Kotaku 
Enter your username and password.
Denver, 9:16 AM
Sat Nov 7
46 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip us: tips@kotaku.com
Editor-In-Chief:
Brian Crecente
Email | AIM | Twitter
Deputy Editor:
Stephen Totilo
Email | AIM | Twitter
Senior Editor:
Michael McWhertor
Email | AIM | Twitter
Senior Contributing Editor, Japan:
Brian Ashcraft
Email | AIM | Twitter
Contributing Editor, East Coast:
Michael Fahey
Email | AIM | Twitter
Contributing Editor, Oceania:
Luke Plunkett
Email | AIM | Twitter
Contributing Editor, Weekends:
Owen Good
Email | AIM | Twitter
Correspondent, San Francisco:
AJ Glasser
Email | AIM | Twitter
Columnist:
Leigh Alexander
Columnist:
Tim Rogers
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
11/04/09
11/03/09
11/03/09
Picked it up from BestBuy's buy 2 get 1 free sale, but it took frikkin' 6 days to arrive :(. If they'd given me an ETA on their "free" option, and I could have seen that it was gawd-awful, I would have paid the $5 to get it sooner. #gamestop
11/03/09
11/03/09
As for the actual content of this article, I'm a little surprised with Scribblenauts. I don't remember who said it here, but someone said "it was a mechanic in search of a game" and that's how it always looked to me. #gamestop
11/03/09
10/20/09
10/20/09
10/20/09
Losing a level multiple times because I've missed touching a wiggling rope and sent my character running into a shark-infested pool really isn't much fun at all.
Hopefully 5th Cell will take on board the feedback about the stylus-control, and give us D-Pad control in a sequel. #scribblenauts
10/20/09
Still, I don't regret my purchase. It's a great idea and good sales will encourage development of a sequel that irons out the kinks, like you said. #scribblenauts
10/20/09
Would the game mindfuck itself? #scribblenauts
10/20/09
10/20/09
But seriously, try it out. It's a weird-looking guy in a red uniform and helmet. #scribblenauts
10/20/09
You get the same result typing doppelganger. #scribblenauts
10/20/09
"Scribblenaut" gets you a character dressed in red and a star on his chest. Go try it out, right now! #scribblenauts
10/20/09
10/20/09
There is an advert before this video plays -YOUTUBE WTF! #scribblenauts
10/20/09
1.Wait a year
2.Triple the dictionary, the art, and the levels.
3.Add manual movement controls
4.Dual release it for the DS and on Steam.
5.???
6.Profit #scribblenauts
10/20/09
10/20/09
10/20/09
10/20/09
10/20/09
10/20/09
:P #scribblenauts
10/20/09
Then again, this generation it seems that the more mediocre a game is, the better it sells... #scribblenauts
10/20/09
10/20/09
10/20/09
Stop being so self-centered and accept your status as a niche gamer with different tastes. #scribblenauts
10/20/09
10/20/09
That being said, I'm not judging Scribblenauts here, I haven't played it and at the moment I need to save my money up for other, non gaming-related things so it won't be rectified any time soon. The creativity angle is quite intriguing, but from what I hear the controls are just painful.
10/20/09
10/20/09
Hopefully the controls aren't QUITE that bad. #scribblenauts
10/20/09
But both games are also good, if you enjoy what the game is. #scribblenauts
10/20/09
10/20/09
10/20/09
I *knew* there was a reason for halo's popularity! #scribblenauts
10/20/09
You are quite the negative Nancy lately, Arch. First your Halo comment saying that it isn't worthy of the sales it's gotten and now this. From the sound of it you didn't actually play the game, which would render your statement completely moot. Is it flawed? Sure, but it's still a fantastic experience that rivals just about anything else on the platform. #scribblenauts
10/20/09
10/20/09
Don't get me wrong here, I like the idea of the word bank and the summoning power; I think that's awesome and I'm glad someone finally came up with an idea like that...but if I keep dying because I'm fighting with the controls that's not an entertaining experience. Is that not a fair opinion to have? If it were easier to RENT DS games, I'd give it a look. I can't afford any non-essential purchases of ANY KIND nowadays because I'm broke and six months jobless. #scribblenauts
10/20/09
Maybe they prefer a simpler game experience?
