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The Scribblenauts Official Thread of imagination revelations

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Developer: 5TH Cell Media
Publisher: Warner Brothers Entertainment

Platform: Nintendo DS
Rating: E10+
Price: $29.99
Genre: Puzzle-Platformer
Official Website
Official YouTube Channel [Videos, etc.]
Official Facebook page [Screenshots, news, etc.]

Release Dates:
NA - September 15th, 2009
Europe - October 9th, 2009
Australia - September 30th, 2009

--> Features
  • Create Your Own Interactive Experience: Objects you write down in the game are only limited by your imagination
  • Everyone Can Play: All-ages Ppick-up-and-play fun for everyone
  • Touch-screen Controls: Easy to pick up and play on Nintendo DS. If you can tap, you can play
  • Unlimited Replay Value: Use less objects to increase your score, or experiment with different objects for endless replay value. Write anything; solve everything
  • Playground Mode: Play the entire game in a sandbox style right on the title screen
  • Revolutionary MultiplayerCreate and Share Levels Online: Share levels you create with the Level Editor via Nintendo DS Wi-Fi Connection
  • Innovative New Title from Leading Developer: 5TH Cell, the creator of the Drawn to Life franchise and Lock's Quest, has experience creating high-quality, innovative DS games




--> Answer the call of...Scribblenauts?!

Scribblenauts is a puzzle-platformer that has two game modes: puzzle mode and action mode. In puzzle mode you must solve a puzzle or challenge of some sort in order to earn a "starite", a star shaped item that is the goal of every level. In action levels the starite is out in the open, though obviously guarded with creatures, traps, and other obstacles that the player must overcome

In both modes you have nearly any noun at your disposal to help you solve the level. The game boasts an object list numbering in the tens of thousands, from the most mundane of objects to some of the most complex and powerful...such as God, shrink rays, and time machines. Every item has real world properties and reactions you'd expect them to have. Termites eat wood, pyromaniacs set things on fire, and cats are rescued by firemen.

Write anything, solve everything. It's an accurate tagline.

The idea is to solve every level using your imagination. Each solution can be as mundane or as creative as you want it to be. However, the game encourages you to be clever in your solutions through use of points (called Ollars) and merits (think of achievements) awarded at the end of each level. Creativity rewards you with more points, and as can be expected this challenges you to complete a level with the most points possible. All the while these points can be used to buy various things such as avatars and levels.

The above is the technical description of the game. That's boring. Think of this as an imagination-to-DS converter. Think of something cool. Anything. Now type it into Scribblenauts. Chances are...it's going to work. You're going to be riding a panda who is riding another panda who is riding a unicycle. You'll be feeding steakbabies to hungry lions. You'll face God vs. Cthulhu because, hey, everyone else is doing it!


--> The rules!

As you might expect the game obviously doesn't have every item you can imagine. There are some rules. You may have noticed the "E10+" rating above. That is important, as...

  • No vulgar items (items sexual in nature, etc.)
  • No copyrighted words
  • No proper nouns (with a few exceptions)
  • Must be a concrete noun
  • No adjectives (usually it will ignore the adjective but still spawn the item)

Aside from that you can expect most any item you can think of in the game. It's not always perfect, but while you might not get the very specific item you're looking for, you'll probably find the generic equivalent.

You can also expect plenty of easter eggs. 5TH Cell has snuck in many internet memes (yeah, Keyboard Cat is in the game. As is Rickroll, LOLWUT, Ceiling Cat...) as well as some clever interactions, such as Bigfoot being afraid of cameras.


--> Media

Boxart

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Screenshots

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Videos

Looking for videos? You can find 3 trailers at the official site, and a huge amount of them around YouTube. Of note...



--> Legacy

If there's one thing that can be said with certainty, it's that Scribblenauts has left its mark upon gaming forever. It's only been a short while since E3 2009, and yet in that time there has been a significant amount of internet memes, references, and epic stories surrounding Scribblenauts. It'd be an impossible task to record all of these moments in one post, so instead I'll focus on the important stuff. This is the legacy of Scribblenauts.


