‘New’ Super Mario Bros (NDS)

Courtesy of Gamespot

I know, I know…I’m extremely LTTP on this.  Nevertheless, this classic game/series deserves a blog post.

I have to admit, I was overwhelmed with nostalgia the entire time I played this game.  I kept thinking about my younger years when I first played Mario Bros. on the NES–I instantly fell in love with it.  I stayed up playing all-night sometimes; there were even times when I had to leave the house for hours at a time and I would leave the game ‘paused’ so I wouldn’t lose my progress.  In retrospect, I don’t really know why I did that; I’m not sure if it was because of the lack of save points?  Was it the lack of a memory card?  I don’t remember.  Oh well.  Regardless, I felt a familiar frustration with NSMB on DS.  Because Nintendo omitted a tutorial in NSMB (which I’m pretty sure they do in most of the series), I had a hard time figuring out how to save my game!  However, this was my one and only frustration with the game.

To highlight the great things about NSMB, it’s easy to say that Nintendo has once again made a memorable, enjoyable, and addicting installment into the Mario series.  The classic Mario elements such as side-scrolling movement, one-hit kills, vivid colors, and memorable music all made NSMB just as enjoyable as Super Mario Bros 3, which NSMB resembles the most.

Courtesy of Joystiq

The storyline is typical: Bowser kidnaps the Princess, Mario has to save the Princess.  You travel through the 8-world foundation that all Mario games are built upon (desert theme, water theme, etc).  In each world there are a few, what I’m going to call, Mushroom Houses that you can unlock when you cash in the Star Coins you collect throughout each level.  In these Mushroom Houses, Mario hits a giant block that either: awards him with a power-up for the next level, or a random number of 1ups based on luck.

As far as power-ups go, there’s the traditional Super Mushroom, Fire Flower, and Starman.  However, NSMB introduces three new power-ups: the Blue Koopa Shell, which attaches a blue turtle shell to Mario’s back and allows him to use it as protection as he can hide in it or use it to attack enemies when he uses it while running; the Mega Mushroom, which turns Mario into a giant allowing him to run through anything (sometimes making boss fights extremely easy); the Mini Mushroom, which, well as you’ve probably guessed, turns Mario into a mini-Mario allowing him to enter small tubes leading to secrets or jump really far with somewhat of a floaty feel.

If  you’ve been playing  high-action, high-resolution, 3D shooters and RPGs and you’re a bit overwhelmed, possibly fiending for some nostalgic side-scrolling goodness, NSMB is definitely worth checking out.

GTA IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony

Courtesy of Jeux-Video

I am curious to see what Rockstar does with GTA V. I say this because the entire time that I was playing TBOGT, I found myself getting really frustrated with the combat mechanics. Don’t get me wrong, GTA IV is an amazing game consisting of a huge open world with such attention to detail that I can’t even begin to list them. TBOGT, like its predecessors, features very interesting and complex characters, some of which who are very entertaining to listen to considering their colorful narrative. However, this feeling of familiarity in TBOGT falls short of making up for the terrible combat system.

I think my frustration with the combat system derives from my recent experience with Uncharted 2. Being that these two games are similar in the sense that they are both 3^rd person shooters, I automatically (but unconsciously) began to compare the two as soon as I hopped on TBOGT. I began to see just how clunky and constricted the combat system felt in TBOGT and I found myself putting down my controller much earlier than I normally would’ve with a GTA game—I also found myself not picking it back up as often. The entire story of TBOGT only takes about 5-6 hours to complete, but it took me about two weeks to do so.

Courtesy of Games Radar

What did keep my attention throughout the game were the intense missions that it threw at me. TBOGT does a good job of keeping you entertained with ridiculous missions that keep you on the edge of your seat. Some of these missions are really hard and require a few playthroughs to really get a hang of them. Rockstar has taken the initiative to minimize, if not eliminate, the friend factor that plagued the original GTA IV. This has made transition from one mission to another, or just cruising around Liberty City, much less annoying and stressful by taking away the feeling of obligation to hang out with your acquaintances.

Courtesy of Modmygta

As stated before, Rockstar once again succeeds at implementing probably the best narrative/dialogue you’ll find in any video game series. When you get worn out on the story missions, TBOGT keeps you busy with its array of mini-games, including: skydiving, fight clubs, club management, dancing, and drug runs. I found all of these fun in their own ways, each one of them worth checking out at least once. The game’s soundtrack has also improved, adding some new contemporary music to the radio playlists to accompany the new vehicles that Rockstar has scattered throughout Liberty City. Once you beat the game, you have the option to go back and play through the missions again in hopes of meeting certain in-mission requirements such as Player Damage or time restrictions. All-in-all TBOGT is worth checking out—don’t expect anything too extravagant or different from what you’re used to, but if you’re a GTA fan then you’ll thoroughly enjoy this addition to the series.

