Despite some of the worst controls known to man, Scribblenauts is one of the best games you could possibly play.

User Rating: 9 | Scribblenauts DS
By ppshterror827 | Review Date:
The basic premise of Scribblenauts is that you type in a word, and it appears. The designers did a good job of this, as you will almost never find a word that isn't in the game (that is actually a real word). You move by tapping where you want to go. Sadly, since moving objects around is done with the touchscreen, delicate actions can easily be misinterpreted and cause your character to sprint directly into hazards. In one level, I was getting frustrated when my character kept trying to jump into a pool of lava when I was trying to fiddle with some objects a few screens over. I tried putting a stone wall between my character and the lava, but even a stone wall didn't keep my character from jumping into a lava pit with an almost suicidal glee.

Once you get past the hair-pullingly frustrating lava-pit suicide moments, the game is quite fun. What is especially fun is completing levels in absurd ways, such as one time when I rescued a penguin on an iceberg by airlifting the entire iceberg. Sometimes, when you want to exercise your creativity, you can go to the level creator or simply play around in the title screen which doubles as a sandbox mode.

Overall, I highly recommend this game. The experience has a joyful charm to it, and overall feels light, simple, and thoroughly enjoyable. However, if you are very uncreative, you will have some issues with enjoying the game. But that's your fault, not the game's.

Gameplay: 10/10: I cleaned up a park by bombing the trash.
Graphics: 7.5/10: The graphics are extremely simple and minimalistic, but that's somewhat necessary for a DS game such as this.
Control: 3/10: AAAAAAAAGHHHH!! WHY NOT D-PAD CONTROLS?!?
Sound: 8/10: The music is nice and varied, though some of the sounds are reused for different characters.
Replay Value: 15/10: It is fun completing levels in idiotic ways that would put you in an insane asylum in real life.

Overall: 9/10: A masterpiece that could be improved had the controls been operated by D-Pad.

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