How many times have you played a game where you needed a specific item in order to progress the story only to realize you needed to traipse half-way across the game world just to find the required object? Did you scream, “Why!?” Is your idea of how things should work in games better than what the developers have coded? Then, 5thCell – developers of Drawn to Life and Lock’s Quest – have got your back with their newest Nintendo DS game, Scribblenauts.
The premise is pretty simple: Help Maxwell solve the puzzle of how to get the star in each level. The twist? The player uses the games’ notepad to spell out objects to use to accomplish that task. Any object. Need to reach the star in a tree? Spell out “ladder” and one will appear for Maxwell’s use; or write “football” and Maxwell will throw the football into the tree knocking down the star; or how about using a beaver to gnaw through the tree, thus felling it and bringing down the star. Every object behaves as it would in the real (or fantasy) world. You can even combine objects to create new behaviors. For a demonstation of how the game mechanics work, check out the Scribblenauts trailer.
Eurogamer has posted a comprehensive preview/interview. Go read it. Now. It’ll make you squeal with glee. If 5thCell can really deliver on this, I’ll be all over this like white on rice.
Scribblenauts is scheduled for a Fall 2009 release.
I’m almost ashamed to admit it, but I might have to borrow my 11-year old daughter’s DS so I can give this a try. It reminds me of a smarter version of the old-school Infocom text games.
I read an article on this in Edge the other day and it sounds amazingly brilliant. I love the idea that you can write down pretty much any word (the example the guy in the article used was “dialysis machine”) and there it’ll be. This is one I’m definitely getting for airplane rides.
I’m excited about this game. The database of objects usable in it must be amazing.
Great idea. Or a pill to make you 20 feet tall. Or an arm stretching brace. How many times in a game have you been staring up at something out of reach and wished you could just stretch out and grab it? Or a 6 foot long termite… or a……
But what about we who are speling chalenged? I can draw pritty gudd (luved Drawn to Life), but cant spel worth shytte!
Thanks Tog, I’d forgotten about this one. Spelling disabled or not, I’m all in. The one I’m really watching is “Little Magician’s Magic Adventure.” Animal Crossing wannabe sounds great if done well.
OMG, Yap! “Little Magician” was definitely not on my radar at all. After seeing the screenshots I’ll have to add it to my ever-growing list of games to watch.
Seems like an adventure gamer’s wet dream. It can’t be real I tell you.