Modern Warfare 2 – more reflection than review

I could use this time to write about all the intricacies of Modern Warfare 2, such as the gameplay features, polished graphics, and mind-blowing cinematics, or I could assume that if you’re reading this chances are you played the first one, and let it suffice to say that they’re almost identical. Identical, in the sense that if you played the first one, you’re not going to have to learn anything new as far as mechanics go. Needless to say, the game is beautiful and plays really well. In addition to the campaign and the multiplayer, MW2 is coupled with a new gameplay mode called Special Ops (more on that later). With that said, I will address the parts of the game that I found captivating as well as parts that I found to be disappointing.

First, the airport scene—not as big of a deal as I thought it would be, or at least as the media portrayed it to be. Yes, it was a little disturbing, and yes you have the option to watch and not partake in the mayhem unleashed on dozens of innocent Russians, BUT there were parts of the game that I felt were much more provoking; and the airport scene has received enough scrutiny as is, thus I will not further address it.

MW2′s setting revolves around The United States this time around, and what I mean by “this time around” is that the main battlefield is on U.S. soil. There are parts of the story that take place in Brazil and Afghanistan, but your main beef lies with Russia, more specifically a guy by the name of Makarov. To avoid any spoilers, I am not going to elaborate on exactly how this comes to fruition, so back to my main point. The game’s story takes you to an unrecognizable Washington D.C. where your missions are placed around a blighted Washington Monument and a Russian-ridden White House. The parts of this Washington D.C. story are told in segments throughout the game, but the chaos gets more intense each time around. In addition to this, some of your missions take place in war-torn suburban neighborhoods full of houses that are loaded with Russian infantry and yards scattered with the remains of American civilization; the story sticks you in the middle of a devastated shopping center complete with fast-food restaurants and steak houses. There are some other really cool missions throughout the U.S. but for the sake of my reflection, I will stay on topic.

Courtesy of: Kotaku

These parts of the game effected me much more than the airport mission, possibly because I was “pre-exposed” to them via game sites and all that. In spite of that, these missions were disturbing because of their realistic portrayal of America and what it would be like if our country became a battlefield. This proximal effect the game had on me, stirred up some emotions. I found it very difficult to not feel upset by the familiarity of the setting mixed with the chaos. Let it be known that I am not the most patriotic person, but I will say that these are the parts of the game that I feel deserve attention, not animosity, not bitterness, but assessment. This is what makes MW2 a powerful game and separates it from other war-based games. Nevertheless, it is only a game and people shouldn’t take it seriously, just like people shouldn’t take any form of entertainment seriously—because in the end, that’s exactly what it is, entertainment.

I would love to continue writing about the story and discussing my feelings about the ending of the game but I don’t want to spoil anything for you, as if I haven’t spoiled enough. The game is short enough that you can beat it in one day if you play on regular difficulty and a couple of days if you play on the harder settings. I am going to stop there and talk about the Special Ops feature that Infinity Ward added to MW2—probably the only thing that would justify me spending $60 on the thing.

Special Ops is awesome. It is even more awesome playing Special Ops with a friend. This game mode was a huge surprise to me due to my avoidance of MW2 previews. Even when I saw it in the start menu I didn’t think much of it but once I started playing it with a friend online, I was hooked. Special Ops sticks you/you and a friend in a map (sometimes resembling parts of the campaign), and gives you one task to fulfill. That task can range anywhere from “breach and clear” missions, to snowmobile races, to stealth sniping missions—just to name a few. Overall there are 23 Special Ops missions, and 11 different kinds/genres of missions. You have the option to play them on regular, hardened, or veteran difficulty with the incentive being stars. There are a total of 69 stars, regular difficulty rewards you with 1 star, hardened with 2, and veteran with 3. Your quest to obtain all 69 stars will definitely keep you busy for a while, whether you do it by yourself or with a friend.

–My advice is to play it with a friend, though the Special Ops missions can be fun playing by yourself, nothing compares to the strategic planning and utter chaos that you experience with a buddy.