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Reviews

Game Informer - 8.75/7.75
Ultimate Nintendo Mag - 10/10
N-Gamer - 9/10
Hardcore Gamer Magazine - 4.5/5
Eurogamer - 7/10
IGN - 8.7/10




Post 217

This post began as an impression by a GAF user named Feep. It was sandwhiched between posts 216 and posts 218 (two posts which would forever be ignored) and was a rather colorful hands-on showcasing the power of Scribblenauts. It spread over the internet like wildfire, instantly hyping anyone it touched. Soon gamers began bringing slightly censored versions of the story into real life to help describe Scribblenauts. It's unknown how many sales alone are thanks to Post 217, but I'd estimate about 200 million.

Only a couple of weeks later the official artist of 5TH Cell, Edison Yan, penned up an amazing "artistic interpretation" of this epic story.

Feep said:
I had played all the big titles at E3. Private showings of God of War III, Heavy Rain, Alan Wake. But at 4:00 on Thursday, I was wandering around the show floor, wondering what else I had to see. I saw a small little booth for "Scribblenauts!" in the Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment section. I mean, who goes to that booth? But I remember hearing about it on GAF, and so I decided to check it out.

Best game of E3? Without a fucking doubt. Anyone who says otherwise did not play Scribblenauts. Best game of all time? Jesus Christ, I don't know, maybe. It's a game that challenges your IMAGINATION. No other game has ever done that.

So listen to this story. I was in the early levels; I didn't quite have an idea of how ridiculously in-depth the database was. I was summoning things like ladders, glasses of water, rayguns, what have you. But I reached a level with zombie robots, and the zombie robots kept killing me. Rayguns didn't work, a torch didn't work, a pickaxe didn't work. In my frustration, I wrote in "Time Machine". And one popped up. What the fuck? A smile dawned on my face. I hopped in, and the option was given to me to either travel to the past or the future. I chose past. When I hopped out, there were fucking dinosaurs walking around. I clicked one, and realized I could RIDE THEM. So I hopped on a fucking DINOSAUR, traveled back to the present, and stomped the shit out of robot zombies. Did you just read that sentence? Did you really? I FUCKING TRAVELED THROUGH TIME AND JUMPED ON A DINOSAUR AND USED IT TO KILL MOTHERFUCKING ROBOT ZOMBIES. This game is unbelievable. Impossible. There's nothing you can't do.

Holy fucking shit.


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Steakbaby

The ESRB is not known for their rating descriptions. If anything, most people ignore anything they say about a game except for the rating on the box itself. Perhaps the ESRB knew that and wanted to mix things up. Or perhaps they wanted to share their sick and twisted imagination and finally found an outlet for their rage. Either way, the end result is the description you'll find below which went from 0-to-meme in less than 60 seconds.

Rating summary: This is a puzzle game in which players navigate a series of traps, puzzles, and enemies to collect stars scattered throughout the colorful levels. Players have the ability to summon different objects by writing/typing in the word (e.g., bike, spaceship, lion) and watching it come to life. If multiple words are entered in a sequence, different whimsical scenarios can be triggered: a bicycle can be used to jump over a baby; a bulldozer can clear away a shark; and cabbage can be fed to dinosaurs. Players can elect to summon "cartoony" versions of bats, bombs, guns, and flamethrowers. These types of items can be used to destroy objects or even other summoned items (e.g., a club can be used to hit an animal; steak can be attached to a baby to attract lions; rockets can be lobbed at a man). These triggered animations are minimally depicted and are usually accompanied by popping, musical sound effects; bright, star-shaped flashes; or small puffs of smoke. If players wish to, they may type in the word vomit, which causes a beige-colored lump to appear on the screen.

Thankfully, the internet embraced this incredible description, forever cementing the scenario as the very first thing every person is going to try out upon getting the game. Thanks, ESRB.


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Rooster Hat!

