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So I often write articles for my school's newspaper and this week I wrote a video game review.
The review is of Scribblenauts. It's a bit short, but I had to make it fit on one page.
So tell me if it makes sense, it's easy to read, and whether it's enjoyable. Any comments are appreciated. (if it's going to be read by hundreds of people I want it to be good!)
Write anything. Solve everything.
That’s the tagline for the Nintendo DS video game Scribblenauts. And if there’s one thing this game doesn’t do, it’s failing to do just that.
Scribblenauts is a game unlike any other. The game consists mainly of puzzles that are solved in a way so original, it’s practically a genre of its own. See, your vocabulary is your most powerful weapon in this game. You control Maxwell, who runs around solving puzzles and overcoming obstacles by summoning objects. Anything. Almost any noun you can come up with, you can summon in this game. From platypuses to professors, bulldozers to bridges, sea monsters to salami, jetpacks to jackalopes, tornadoes to time machines -the possibilities are endless. In fact, the development team behind the game, 5th Cell, claims there are over 23 000 unique entries in this game.
You can use these objects not only on their own but in conjunction with each other, and that’s what makes this game really special. For example, I once attached a piece of meat to a pole and held on to it. I then summoned a raptor and used the meat to ride the raptor around the stage. In another level, I attached a collar to a cow, tied a rope to the collar, and used a helicopter to lift the cow that was standing in the way of traffic. There are so many ways to solve the puzzles, there’s literally infinite replay value. The game even encourages using different solutions to solve puzzles. Your imagination is the only limit!
Despite having an ingenious premise and practically leaking originality, Scribblenauts is not a perfect game. The graphics are simple, at best. However, this is understandable, given the incredible amount of objects that are present. The music and sound are a bit lacking but again, they’re not the game’s main focus. You’re not going to buy this game for its soundtrack or graphics, anyways.
The game’s biggest problem, by far, is its abysmal control scheme. Never have I played a game with such incredible potential that was brought down so much by possibly the most wildly stupid design decision of all time. The reason for this lies in the game’s use of the DS’s touch screen. You use the touch screen not only to manipulate objects but move Maxwell, and this often leads to Maxwell inadvertently walking to his death or disrupting a delicately-prepared arrangement of objects prior to being ready to move him. This problem could have easily been solved by having an alternate control scheme where you move Maxwell with the D-Pad instead, and if there are ever any sequels I pray that this will be the case.
Some objects and combinations of them also have unexpected behaviour, leading to an inconsistency in the difficulty of the various puzzles. I’ve encountered several puzzles that after trying several solutions that according to logic should have worked, only to find less logical solutions that worked instead. In particular for the action levels, I also found that they would be less likely to explore alternate solutions and fall into the pattern of using the same set of objects, making these levels repetitive towards the end.
Scribblenauts may have some terrible controls and a design that leaves you wanting more, but it is still a game unlike any other and deserves to be played just because of this. The game even includes a level designer, where you can create your own levels and send them to other people using Wi-fi. The developers of the game promised to include almost every noun fathomable, and in that regard they delivered 110%. If you own a Nintendo DS, it’s your duty to play this game, even if it’s just for the effort the developers put into it. After all, what other game would allow you to find the answer to life’s ultimate question: who would win in a fight between a pirate and a ninja?
It's not fantastic but I sort of typed it out all last night in the period of an hour or so. So tell me what you think. Some parts sound awkward, so if you have any suggestions on what should be changed then I'd appreciate that, too. :3
The review is of Scribblenauts. It's a bit short, but I had to make it fit on one page.
So tell me if it makes sense, it's easy to read, and whether it's enjoyable. Any comments are appreciated. (if it's going to be read by hundreds of people I want it to be good!)
Write anything. Solve everything.
That’s the tagline for the Nintendo DS video game Scribblenauts. And if there’s one thing this game doesn’t do, it’s failing to do just that.
Scribblenauts is a game unlike any other. The game consists mainly of puzzles that are solved in a way so original, it’s practically a genre of its own. See, your vocabulary is your most powerful weapon in this game. You control Maxwell, who runs around solving puzzles and overcoming obstacles by summoning objects. Anything. Almost any noun you can come up with, you can summon in this game. From platypuses to professors, bulldozers to bridges, sea monsters to salami, jetpacks to jackalopes, tornadoes to time machines -the possibilities are endless. In fact, the development team behind the game, 5th Cell, claims there are over 23 000 unique entries in this game.
You can use these objects not only on their own but in conjunction with each other, and that’s what makes this game really special. For example, I once attached a piece of meat to a pole and held on to it. I then summoned a raptor and used the meat to ride the raptor around the stage. In another level, I attached a collar to a cow, tied a rope to the collar, and used a helicopter to lift the cow that was standing in the way of traffic. There are so many ways to solve the puzzles, there’s literally infinite replay value. The game even encourages using different solutions to solve puzzles. Your imagination is the only limit!
Despite having an ingenious premise and practically leaking originality, Scribblenauts is not a perfect game. The graphics are simple, at best. However, this is understandable, given the incredible amount of objects that are present. The music and sound are a bit lacking but again, they’re not the game’s main focus. You’re not going to buy this game for its soundtrack or graphics, anyways.
The game’s biggest problem, by far, is its abysmal control scheme. Never have I played a game with such incredible potential that was brought down so much by possibly the most wildly stupid design decision of all time. The reason for this lies in the game’s use of the DS’s touch screen. You use the touch screen not only to manipulate objects but move Maxwell, and this often leads to Maxwell inadvertently walking to his death or disrupting a delicately-prepared arrangement of objects prior to being ready to move him. This problem could have easily been solved by having an alternate control scheme where you move Maxwell with the D-Pad instead, and if there are ever any sequels I pray that this will be the case.
Some objects and combinations of them also have unexpected behaviour, leading to an inconsistency in the difficulty of the various puzzles. I’ve encountered several puzzles that after trying several solutions that according to logic should have worked, only to find less logical solutions that worked instead. In particular for the action levels, I also found that they would be less likely to explore alternate solutions and fall into the pattern of using the same set of objects, making these levels repetitive towards the end.
Scribblenauts may have some terrible controls and a design that leaves you wanting more, but it is still a game unlike any other and deserves to be played just because of this. The game even includes a level designer, where you can create your own levels and send them to other people using Wi-fi. The developers of the game promised to include almost every noun fathomable, and in that regard they delivered 110%. If you own a Nintendo DS, it’s your duty to play this game, even if it’s just for the effort the developers put into it. After all, what other game would allow you to find the answer to life’s ultimate question: who would win in a fight between a pirate and a ninja?
It's not fantastic but I sort of typed it out all last night in the period of an hour or so. So tell me what you think. Some parts sound awkward, so if you have any suggestions on what should be changed then I'd appreciate that, too. :3