Dragon Age: Origins (360, PS3, PC)

Dragon Age: Origins was a highly anticipated game for me. Being a fan of Bioware’s work, more recently Mass Effect, I had certain expectations of Dragon Age—which were inevitably met. Having never played the well-renown Baldur’s Gate (Dragon Age’s predecessor) or even other epic RPG’s such as Planescape: Torment or Vampire: The Masquerade, I was going into the game fairly unbiased as to what an RPG of this magnitude should offer. About two hours into the game, it became obvious that I was going to invest a lot of time into this RPG, which is blend of games like: Oblivion, Mass Effect, and K.O.T.O.R.

Courtesy of: Game Trailers

This “principle of investment” became apparent once I created my character and saw just how much my character’s origin reflected the outcome of certain situations in the game. Bioware offers the player several choices in creating the game’s main hero, or what the people of Ferelden call—a Grey Warden. They do this by allowing the player to choose between race, class, and a few other characteristics that undoubtedly effect the outcome of the story you experience the first time around. Now that I’ve finished my first playthrough, I can honestly say that I am excited to start it up again with a different origin and see just how different things will be; however, your origin isn’t the only thing that impacts your experience. There are dozens of situations where you have to make a certain decision, usually a moral one, and depending on what you choose, it can affect multiple aspects of the game. I went through some intense situations where I had to decide whether a certain character would permanently join my group, or make a decision that would eventually effect the game’s ending sequence. I found myself carefully taking into account all of the different possible outcomes based on my decision—given the fragility of some of the situations. These choices also affect how much your ally buddies like you, which can in turn skew their opinions on certain moral decisions you make; nevertheless their overall perspective of you can be somewhat manipulated with gift-giving.

Courtesy of: VG Blogger

The main story of Dragon Age, simply put, revolves around The Blight, which is a war against the Darkspawn. You play as a Grey Warden, in which you belong to an elite class of warriors who’s job is to defend the people of Ferelden. The game’s inventory, mission log, and Skill/Talent distribution systems are all very reminiscent of Mass Effect; and just like Mass Effect, there are a ton of side missions to do all throughout the land. Given the vastness of the land, Bioware has incorporated a pseudo-fast-travel system limiting the amount of unnecessary walking. As you defeat Darkspawn, amongst other enemies, you gain experience. When you level up you are awarded a certain amount of points that you can then allocate to your character’s attributes, such as strength or dexterity. Additionally, you are able to add or upgrade a skill and a talent, which all vary based on your origin. As a result, you are able to construct your allies the way you want to regardless of class or race or specializations. This stylistic option makes the gameplay that much more dynamic and flexible to suit the player’s needs.

 

To add even further to this flexibility, the player can assign Tactics to each character. These tactics enable your allies to do what you want them to do in certain battle situations without having to physically switch to them and do it yourself. Though the tactics screen was helpful, I found it to be one of the aspects of the game, among others, that the game left you to figure out on your own. These unexplained complexities of the game didn’t cause me to enjoy the game less though; if you enjoy games with a lot of micro-managing then all of these things just become part of the overall experience, not necessarily an obstacle. As a matter of fact, in the 60 hours that I put into the game, I learned new things almost all the way through to the end; things that would have essentially made things a little easier in the beginning.

Courtesy of: Neoseeker

Dragon Age is also one of the more difficult RPG’s I’ve played—or at least it started off that way. Like I normally do, I set the difficulty to normal only to find out that “normal” was really hard, well it was for me anyways. During my second main quest I ended up switching the difficulty to casual, thinking that this would help me get past some Undead Soldiers, which it did, but this made the game way too easy. The difference in ease of gameplay from normal to casual is like the difference between slaying a tiger and slaying a cat. I found myself just obliterating hoards of enemies, even bosses—a task that becomes even easier as you level up and acquire more talents and skills. Nevertheless, the game does throw higher-ranked enemies at you as you level up, eventually forcing you to accompany the obliterating with strategy.

 

Whether it be a city, town, forest, or tower, each place is ridden with goodies, trinkets, and money. Though these are usually awarded to you by completing main quests as well as side quests, but you can also explore each area to your full potential (advice: bringing along a Rouge helps)—checking every corner, behind every door—which Bioware does a great job of awarding you for doing so. The array of armor sets and weapons, some which come with specific restrictions, allow you to equip your allies and yourself properly for certain situations and to correspond with the tactics you’ve assigned to each character—which can be accompanied by weapon augmentations and special attributes. These properties add to the diversity of Dragon Age and making the game much more rewarding.

