Zero Punctuation: Scribblenauts

[Quillpaw]

I said the Scribblenauts review would be LAST week. Dammit, now I owe my friend ten bucks.

Anyway, this just proves the point I've been trying to make to convince my friends to watch Zero Punctuation. If you hear a game is shit, then this will not only confirm the rumors but tell you why. If you hear a game is good, then this will tell you the other side of the argument. I have heard Scribblenauts is actually very fun, and I'm gonna try it out anyway...probably just so I can summon Cthulu and tell my mom that I wasn't making it up...

 

[Lord_Seth]

What the Hell is a Chufulu?

It's Cthulu, and here's its Wikipedia article [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cthulu].

 

[sgtshock]

I totally know what you mean by that Sunday boredom that feels like your brain is concrete but you can't be bothered to do anything about it. I've lost so much valuable time to that syndrome. Great review as always.

 

[Gaiacarra]

Great... A DS game... Because that's what I'm dying to get, a kiddie game for a DS...

Do you even know what game you're talking about here? Scribblenauts lets you fucking type in any of ten thousand plus nouns and summon them instantly. That's the kind of thing all gamers dream about (and that most expected would remain firmly within their dreams). Even if it is broken to hell, to dismiss it as "a kiddie game for a DS" is so utterly asinine and pompous it makes me want to punch you in the face.

Yes I did register an account for this, what of it. >(

Anyway, after reading the reviews and watching this, I'm almost wanting to not buy Scribblenauts anymore, not even because I think it would be a waste of money, but because if it really is this bad, I'll be heartbroken for... well, days at least.

I never really doubted the word-summoning mechanics, but I'd always been afraid that the levels might be poor, and I was especially doubtful when they said the game would be controlled via the stylus (although I hear people sometimes make Action Replay codes to map bad controls to the D-Pad -- they did for StarFox Assault, apparantly). It would be very very sad to see a project this ambitious fail completely because the developers just didn't push hard enough.

 

[rize]

It seems a moot point saying a DS game is bad, seeing as most of the people who have DS's are little brothers and geriartrics who can't remember what 2+2 equals.

Wow, what a generalising and moronic comment.

There are lots of hardcore gamers that have Nintendo DSs. It has many classic titles for hardcore gamers and they are always of decent quality despite the limitations of the hardware. Here's a list of quality DS titles:

GTA Chinatown Wars
Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass
Mario Kart DS
Advance Wars Dual Strike
Advance War Days of Ruin
New Super Mario Bros
The World Ends With You
Chrono Trigger
Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Professor Layton and Pandora's Box (Diabolical Box for the US)
Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow
Castlevania Portrait of Ruin
Warioware Touched!
Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword
Elite Beat Agents
Metroid Prime: Hunters

Good luck finding as good a list of PS3 or 360 titles.

EDIT: Okay 360 and PS3 can probably match it but not for exclusives, in any case the DS is a good platform and reached more people than any of the hardcore consoles.

Note how I said "mostly". Are you trying to say that the DS isn't aimed mainly at children of about 10-12? look at some of the titles you see in your local Game store, then maybe I won't seem so "moronic".

Who cares who it's aimed most squarely at? There are enough quality games designed for adults or for everyone (truly) that it is well worth purchasing. Although lately I'm finding the release list a bit thin for my tastes, I've gotten more than my money's worth from just ten games:

Three Castlevanias
Two Advance Wars
Two Etrian Odysseys
Contra 4
Two Dragon Quests (and a third one the way; two of which were never released in the US)

I probably own about 30 DS games (although I would happily lose 15 of them). I'm 29 y.o.

EDIT

And to address your original poorly made point, Scribblenauts deserved a review because it had pretensions to being a hardcore game. It garnered unexpected attention at E3 and even generated decent review scores from other circles.

 

[LawrenceFriday]

It seems a moot point saying a DS game is bad, seeing as most of the people who have DS's are little brothers and geriartrics who can't remember what 2+2 equals.

Wow, what a generalising and moronic comment.

There are lots of hardcore gamers that have Nintendo DSs. It has many classic titles for hardcore gamers and they are always of decent quality despite the limitations of the hardware. Here's a list of quality DS titles:

GTA Chinatown Wars
Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass
Mario Kart DS
Advance Wars Dual Strike
Advance War Days of Ruin
New Super Mario Bros
The World Ends With You
Chrono Trigger
Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Professor Layton and Pandora's Box (Diabolical Box for the US)
Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow
Castlevania Portrait of Ruin
Warioware Touched!
Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword
Elite Beat Agents
Metroid Prime: Hunters

Good luck finding as good a list of PS3 or 360 titles.