It began as a simple question: "What the hell is that on Maxwell's head?" Somewhere along the lines someone must have answered "Rooster Hat," and the name stuck. The idea of such a ridiculous piece of headgear seemed to stick with gamers, and sure enough, they loved it. When Gamestop announced it as a preorder bonus...well, the internet went insane. Preorders must have been high because as I mentioned earlier Gamestop has seemingly run out and won't be offering them anymore.

In the above picture you can see 5TH Cell's Jeremiah Slaczka demoing just how incredible the hat is. Costumes for Halloween 2009 have already been decided for gamers everywhere.


mpbg87


Scribbletars

Finally, GAF and the internet at large have taken it upon themselves to make a bunch of avatars of famous people, video game characters, and fictional people in the Scribblenauts style. Dubbed Scribbletars, you can find the equally epic thread right here. You can also find a gallery of said Scribbletars over at this site. The artists have spent an insane amount of time and energy cranking these things out, so make sure you're repping them to promote the game and their work.


--> ScribbleWiki

***Placeholder for now***

The wiki should be a neat place to toss cool interactions/items/solutions/etc., and like you might expect, things are going to be discovered by actual players posting about them in topics like this. By posting your impressions in this topic you've given people the right to use the contents of your post, credited or not, in the wiki.

If you have a problem with this please let the people responsible know, either in the Talk page of the article or in this topic.



***PLEASE SPOILER TAG YOUR SOLUTIONS TO LEVELS AND ANY NEAT EASTER EGGS YOU MIGHT FIND***
 

Mik2121

Member
You forgot to put the release date.

This will be the very first game I play on my DS for the last 4 or 5 months. Can't wait!!! :)__
 

DigiMish

Member
Finally got to play this baby at PAX. It's everything I imagined it would be. Didn't get too crazy today, but will think of some crazy words to write when I go again on the morrow. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be picking up a DS pretty soon:lol
 
Yes yes yes! Cant wait for the reviews to pour in... I'm personally looking forward to a lot of video reviews.

Scribblenauts and Uncharted 2 are easily my most anticipated games this year!
 
I watched the game for a bit today at PAX. Someone summoned mitochondria! Didn't do much (the level was an early one about helping a woodsman deal with a tree), but was definitely sweet that the game recognized the word.
 
Forkball said:
No dinosaur pic? Come on man.

Ah yes, almost forgot about that. Honestly, Scribblenauts has been a whirlwind of memes and in-jokes and in-references. It's easy to forget sometimes!
 

BlueWord

Member
So soon. I'm not so hyped, but I'm anticipating that I'll get many hours of quality entertainment from this.

Strange to think we might be looking at the GOTY.
 

Blizzard

Banned
Good job! And you're a great choice to make the thread. :D The wallpapers are great! I have three copies of Scribblenauts ordered and got a DSi for it, so yeah...looking forward to it. Might finally get a game to pull me away from TF2.
 

iammeiam

Member
I have this preordered at Amazon for a few bucks off retail.

Is it sad that I'm debating a second preorder at Gamestop for the rooster hat, and having a spare copy to loan to people who don't understand why it's like the greatest thing ever?

This is also one of the few games to drive me to near-media-blackout. The bits I've seen (217, the ESRB thing) are awesome, but I want to preserve as much of the surprise as possible. I suspect it'll be a long time before another game with this much potential for the unexpected comes along again.

If this game delivers on half of what it seems it will, it'll be huge.
 

Nekofrog

Banned
Once the game drops, this is probably going to be one of the greatest thread in the history of neogaf. I can just imagine page after page of unique, hilarious, and amazing solutions to levels. It will never end, and I will love it forever.
 

Blizzard

Banned
More thoughts: You could try putting in some of the info from the first page of http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=364053 if you have space.

Also you could mention that Amazon still has it for $28 and free shipping (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002B1TDV8/?tag=neogaf0e-20) if you don't get release-day shipping and take their (really slow for new games, I think) free shipping.

Also you might mention that as far as I -know-, Gamestops may not be offering rooster hats for any more preorders. Someone said they took the offer off the website, but I dunno about inshop preorders.