 

One thing that can be overlooked in a game of Dragon Age’s magnitude is the quality of the dialogue. Personally, this aspect of the game reflects the realism and quality of the story regardless of the game’s genre. However, Dragon Age doesn’t have this problem as it’s story has high a quantitative property while still maintaining a high qualitative property, especially for a game that is dated by it’s graphics. Not only is the voice acting superb, but the writing is immaculate, in regards to both the main story and the side stories. I also found the random dialogue from my allies to be hilariously entertaining. This opened up the development of these characters and allowed me to hear their perspective on certain issues at hand without necessarily engaging in conversation with them. This random dialogue was also prevalent amongst the pedestrians in certain towns and amongst certain enemies—not to the extent of games like Fable, but enough to add some life to the people of Ferelden.

Courtesy of: GamesRadar

This game has further instilled my belief in Bioware as the king of western RPGs, and I am looking forward to investing another 60+ hours into this game and experiencing it in a totally different way. I highly recommend Dragon Age: Origins to any one who enjoys a good RPG or enjoyed any of the previously-mentioned titles. This game is a great start to a franchise that I will definitely stay on top of.

 

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3)

Congratulations PS3 fanboys! You finally have the game you’ve been waiting for. The one game that you can truly use as, as Robert Ashley put it, “ammunition” in your constructive arguments that the PS3 has good games; and it’s all thanks to Naughty Dog. Now I’m no fanboy, never have been, never will be, but Uncharted 2 was hands-down the prettiest, most exciting, most cinematic game I’ve ever played.

Uncharted 2 takes you on a journey following the footsteps of Marco Polo in search of the enchanted land of Shambala. Here, Nathan Drake is expecting to find a precious artifact that he must track down via the clues he finds and puzzles he solves while on this journey. Depending on where you are in the game, your AI partner switches between your old pal Sully, your ex-girlfriend Elena, and the newest character in the Uncharted cast, Chloe Frazer. If you’re no stranger to Uncharted then you’re familiar with the personalities of the first two aforementioned characters, but Chloe’s character gives the game a fresh set of dialogue and a newly-formed love triangle. The antagonist in the game is your cliche power-hungry, immortality-seeking, ruthless bad guy. This isn’t a bad thing though as not much of the story is focused on his goals, and more focused on Nathan Drake and how he got himself in the situation he’s in. Nevertheless, the characters are not only rendered with amazing detail such as skin pores and face-wrinkles, but the voice acting is flawless as it resembles that of a movie.

As stated earlier, Uncharted 2 is filled with eye-opening cinematics accompanied by unbelievable graphics and outstanding sound. The game literally had me on the edge of my seat for about 90% of the game with its jaw-dropping chase scenes and its National Geographic style scenery. I do apologize for the excessive amount of adjectives that I used to describe the shock-and-awe quality of this game, but trust me, it deserves every bit of it. The graphics are polished to the point where some moments in the game actually look like a real-life photo. At times I found myself just staring at a bullet-pierced wall, or a puddle that has formed in a pothole, or a street littered with loose-flying papers. At about half-way through the game I started to realize that I was appreciating this game more than any other game I have ever played, maybe with the exception of Gears of War due to it being a pioneer of the next-gen super-polished games.

However the most amazing thing about Uncharted 2 is that it isn’t much different from the first Uncharted, graphics aside. The gameplay mechanics are pretty much the same, the weapon selection– the same, the quick-time-events are still a dominant way for you to interact with the environment and/or up-close and personal encounters. There are still great (not too difficult) puzzles for Drake to figure out, sometimes requiring him to refer to his trusty journal. Naughty Dog just did a really great job making a true sequel to the first installment.

On top of that, I found myself just simply playing (and of course, enjoying) the game and not going around looking for artifacts or desperately looking for ammo, I just played. The story, the gameplay, and the characters are all so well made that you forget that you’re not doing any of those tedious routine tasks that you find yourself doing in most shooters/adventure games; and when you reach this conclusion, you realize that this is what makes Uncharted 2 unique despite the un-original genre it falls under.

In conclusion, Uncharted 2 was a joy to play and I tip my hat to the guys over at Naughty Dog for delivering an outstanding sequel to an already-great game; and as soon as I have a spare $60 laying around, it’ll definitely go towards purchasing my own copy of this classic video game.