You are not the only gamer. Get over yourself.
10/20/09
They're idiots. If you can't even pronounce the game's title right, you're a moron.
10/20/09
You are FULL of it. #scribblenauts
10/20/09
Listen. "Mass Market" by definition means "sells to everyone, INCLUDING the moronic rabble". Don't take it as a personal insult. If I had something specifically against anyone here I would say that. #scribblenauts
10/20/09
I'm calling you out Archaotic. :/ #scribblenauts
10/20/09
I have nothing particularly against Scribblenauts because I haven't played it yet. I'm just assuming, thanks to hands-on impressions from people I trust, that the controls would mar the experience for me personally. Other people could get around it, but given my carpal tunnel syndrome and my lack of patience for unresponsive control mechanisms, it's just not something I'm willing to risk losing $30-40 on. Is that fair? #scribblenauts
10/20/09
Simple as that, and you save us your bitching. #scribblenauts
10/20/09
All of your qualms with the game are 100% accurate - even though you haven't played it. It really does suck creating this elaborate scheme to reach your goal only to have the stylus not detect you tapping the object and forcing Maxwell to run off a cliff, or having an NPC trip and fall ruining your whole work. That completely blows. But the times that it works flawlessly is super rewarding, and I think worth the price of admission. When times are better (and I honestly hope that they get better soon) I think you should give it a go.
I also agree with you (to a certain degree) about the mass market inability to take risks on games anymore. People only buy a "sure-thing" and limit themselves to such a vast portion of the market, yet still call themselves core gamers. It's kind of insulting. On the other hand, games like Halo and Call of Duty are million-sellers for a reason: they're damn fun. Sure Halo may be an idiots guide to shooters and Activision is just milking every franchise they can get, but does that take away their fun factor? I don't think so.
All-or-nothing thinking is no way to look at the games industry. Some will miss out on a lot of great titles because they are too afraid to take risks, and the others will miss out because they're too afraid to "conform". The most important part of gaming is having fun. However one achieves that fun is completely up to oneself. It shouldn't be shameful to admit having fun with Halo. If it makes you happy then just do it.
:) #scribblenauts
10/20/09
ODST is a special case because, from the beginning, it's been portrayed as an expansion pack...being retailed at $60. I just can't justify that cost when I already have all the map packs. I burned out on Halo 3's multiplayer last year and haven't felt any real desire to play it again aside from the occasional Grifball match.
I'd LIKE to think Reach will be better off, considering it's based on the best of the Halo novels...but if they're slapping it together in less than a year, that worries me. I don't wanna just buy Halo 3 again with a new skin, they gotta upgrade the engine and change things up, y'know? I really hope that my fears end up being unfounded here.
As for Scribblenauts, yeah, I don't usually believe Yahtzee, which is where I first heard of the control issues (the dude's just a comedian, you can't take anything he says as fact), but after other people I know started playing the game and expressing frustration over the controls, that was the last straw for me.
I just want the industry to start taking risks again; creative risks in narrative, design, AI, and other things. Nowadays, it seems the only risk any publisher is willing to take is shoehorning their game into a motion control format, or forcing multiplayer into something that doesn't need it. =/ #scribblenauts
10/20/09
That is the sad state of the industry today, but we do get glimmers of hope in titles like Okami, Bioshock, No More Heroes, Heavy Rain and The Last Guardian. There are developers willing to take risks. Some pay off (Bioshock, Braid) others not as well (Okami, Madworld). You can't blame the publishers for only backing what they no to be a sure thing. It's butthole gamers who say, "Yeah, Okami looks cool but I'll wait til it goes cheap before I pick it up" and then they never do. That's actually why I've been playing my Wii a lot lately because the WiiWare titles have been amazingly good and wholly original. I'm hoping that the smaller, yet creative, WiiWare/PSN/XBLA games will get good sales to convince publishers to bigger risks with their 60 dollar games.
*FINGERS CROSSED* #scribblenauts
10/09/09
10/10/09