This thread could have been awesome if the game had a way to upload screenshots like the Flipnote thing does for animations...as it is I'm going to have to try to take pictures with a digital camera, and only people who play with an emulator (which is presumably semi-illegal) will have decent screenshots. :(
 

Vard

Member
I've had mine preordered from Amazon for a few months now! The release date is so near! I'm looking forward to showing it to and playing it with friends.
 
Blizzard said:
More thoughts: You could try putting in some of the info from the first page of http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=364053 if you have space.

Also you could mention that Amazon still has it for $28 and free shipping (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002B1TDV8/?tag=neogaf0e-20) if you don't get release-day shipping and take their (really slow for new games, I think) free shipping.

Also you might mention that as far as I -know-, Gamestops may not be offering rooster hats for any more preorders. Someone said they took the offer off the website, but I dunno about inshop preorders.

This thread could have been awesome if the game had a way to upload screenshots like the Flipnote thing does for animations...as it is I'm going to have to try to take pictures with a digital camera, and only people who play with an emulator (which is presumably semi-illegal) will have decent screenshots. :(

Yeah, we'll figure out some cool post-release stuff I'm sure. I'll probably add some level creator info once more things are concrete.

But yeah, thanks for the suggestions! Hope it's not too cluttered now.
 

Ca1amity

Neo Member
Yeah I totally second a link to the gallery of scribbletaurs someone was collecting over in the avatar thread.

Man.. speaking of that thread, mabye a link to that too? I may not have got one (QQ unfilled request :p) but those artists pumped out their own work plus left only 90 something of 250 requests unfilled. So much win in there.
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
Wheeee Scribblenauts!
Preordered it ages ago for the rooster cap. I better get me one!

Though, it bears mentioning that the Nintendo World Store here in NYC is having a surprising early launch party/even that Sunday, the 13th. Apparently there will be free goodies, early sales, and even some of the devs on hand. Should be interesting!
 
Links to Scribbletar thread (which seems dead :() and gallery done.

As for the delay, I dunno. Both Europe and Australia got 2 week delays. Too small of a delay to have to do with development, so I imagine it has to do with production...maybe?
 

Ca1amity

Neo Member
-Winnie- said:
D:

Does anybody have any idea what the reason behind the Australian delay is?

Because you are Australian.
Remember, AUSGAF: Double the price and 5 months later. Its how the gaming world treats you. Past precedent hooo!
 
-Winnie- said:
D:

Does anybody have any idea what the reason behind the Australian delay is?

Maybe they need to do extra research on what company names there are in Australia that can't be used as words? I was surprised today when I saw TASER fail - even though the word has become the term used to describe all devices in that category, it's still a company name, so they apparently left it out.
 
Dreamwriter said:
Maybe they need to do extra research on what company names there are in Australia that can't be used as words? I was surprised today when I saw TASER fail - even though the word has become the term used to describe all devices in that category, it's still a company name, so they apparently left it out.

I imagine there will be a lot of weird cases like that. For instance, "Aspirin" is a generic term describing that chemical composition used in the medicine in the US. Elsewhere, Aspirin is a trademarked name filed by Bayer.
 
So by "no adjectives" does that forgo actual species of animals in favor of genus or w/e the hell the next higher category is? The idea of anything but well known species getting their complete due kinda blows my mind.
 

Firestorm

Member
I wanted to play this today but the friggin crowd at pax wasn't even a line. It was a mob. >=[
My pre-order was in long ago so I better get my rooster hat!
 

speedpop

Has problems recognising girls
Let's hope this becomes the success for 5th Cell that Drawn to Life should've been. They deserve a better bargaining chip for future products.
 

Firestorm

Member
speedpop said:
Let's hope this becomes the success for 5th Cell that Drawn to Life should've been. They deserve a better bargaining chip for future products.
Drawn to Life sold over a million copies. It's what is funding Scribblenauts.
 
I can't wait for this! I've ordered my copy @ VGP because the European release was delayed. But I might buy two version because of the translations :)
 

theluma

Member
This is going to be such a freakin epic thread.

Imagine the pages and pages of awesome stories. You'll be able to just pop in here and have your mind blown and pop out again.

Two One Seven better watch its back!
 
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