Past week in Scribblenautics: July 26th - August 1st

This week was a crazy one. With several more websites getting their hands on the game and giving us updated impressions or videos or contests, it was hard to keep track of all of it. Thankfully, you don't have it. I've rounded up all the news of this past week for your viewing pleasure.

Today is August 1st. There 44 days left before the release of Scribblenauts in North America.

Here's what you may have missed

News

• *EBGames revealed an AMAZING Rooster Helmet preorder bonus for Australia. Later in the week they announced Gamestop would be offering the same deal in America. Creative Director Jeremiah then takes a picture of himself wearing it, letting everyone know it CAN fit on an adult's head. Fans rejoiced and began planning Maxwell cosplay. Probably.
  
• *5TH Cell's Matt Cox, Lead Designer on Scribblenauts, leaves the company on good terms to follow his dream to start a church.
• *You can get a preview of the Scribblenauts Prima strategy guide and even preorder it, though we're not sure why anyone would want a guide for this game.
• *Showing that they have great taste, ONM gives Scribblenauts the cover story of their September issue.
• *Could there be a Scribblenauts commercial in production. Probably. But does it look like this?

Previews, Interviews, and Impressions

• *IGN mentioned Scribblenauts briefly in their podcast, and they weren't really impressed with the controls.
• *Feep (of Post 217 fame) does a write up of his Comic-Con impressions including some pretty hilarious reactions. We also hear rumor of a "hyper-advanced" mode
• *Kotaku of Australia put up two articles about Scribblenauts this week. First up they detailed their experiences with the sandbox mode and basically screwed around with various objects. They then posted a second piece talking about their time with the actual puzzles and levels of the game.
• *A new interview was posted mid-week that seems to confirm Scribblenauts is done its development cycle. He also talks quite a bit more about the game, and it's definitely worth reading.
• *Joystiq has a Scribblenauts challenge for you. Tell them your most creative solution to the level they posted.
• *Gamespot posted their updated preview, and though it was overall positive, they were not as impressed as before.
• *IGN seemed to disagree, as they started a feature that will air every Friday showcasing multiple (and very unique) solutions to levels in the game.
• *Kotaku did a "live" event to test items people suggest in the game. The final list of what worked and what didn't (that they tested) can be found here.
• *1Up also wants your suggestions of what to try in the game. They'll be putting up videos of the most interesting suggestions next week.
• *The Tale of Two Podcasts: Both Joystiq and Listen Up spoke at length about the game. While Joystiq offered largely negative or "scaled back" opinions, Listen Up gushed about it. Both are definitely good listens.

Media

• *Check out my two part posts detailing all the new videos we got last week. Part 1, Part 2
• *The death of God is avenged by an angel wielding a bow.
• *GamersGuide shows us even more internet memes. Are you of tired of that as I am?
• *G4 posted their Comic-Con impressions video. Shows off some items (like an ark), internet memes, and various screwing around.
• *IGN included two very cool videos with this Friday Feature, so make sure to check them out as well. They solve two levels in a variety of really creative ways.

Kotaku gives results of their wordlist challenge while 1Up offers their own

Phew. This whole embargo ending thing sure means my job is a lot more frantic than usual. Seems like whenever I get the chance to get online I discover 2-3 stories to cover. You're going to want to definitely check out my weekly roundup tomorrow to find anything you missed, but at least this will be the last story of tonight.

Firstly, Kotaku decided to (weirdly) respond to people's word suggests in the comment section itself. Now maybe I'm just plain stupid, but Kotaku's comment system really doesn't make any sort of sense, and it was being pretty buggy to boot. Thankfully there are people to do the work for me. UncleSporky, over at Penny-Arcade, was kind enough to compile the list himself. I won't quote it verbatim as it's rather long, but you can find it yourself here. I think you'll be happy with what they found, though there's nothing that really stood out to report on.

Well, actually, they do mention the shrink ray working as you'd expect, and they were able to shrink a dentist. Sounds like the setup to a bad SciFi movie!

Next up we have 1Up offering yet again to check to see if a word you want is in Scribblenauts. You can find the page right here. They'll be taking the more interesting suggestions and making videos about them next week, so again, try to be creative!

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.

IGN: Random thoughts on Scribblenauts ...volume 1?

IGN finally put their impressions up, and decided to do something a bit different. Instead of being like Gamespot and simply updating their impressions, they went the more non-traditional route and discussed in great detail their experiences and solutions to two different levels.

Thankfully they included videos of everything! You can find the article here, and I'll go over the two videos in my post, commenting on each solution they attempted. Indeed, I'll also take a different route here, and instead rate their solutions instead of simply discussing them.

Bazooka: I'm not sure why they thought this would work, but it was hilarious, and we got to see the power of the bazooka...which took out the cat, house, and a nearby tree. 4/10

Squirtgun: A really great and amazing idea that didn't seem to work. Cats hate water, right? This one either didn't mind it...or the angle of the shot meant he wasn't actually being hit by it. Hmm. I'm hoping for the latter, as out of all the complex and interesting interactions and reactions of objects...cats hating water is pretty simple. Even though it didn't work, it was a great idea. 8/10.

