Two very different podcasts discussing Scribblenauts

It would seem this is the last news coming out of the embargo lift today. Two podcasts that release on Fridays decided to devote a fairly big segment to Scribblenauts. First up we have the Joystiq podcast followed by Listen Up, which is 1Up's podcast.

Together the discussions are as different as night and day. Check the highlights.

Joystiq Podcast

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/07/31/joystiq-podcast-103-2010-edition/

Highlights

• Action levels don't seem to "work as well" as Puzzle levels
• Controls are finicky
• Puzzles are really interesting and unique
• "Protect a picnic basket from ants, but don't kill the ants as it'll upset the hippy" - Amazing level description
• Biggest problem Scribblenauts will have: Gives impression possibilities are unlimited, when that's not the case. Some objects don't act like you'd expect or want them to.
• Example: Needed to get on top of something, created a beanstalk, but it just created a rope-like object and didn't work like they wanted it to
• Another: Needed to stop a ship from hitting an iceberg. Fireball killed the iceberg, which was cool. But he wanted to attach an anchor, needed a chain, but the weight of the chain was enough to stop the ship, which was weird.
• Yet another: Farmer freaked out and killed a rabbit, then killed a rat. I don't know why he thought that was weird...
• Favorite thing that happened: Created God and Dracula. Dracula killed God and turned him into a Zombie.
• Another about God: Had to knock over some bottles. Created God on one side, the Devil on the other, and it was close enough to the bottles so the ensuing fight knocked them over
• Keeps coming up with these caveats on purpose in order to tone down expectations
• Half of the appeal is solving puzzles, other half is to see if a solution will work the way you want
• You will absolutely want to purchase it

Listen Up podcast

http://www.1up.com/do/minisite?cId=3172882

Highlights

• They were endlessly entertained
• There will be things you think of that just won't work
• In the "rescue the cat" level his first solution was to chase it off with a dog, but that pissed the cat off and thus he didn't solve it. His second solution, to burn the house down, did indeed solve it.
• It's incredible at how many things are in, didn't run into too many words that didn't work
• They had so many moments of just doing really cool things that impressed the hell out of him
• So many "Oh my god, they actually have this in the game?" moments
• Vampires beat zombies
• "It's fucking unreal!"
• "It sounds like something videogames have been waiting to be"
• "When this game comes out, I'm not going to play anything else ever"
• They want a PC version of this game for the online component
• Yet another Satan vs. God fight. Vampire killed God. Why do so many people go back to this?
• A monkey stole a helicopter. Holy shit.
• Overall they were absolutely gushing about it. They were so hyped and talking so quickly that they kept interrupting each other in their excitement.

It's hard to fault Joystiq for being a lot more subdued about it than the 1Up guys. I felt they were trying to be "real" and reign back the hype and expectations, which is never a bad thing. On the flip side the 1Up guys sounded like kids at Christmas, but keep in mind these are their "first blush" impressions, so also take that with a grain of salt.

One thing we can draw from this is that Scribblenauts will clearly "click" for some people but not for others. I think that having a good imagination is definitely part of it, in addition to being able to self motivate yourself to try new and crazy solutions just for the hell of it.

All in all? Pretty sweet news. Make sure to check them both out.