Scribblenauts is the first DS game I’ve been excited about (or bought … or played) in a long time. In fact, the only DS game I’ve actually spent serious time playing up to this point has been Mario. And Mario on the DS the only Mario variant I haven’t finished (which says something — althought what, I’m not sure). Among the games I’ve bought and given up on pretty quickly are FFIV (the Gameboy Advanced version), FFIII, and Elite Beat Agents. (If you ever pondered the fact that Final Fantasy games are essentially bad stories wrapped around a spreadsheet with wonderful cut scenes, playing the Old School games rubs your face in it by leaving out the cut scenes.)
The way I see it, Scribblenauts is a game that uses reasonably modern computer horsepower (the DS is as powerful as mid 90s desktop computer) to handle conceptual space instead of aesthetics or storyline. The graphics are cute but unremarkable (nothing a 1980s computer couldn’t handle with a bit of optimization) and the storyline is non-existent. What the game has is a huge library of “things” each of which has physical and conceptual attributes. E.g. pirates like parrots; hippies become upset if you kill animals; tigers are nastier than lions are nastier than wolves; beavers chew through trees.
A Scribblenauts level is simply an arrangement of things in a landscape, a goal (get to the “starite”), and some restrictions (don’t upset the hippies). You simply summon anything you want out of thin air by naming it (more-or-less — some things have bee deliberately or accidentally omitted from the database — but the variety of things you can pick is amazing).
One of the cleverest aspects of the game is that you’re encouraged to replay levels to find alternate solutions. Every level has at least three distinct solutions — and again the conceptual framework provides a nice implementation of “distinct”. As far as I can tell, there’s a one-to-many relationship between concepts (e.g. ‘long, flexible connector’), concrete implementations (e.g. ‘chain’ vs. ‘rope’), and terms (e.g. ‘candy’ vs. ‘lolly’). A new solution must employ a different concepts rather than different implementations or terms (you do get credited, for example, with coming up with a new word for the same “thing”, but using it to create an alternative solution to a level won’t get you credit for finding a truly new solution).
Similarly clever is the fact that the achievements you are awarded can be conceptual as well — e.g. you get achievements for thinking of variations on a theme, achievements for thinking of entirely new object domains, achievements for avoiding object domains (e.g. weapons). What we have here is a game that’s (generally) non-violent and clever instead of violent and stupid, and addictive and enjoyable for (pretty much) all ages. Thoroughly recommended.
Oh, and black holes are just incredibly handy sometimes.
Post Script
For a rather different take on Scribblenauts here’s Zero Punctuation. (Note that while he rails against it, he seems to have played a heck of a lot of it.) I have to say that I agree that the movement physics suck dead dogs’ … well let’s not go there, children may be reading. And combining such a broad set of concepts and relationships with an actual plot is a Very Good (and obvious) Idea — but I think that implying it’s not “fun” is harsh (and manifestly untrue).
Oh, and pterodactyls are way better than helicopters.
Post Post Script
And here’s the really sad thing about Nintendo DS games. Even the best ones aren’t that compelling. I played Scribblenauts for about four hours after getting it, and then a couple of hours the next day, and I haven’t turned on the DS since. That makes Scribblenauts (for me) the second most compelling game on the DS after Mario (which is just another Mario game).
Frankly, if you don’t think Zelda is genius incarnate, Nintendo platforms are always disappointing (I gave up on the Wii’s Zelda even faster than the Nintendo 64’s). I gave up trying to find Chinatown Wars for the DS and got it for the iPhone — at least I carry my iPhone around.