Pyro: Holy shit I couldn't stop laughing. Yes, ok, this is a GREAT way to solve the level. I'm damn impressed the cat KNEW the house was in trouble and jumped off almost immediately. You'll also notice the house didn't just get destroyed right off...it burned long enough for Maxwell to enjoy the blaze. Very creative, very hilarious, and you're lucky the pyro didn't kill everyone by burning them alive. It was entertaining! 10/10

Escalator: Pretty decent idea here. Better than simply "stairs" or "ladder", though not much more creative beyond that. I do like how Maxwell didn't have to do any work in climbing. I also laughed at how it's constantly going up, so Maxwell ended up having to jump off of it. Not bad. 8/10

Mouse: A very traditional solution, but an average one at best in terms of creativity. We all know cats love mice. Still, he gets a bumps in score because the cat ran off the house on her own without any interaction from Maxwell. That's pretty cool. 7/10

Baseball: Yawn. Yeah, it worked, but you had to throw it a couple of times and EVERYONE will try that one out. 2/10

Battleship: ...holy shit. I...I...what? I'm blown away by this idea. The previewer was quite creative here, as the level said "No weapons"...but the battleship is a vehicle, not a weapon. It just so happens to have a cannon on it which destroys the bottles, the stand, and itself, in one big explosion. But hey, he got the starite! 11/10

Kangaroo: Alright, I didn't think the above could be topped. But...it was. This is the single most fucking hilarious thing I've seen in a Scribblenauts video. Hands down. He attaches lettuce to a fishing rod, then the rod to the head of the kangaroo...the resulting "carrot on a stick" chase causes the 'roo to plow down the bottles. Incredible. Amazing. It took some REAL creativity to pull that off. 20/10

Phew, alright, now I'll take off my judging hat. Best part about all of this is that they plan on doing this all over again every Friday right up until the release of the game. Now this is a pretty good way to spoil the game for yourself, so if you're looking to avoid that then definitely stay away.

But for everyone else this serves as a GREAT way to show off the power of Scribblenauts. We see boring solutions, solutions that definitely don't work, and creative solutions, and hilariously entertaining and incredibly awesome solutions.

That IS the definition of Scribblenauts. Glad to see IGN understands, and I look forward to next Friday and hopefully two new videos!

Live "word test" offered by Kotaku...but only for the next hour!

My job is pretty easy with this one, as I don't have to describe a damn thing. Here's the link, and here's the article:

For the next hour, if you write a concrete, kid-friendly noun, I will try to test it in Scribblenauts. The DS game should render your nouns as objects. I'll attempt to keep up in the comments and report back.

I will ignore bad words, so don't waste my time.

Look for a preview of Scribblenauts' gameplay next week. For now, let's mess around with turning words into virtual objects in the game's menu screen.

I'll start: I typed "boy," and a boy appeared. I typed "blob" and a blob appeared and attacked the boy.

I typed "president" and got a white guy in a suit. I typed "Republican and got the same guy." I typed Democrat and again got that guy.

Suggestions?

(The game's out on September 15, from development studio 5th Cell and publisher Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment.)

It's only open for the next hour, so please, be mindful of your suggestions.

Gamespot updated preview: overall positive, but they want to see some challenge

Finally we have our first "major" outlet reporting since the embargo has ended. Gamespot got another look at the game and posted some updated hands-on impressions. You can grab it here. Instead of highlights (it largely contains nothing new) I'll instead bullet point some of the general feelings and opinions the previewer had.

Note: This was a preview build. Gamestop was a bit more descriptive in what that entails: 11 Action/Puzzle levels from The Gardens, and 2 levels each (1 Action/Puzzle) in the next 9 worlds. So 40 levels total out of 220. Keep that frame of reference in mind.

• Overall, not very difficult or challenging. Most answers seem obvious.
• Not much of an incentive to redo levels a different way, and the challenge of doing it 3 times with different items isn't very hard to do. If you solved a level with a baseball you could solve it again with a basketball or soccer ball, etc.
• Despite the lack of challenge, some of the later levels definitely required some creative thinking
• Very impressed with the vocab of the game. Contains a ton of objects that behave as you'd expect
• Sandbox mode is a blast to play
• Overall positive impressions, but they want more incentives to use your imagination

All in all the complaints are to be expected. Many skeptics of Scribblenauts have voiced similar concerns, and I'd say they're valid to a point. Still, though I understand his want for an in-game incentive (he suggests leaderboards of some sort), I really don't think Scribblenauts is that type of game. I more agree with the Kotaku impressions, which you can check out here, which seem to realize that thought this game can be simple at times, the challenge comes from within your own imagination.

Further, it should be said that they only got a taste of 2 levels from Worlds 2-10, so it's safe to say they didn't see the whole picture. Also, merits (achievements) and ollars (to unlock things such as avatars) should surely provide a good incentive to redo levels, but the previewer makes no mention of them.

Finally, he talks about the level Joystiq is currently using for a challenge. He says it's possible to spawn just about any item you want, drag it above the bottles, and drop it to beat the level. Indeed, it might be harder to find an item that WOULDN'T work in that situation.

That might make the challenge a little easier to complete than it already was...hehe.

Joystiq offers a Scribblenauts challenge

If you were with us for the EDGE contest awhile back then this should come as no shock to you, but that doesn't make it any less cool.

Joystiq has issued a challenge for their readers to solve a level in Scribblenauts. There's no prizes this time around (except for the accomplishment of a job well done!) nor is the level particularly difficult. You can see the level and what it entails at the top of this post.

However, despite not being very hard, this sure sounds like it could be a ton of fun and allow for creative (and entirely insane) ideas. The lack of a challenge will enable some really awesome and free form solutions...at least I hope. We're not sure what "cheating" means, but I assume you can't just walk over to it and knock it down. Still, it just said no guns. Explosives? Nukes? A black hole? Those are entirely different stories.

So head over to Joystiq and drop them a comment. They'll have the results on Monday.