EDIT: Okay 360 and PS3 can probably match it but not for exclusives, in any case the DS is a good platform and reached more people than any of the hardcore consoles.

Note how I said "mostly". Are you trying to say that the DS isn't aimed mainly at children of about 10-12? look at some of the titles you see in your local Game store, then maybe I won't seem so "moronic".

The DS is aimed at anyone with money. Claiming that it's aimed at children because there are DS games aimed at children is foolish; does that same logic apply to the 360 because it has WALL-E or Kung Fu Panda? It aims to appeal at consumers of all ages equally. How well it succeeds can be argued, but you can't argue that it doesn't.

As for the review, it sounds like Yahtzee misses the point on Scribblenauts. Certainly, most of the puzzles can be solved with the same solution. But doing that is like peeling the stickers off a Rubik's Cube. The point is to experiment and find new solutions; that's why advanced mode exists. It's basically a sandbox game, in a way that most that claim to be aren't.

 

[Captain Pancake]

Who cares who it's aimed most squarely at? There are enough quality games designed for adults or for everyone (truly) that it is well worth purchasing. Although lately I'm finding the release list a bit thin for my tastes, I've gotten well more than my money's worth from just ten games:

Three Castlevanias
Two Advance Wars
Two Etrian Odysseys
Two Dragon Quests
Contra 4

I probably own about 30 DS games though (although I would happily lose 15 of them). I'm 29 y.o.

You're still missing the point that I said "mostly". statistics mean nothing to the individual, I'm just saying every DS gamer i've met is no older than 14.

The DS is aimed at anyone with money. Claiming that it's aimed at children because there are DS games aimed at children is foolish; does that same logic apply to the 360 because it has WALL-E or Kung Fu Panda? It aims to appeal at consumers of all ages equally. How well it succeeds can be argued, but you can't argue that it doesn't.

As for the review, it sounds like Yahtzee misses the point on Scribblenauts. Certainly, most of the puzzles can be solved with the same solution. But doing that is like peeling the stickers off a Rubik's Cube. The point is to experiment and find new solutions; that's why advanced mode exists. It's basically a sandbox game, in a way that most that claim to be aren't.

Look, I'm tired of arguing. Same rebuffal applies here as did in the above argument.

 

[Emperor_Z]

It seems a moot point saying a DS game is bad, seeing as most of the people who have DS's are little brothers and geriartrics who can't remember what 2+2 equals.

Wow, what a generalising and moronic comment.

There are lots of hardcore gamers that have Nintendo DSs. It has many classic titles for hardcore gamers and they are always of decent quality despite the limitations of the hardware. Here's a list of quality DS titles:

GTA Chinatown Wars
Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass
Mario Kart DS
Advance Wars Dual Strike
Advance War Days of Ruin
New Super Mario Bros
The World Ends With You
Chrono Trigger
Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Professor Layton and Pandora's Box (Diabolical Box for the US)
Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow
Castlevania Portrait of Ruin
Warioware Touched!
Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword
Elite Beat Agents
Metroid Prime: Hunters

Good luck finding as good a list of PS3 or 360 titles.

EDIT: Okay 360 and PS3 can probably match it but not for exclusives, in any case the DS is a good platform and reached more people than any of the hardcore consoles.

Note how I said "mostly". Are you trying to say that the DS isn't aimed mainly at children of about 10-12? look at some of the titles you see in your local Game store, then maybe I won't seem so "moronic".

The DS is aimed at anyone with money. Claiming that it's aimed at children because there are DS games aimed at children is foolish; does that same logic apply to the 360 because it has WALL-E or Kung Fu Panda? It aims to appeal at consumers of all ages equally. How well it succeeds can be argued, but you can't argue that it doesn't.

As for the review, it sounds like Yahtzee misses the point on Scribblenauts. Certainly, most of the puzzles can be solved with the same solution. But doing that is like peeling the stickers off a Rubik's Cube. The point is to experiment and find new solutions; that's why advanced mode exists. It's basically a sandbox game, in a way that most that claim to be aren't.

The problem with Scribblenauts is that the creative solutions usually don't work. Usually the shape, size, weight, or other traits of an object will ruin your plan, and eventually you get frustrated and resort to the same old reliable, boring solutions.

I do agree with you on the DS though. Just because a system has lots of games aimed squarely at children doesn't lessen the value of the many quality titles.

