Scribblenauts & Super Scribblenauts are two of my favorite Nintendo DS games of all time and when they recently announced Scribblenauts Unlimited for 3DS and Wii U at E3 I knew I needed another Scribblenauts fix to hold me over until they come out. So luckily I found Scribblenauts: Remix on the app store.
Presentation & Story There isn't really a story to this game, it's more of a premise. You play as a boy called Maxwell (although you can change your avatar to lots of other things. I choose to play as God) who has a magic notepad that allows him to bring anything he can imagine to life. He then sort of wonders around solving puzzles and helping people although to my knowledge it's not really explained why and definitely not in the iOS version of this game. But a game like this really doesn't need a story much like Mario games don't need a story. You just need to understand the mechanics and then be given the freedom to use them. Scribblenauts has an art style I really love and it has translated over to iOS beautifully. It has a wonderful cartoon-y presentation where everything looks like it was drawn on paper, cut out and then stuck together, a little bit like how South Park originally looked, apart from Scribblenauts is family friendly. Every single thing that you can think to create will be in this game and will look awesome and cute, also animals and people will act in the way they are meant to. So dogs chase cats, sharks kill people and vampire hunters kill vampires. The only real negative in this port is that this version of Scribblenauts is missing a few of the features that were in the DS versions. Most notably the Replay Mode where you can play each level 3 times but you can't use the same words or objects each time. This really forced you to think outside the box and use your imagination to solve simple puzzles and gave a lot of longevity to the game.
Gameplay
Scribblenauts is a platform and puzzle game where you solve levels by adding objects that you can use by simply typing in that object into your notepad. So if you think a Giant Purple Dog will help you then you can make it. It is extremely addictive stuff that once you start playing and is very difficult to pull yourself away from. The game translates well to a touch screen device. You have 2 options for controlling your avatar; You can use a virtual game pad as seen above, the left nub moves Maxwell (or God) and the right nub moves the camera. Or you can simply touch the screen and Maxwell will go there and use 2 fingers to move the camera. Scribblenauts has very basic controls so it would have been difficult to get this wrong but the developer has done a great job of making gameplay feel natural anyway. To add things to the level you touch the notepad icon in the top right corner of the screen and then use a virtual keyboard to type in what you want. It couldn't be simpler and that is what makes this game so much fin. It is such a simple concept and the puzzles are never that obscure the fun and challenge is in coming up with most obscure solution possible.
This version is pretty lengthy too, after a recent update there are now 8 worlds each containing 10 levels so it's safe to say you'll be playing for a while if like me you play iOS games in short infrequent bursts.
You also have an awesome sandbox mode which is the first thing that come on when you boot up the game. Here you can literally do anything you want and create anything you want just for fun. In my Sandbox I currently have a flying gorilla roaming around quite happily but in the past I've also gone back in time, had a zombie versus vampires battle (vampires won) and ended the world in several different ways.
Final Thoughts
This games is so much fun and I'm so glad that it was ported over to iOS as it works brilliantly in short 5-10 minute sessions. It does take a little too long to load up initially but once has done then it's all systems go.
Scribblenauts will last as long as you make it last, it really is all about the players imagination and input and requires these things to be fun. Thankfully I have a vivid imagination so I'm still loving this game despite having completed the 2 other games on the DS.
For 0.69p (0.99¢) I can't recommend this game enough. It's amazing value for money considering you get 80 levels plus the sandbox mode. Hopefully it will be updated to include the Replay Mode at some point. If it is then I don't think I'll ever need another iOS game.
Final Rating: 9/10 email: [email protected] twitter: @rubberduck1986
