes over the screen. There are some problems, like there being no similar item lister or that the level layout is even worse than Unlimited. The music is ok, it's really more DC-style than scribblenauts, but that's fine when half of the people playing are only playing because of DC. Me, I play because of both and it's really fun to see them combined.
Future
While the last Scribblenauts game was released 5 years ago, the franchise still goes on. After success and popularity in porting Scribblenauts to mobile, 5th cell set out to create a mobile exclusive Scribblenauts game, Fighting Words. Around 2016 Warner Bros sent out emails for beta testing applicants. A few weeks later the game was cancelled and 5th cell had massive layoffs at their company.
Most people thought that Scribblenauts was done and looked at similar games like Snipperclips for the same sort of puzzle game. But I say nay for from the heavens descends a savio7, Scribblenauts Showdown the game was leaked in December of 2017 for release on Switch, PS4, and Xbox One. It is a party game with different modes, such as an open sandbox where you can do what you want.
No Scribblenauts game has been on a console where you would have to move a controller to type and it seems like that is what would have to happen here. And from my experience that slows down typing, which in turn with Scribblenauts will slow down the game. So I'm cautiously optimistic, but it's Scribblenauts, one of my favorite video game series of all time. So I will end this post with a message, stay connected and have a scribblenautic life.