Leading back to Pancake's original post, saying a DS game is bad is significant, as most of the DS games that are worth mentioning (not shovelware) are pretty damn good.

 

[rize]

Your point was that we should have assumed Scribblenauts was a shallow game aimed at children because it is a DS game. We've demonstrated that that is a stupid idea because there are plenty of non-shallow games not aimed at children available for the DS. If you had pointed out the box art, you might have been making a reasonable point.

 

[The Bandit]

To think I actually wanted to buy this game. If it's that broken and boring, no thank you.

...Are you... Serious right now? You're going to base what games you buy off what Yahtzee likes? So, you only have two games then? The Orange Box and Painkiller?

If you wanted it, then go fucking buy it. Christ.

 

[CK76]

Great title with friends sitting around playing, say PS3, can go "what should I write?" amazing the number of ways can solve puzzles and you get scored on doing them different ways. Had some very creative and yes fun levels and frankly I'm glad to see something different.

 

[Ammadessi]

Who cares who it's aimed most squarely at? There are enough quality games designed for adults or for everyone (truly) that it is well worth purchasing. Although lately I'm finding the release list a bit thin for my tastes, I've gotten well more than my money's worth from just ten games:

Three Castlevanias
Two Advance Wars
Two Etrian Odysseys
Two Dragon Quests
Contra 4

I probably own about 30 DS games though (although I would happily lose 15 of them). I'm 29 y.o.

You're still missing the point that I said "mostly". statistics mean nothing to the individual, I'm just saying every DS gamer i've met is no older than 14.

Therefore because most candy is bought to give to children, obviously no adults like candy except for a few mutants, am I right? There's no age limit on any console, and just because one might be more appealing to children doesn't mean it's any less of a legitimate gaming platform.

 

[BonerMacTittyPants]

I agree with Yahtzee on so many points.

It is true, Scribblenauts is nothing more than lolcat level of humor and fun. "Oh wow! Zombies with chainsaws, and cows with bazookas? Sign me in!" But then you realize how shallow it is.

Nothing works the way it's supposed to. You spawn a ladder, but it's too short. You write "long ladder", it spawns the same thing. Want a a longer one? Try "Fixed ladder".
More like "Fixed game" please.

Want to go gmod and make a contraption? Good luck, because "jet engine", "thruster" or anything that would logically add motion explodes on activation.

It is boring to be omnipotent and you can't be imaginative because NOTHING WORKS LIKE IT SHOULD.

 

[Gariom]

I was hoping he would do a review for Scribblenauts, and he did! Yay!

 

[Captain Pancake]

Who cares who it's aimed most squarely at? There are enough quality games designed for adults or for everyone (truly) that it is well worth purchasing. Although lately I'm finding the release list a bit thin for my tastes, I've gotten well more than my money's worth from just ten games:

Three Castlevanias
Two Advance Wars
Two Etrian Odysseys
Two Dragon Quests
Contra 4

I probably own about 30 DS games though (although I would happily lose 15 of them). I'm 29 y.o.

You're still missing the point that I said "mostly". statistics mean nothing to the individual, I'm just saying every DS gamer i've met is no older than 14.

Therefore because most candy is bought to give to children, obviously no adults like candy except for a few mutants, am I right? There's no age limit on any console, and just because one might be more appealing to children doesn't mean it's any less of a legitimate gaming platform.

I didn't say there wouldn't be exceptions. Can't you just let me have my opinion?

 

[Mr_M]

3) Why the hell is it named like stupid sequel to Psychonouts!?

What, did Tim Schafer trademark the word 'Nauts' when I wasn't looking? You're an idiot.

It seems a moot point saying a DS game is bad, seeing as most of the people who have DS's are little brothers and geriartrics who can't remember what 2+2 equals.

lol, if that was serious than you're an idiot as well.

Also Yahtzee, Drawn To Life is not 5th Cell's "Most Notable release". That honour goes to Lock's Quest.

 

[LGC Pominator]

Sooo

Is Yahtzee avoiding ODST like the plague or something? Or is it still Aussie release dates screwing him over?
Meh anyway I would think a DS game with an emphasis on spawning things would be well oriented to a more mature gamer as well, especially if the dictionary were massively improved, I mean some sort of battlefield game with the ability to spawn whatever you want may get quite fun and interesting...

 

[CatinHat]

lol cat ftw

 

[WolfmanNougat]

I'm guessing I shouldn't get my hopes up on summoning a midget demon by typing in "Ftmch", then? Or however it's spelled. I mean it sounds like "Futoomch" but... aw, sod it.