New videos show Scribblenauts’ flawed gameplay
July 21, 2009 by Mike
The Scribblenauts collision detection is shoddy.
Scribblenauts is currently getting massive doses of hype and with good reason. The upcoming DS game is incredibly ambitious, boasting a mind-boggling 10,000 different objects that can be used within the game. All you have to do is type in the word and presto, you get the item. It looks incredible on paper. Execution, however, is another matter.
Consider the latest batch of videos:
Did you notice anything peculiar about the Scribblenauts videos? Out of the seven attempts shown, three worked. Not a bad percentage if you consider the odds, but what’s troubling is how those failed attempts were botched.
In principle, the failed attempts should’ve worked. Using a jetpack, magic carpet, or pterodactyl to traverse deadly lava makes a lot of sense. What failed is the execution—not because the person at the controls had no gaming skills but because the summoned items didn’t work the way they’re supposed to.
For some strange reason, the magic carpet and jetpack didn’t fly when they needed to. As for the pterodactyl, the collision detection between the giant bird and avatar is just plain shoddy.
Scribblenauts is an upcoming game that’s set for release in September; ergo, the game is most likely unfinished and is probably being tweaked this very moment. That said, the videos you’ve just seen gives the impression that developer 5TH Cell has focused too much on the game’s massive vocabulary and didn’t really fine-tune the overall gameplay or summoned items.
It’s hard to blame 5TH Cell for this because perfecting the use of each of the 10,000 possible items is in all likelihood impossible, especially if they intend to release the game in this generation of handhelds.
Is Scribblenauts going to be as good as advertised? It would surely get a lot of attention for its novelty but it’s probably not going to last. Make no mistake, Scribblenauts‘ vocabulary is darn impressive. However, the accompanying gameplay leaves this skeptic on the fence.
My suggestion: wait for a review you trust before rushing to get Scribblenauts on the DS.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Eh, I disagree. In order to operate a jetpack, you have to use your hands. So it’s obvious one might have problems flying a jetpack while putting on a hat. As for the pterodactyl video, I don’t think it’s poor hit detection, it’s that the game doesn’t consider animals as platforms to stand on. The magic carpet I am confused about though. It should be able to float on its own. But I really think that’s the only legitimate complaint.
Anyway, just my opinion.
I admire the honesty and healthy skepticism of your post, but one crucial factor you apparently missed; Edge stated they were testing solutions with a DS with a ‘’sluggish touchscreen”, (Notice them giving Maxwell a monocle instead of removing the hat?) so the videos aren’t a good example. I found it odd that wings, magic carpets, and jetpacks didn’t work like they should, but the stylus is the only way to interact with objects, so logically their touchscreen is the issue. Same with the Pterodactyl; The screen problem was hindering the user’s use of the Wings, which ultimately caused him to fall into the dinosaur, knocking them both into the lava. The goal was to land on the plank glued to it’s neck, and due to the issue, he couldn’t make it.
I would hold your judgement till you see for yourself.
Oh, and here is a link so you can see the wings working properly on a healthy DS.: http://ds.ign.com/dor/objects/14304256/scribblenauts/videos/scribblenauts_trl_gameplay3_72009.html
Not to sound like I am saying your wrong. If you are smart since you could tell when it will work and when it wont work. Plus all this stuff is human error not the games fault.
The pterodactyl one works as intended, you can pass through friendly characters and stuff like that. As for the jetpack and magic carpet, the player probably didn’t react fast enough and it got destroyed.
I kind of had the feeling that this game was more of an action/adventure game with the whole vocabulary thing hacked on, but I see that it’s more of a “figure out how to get to the star” idea with the vocab. Since seeing this, I don’t see anything wrong with how it plays. It’s more of the developers picking certain words and items that work in certain situations and the player figuring out which to choose. I honestly don’t think it’s meant to be a game where anything and everything in the game will work all the time.
Also, the carpet didn’t fly properly because it falls downward at first then takes off. Due to it falling, it looked to me as if the carpet touched the lava, flew up and as it was flying it was smoking from touching the lava. This made it fall back down.
My other website: pcrepairsandmore.yolasite.com
haha you got yer ass handed to you by jeremiah!
[...] up some videos to show the many ways you could try and beat a level. Well yesterday some over at Daily Nintendo looked at the videos and said the game might be flawed, pointing to the magic carpet and jetpack [...]
Take note that what I posted here is no judgment. I merely said that I’m on the fence regarding Scribblenauts. Despite this, it looks like I’ve ruffled some feathers over at 5th Cell. One of the developers commented at NeoGAF:
Strange, he says he has no problem with criticism but gets defensive anyway. I don’t know if the developer bothered to read the entire post.
For goodness’ sake it’s NOT a review. Did you even find the term “review” anywhere in the page? Perhaps a numerical score? I understand that not all reviews use numerals, but that’s how it works in Daily Nintendo.
Here’s what the blog post is: It’s an observation on what happened in the video. Isn’t that clear enough?
In the words of the 5th Cell developer: I absolutely 100% have no problem with criticism (regarding my post). But that criticism has to be true for me to be cool about it. Ya know?”
oh wow, the best solution as to why the flying things arent working is because of the touchscreen. the only way to control maxwell is by the touchscreen n as you can clearly see during each videos that contain a flying object, the person switched the hat thus they didnt control maxwell yet so thats why he fell. once the objects such as the wings n jetpack came into contact with the lava, they were damage. if u see the other video that has maxwell tryin to fly up to get the starite with a jetpack, maxwell flew into the water n u can see it short circuited the jetpack. and maxwell bumped into the pterodactyl wen he was hit by the lava
That may well be the case, but you wouldn’t know this by merely watching the video, correct?
i cant wait to get this game nintendo is being dreamers and that a good thing