Scribblenauts: A Game to Wait For

At the E3 2009 last week, numerous games were previewed, including those super big titles like Final Fantasy XIV and Left 4 Dead 2, as well as new devices for consoles such as Microsoft's Project Natal which was meant to take on Wii. But one that caught many's attention, including mine, was a little Nintendo DS game called Scribblenauts.

The objective of the game is very simple. It is essentially a puzzle-solving game, in which the player needs to help a character to get a star (called a starite) in a small, side-scrolling stage. To do that, the player should "summon" tools or objects to help the character. But the amazing thing is, there seems to be endless number of tools, each with its own properties, that can be summoned. That is to say, there is practically endless ways in which the player can complete a particular stage. Just watch the trailer to know what I mean.

Reviewers seemed impressed (see here and here). The gameplay video in the latter article shows what the game is simply capable of. The testers first summoned a stegosaurus. Then they got a kraken, which promptly defeats the stegosaurus. Then they tried griffon, Obama (but the game does not recognise the word) and jackalope, all of which were easily beaten by the kraken. Finally, they conjured up God which killed the kraken with ease. Thereafter, they called in Einstein to fight God. Go watch the video to know what happens next.

If one pauses to think about it, the programming behind the game is either immensely complicated, or thoroughly groundbreaking. According to the developers, each object is endowed with several properties, and the game will execute actions based on these properties. Even so, it is not difficult to imagine the immense database the game has to draw upon; to begin with, for example, the developers have to create the animation for almost all objects we know of. And then the interaction (e.g. from the official trailer, we have interaction between policeman and donut, as well as beaver and tree) will greatly complicate things.

This game is ultra-ambitious, but if the developers really pull this off, I may consider buying a Nintendo DS.