Scribblenauts Brings Robot Dinosaurs, Nukes, Krakens and More to Nintendo DS on Sept. 15

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5TH Cell's extremely experimental "emergent puzzle action" game Scribblenauts will arrive in Nintendo DS form on September 15, publisher Warner Bros. has revealed.

The game sees players typing in words to summon objects that will help them overcome puzzles and obstacles, such as "steak" or "baby" to attract a lion. It gets far crazier than that, of course, and while the game doesn't include copyrighted terms, it packs a hefty wallop of random objects and memes, like "long cat" and "keyboard cat."

Instead of prattling on any further, I'll defer to the ESRB's official description:

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.

Meanwhile, Joystiq provides some examples of its staff's various experiences, including use of nuclear weapons, lasers, time machines, and mystical creatures:

Another level placed a pool of water with a shark inside between us and the Starite. While a few options may have allowed us to circumvent the shark-infested waters, we all decided to take him out. I tried dropping a sword on its head pointy-side down, but it bounced harmlessly off its thick hide. I then dropped a hair dryer into the water with more electrifying, fruitful results.

Chris attempted to drop dynamite into the water, though the splash extinguished the fuse. He then threw waterproof C Four into the water, effectively recreating the ending of Jaws. J.C. created a Kraken, which fought with and ultimately bested the shark.

Andrew created a teleporter in an attempt to instantly apparate to the Starite -- instead, it took him to a medieval world where he was besieged by shadowy assassins. He tried distracting them with candy -- really, Andrew? -- then created a fairly anachronistic nuke. The nuke didn't detonate, however, so andrew created a laser rifle to take out the assassins. One of his lasers grazed the aforementioned WMD, and blew up the entire level.

Ludwig was tasked with navigating through a zombie apocalypse to reach a helicopter with his brains in tact. He attempted to hold the undead off with a wall, but he couldn't get build it fast enough to hold off the horde. He whipped out a shotgun, but their numbers were too large to dispatch with a firearm. Naturally, his next instinct was to craft a time machine, which took him into the prehistoric ages. Of course, he was surrounded by unfriendly dinos, so he made a robot dinosaur, which he then mounted and used to destroy his scaly adversaries.

But perhaps the most stunning (and vulgar) tale comes from NeoGAF poster Feep:

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.

Chris Faylor was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    July 22, 2009 1:49 PM

    want. now. Here's hoping it's more than a gimmick.

    • reply
      July 23, 2009 8:10 AM

      I've pre-ordered _and pre-paid_ for this. I just want to come home one day and be pleasantly surprised by it in the mail.

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