Dead Space: Extraction (Wii)

I only recently became interested in playing this game when I heard an early review of it on the Giantbomb podcast. I heard the news about this game coming out pretty early on when it was first announced but I didn’t pay it much attention despite the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed the first Dead Space. I think the sole reason I had no interest in the game was because it was on the Wii, and being the violent, gore filled story that is Dead Space, my natural assumption was that Nintendo would “dumb it down” for the stereotypical Wii audience. However, to my surprise Dead Space Extraction was a breath of fresh air. Nintendo kept the gore, the violence, and the profanity; and presenting the game as an on-rails shooter kept me interested in the game by creating a more cinematic experience.

In case you don’t already know, Extraction is the prequel to Dead Space, so I’m not spoiling anything by saying that the game starts you off in the same area that Dead Space ended at.  Your main objective is to escape the Aegis VII site due to what seems like a spreading virus that is infecting everyone that gets in it’s way, leaving the colonists of Aegis VII looking like the picture insert below. The game gives the player a unique experience with the story by letting you play from the perspective of four different characters in the game. Each of these character transitions becomes obvious by starting off a particular chapter with a reflection of your character’s face in some sort of reflective surface (water, mirror, etc). The fact that you don’t play as one character throughout the entire game made the overall experience that much more unique because it takes away the role of a single protagonist. It gives you the feeling that there isn’t a hero in the Dead Space universe providing that the game doesn’t let you build too much of a relationship with any particular character.

Prior to playing Extraction I had never played an on-rails shooter. To my surprise however, this unique experience is just what I needed in a Wii game. Since playing Metroid Prime: Corruption, I haven’t played a decent shooter on the Wii that was similar to Metroid’s gameplay. Extraction filled that void by mimicking Metroid’s FPS properties, along with the cinematic experience gained from the on-rails element. Overall, the game felt like a movie, like a horror movie that I got to experience from four different points-of-view. Since the game is on-rails, the only thing the player has control over is the aiming reticule and any thing that goes along with it, i.e. inventory selection, picking up items, and interacting with the environment. Ironically, picking up necessary items (health, ammo, audio logs) was probably the biggest challenge of the game due to the fact that the on-rails aspect kept you on your toes and on the look-out for these items before they were out of reach. This urgency becomes even more prevalent as you get to the areas with more enemies, some of these enemies spawning in hard to reach places.

The aiming system for Extraction is pretty forgiving as it becomes fairly easy to miss your target in the midst of trying to defend yourself and scavenge health or ammo at the same time. Grabbing items in the environment is executed by extending a sort of kinetic orb. This allows you to throw objects at enemies or throw ammo crates to retrieve its contents.  Weapon selection in Extraction isn’t a problem as the game progressively introduces all the old weapons from the first Dead Space.  As you progress through the game not only do you gain access to these familiar weapons but you also slowly upgrade your suit (reminiscent of Issac’s), thus increasing your health every time you complete a chapter.  The only other game play mechanic worth mentioning, and a sort of lame one at that, is the glow worm feature. The glow worm acts as your flashlight in areas that are almost pitch black. The way it’s activated is by shaking the Wiimote, thus giving you about 20 seconds of a dim green light. I found this to be the only unnecessary mechanic of the game considering that the Dead Space story is set sometime in the future.

In addition to the unique style and gameplay, as you progress through the game, you unlock issues of the Dead Space motion comic. The player is given the option to watch them in their entirety and experience the Dead Space universe in more depth via the Bonus Features. Along with the motion comic, the player also unlocks different levels from Extraction’s arcade mode where you can takes on waves of enemies in an effort to achieve personal records, leaderboard postions, etc.  Nevertheless, Extraction didn’t let me down.  The cinematic approach that Visceral Games took kept me engaged in the game at all times whilst presenting a game that I was already familiar with.  With that said, this installment has really built my confidence in the series and has kept me looking forward to the next.

Trials HD (XBLA)

Beautiful, simple, and incredibly addicting.

Once in a while you come across a game that you hear good things about, but for some reason you hesitate buying it. For me, hesitation is usually due to one of these reasons: price and/or replay value. In the case of Trials HD it was the price that had me second-guessing my purchase, being that it was one of the more expensive XBLA titles ($15). Needless to say, about 30 minutes after I purchased the game I was starting to feel really good about my decision.

I found myself going back to this XBLA title more than any other that I’ve previously purchased. The game’s almost non-existent load times and super-quick restarts allow for a quick five-minute session here and there. The quick restarts not only make the game enjoyable and convenient but also help regulate the player’s stress levels, thus keeping the player from throwing their controller at their TV when the levels become more difficult and require much more patience.

The main premise of Trials is for the player to get from point A to point B by riding a dirt bike through a side-scrolling series of ramps and platforms. However, this basic description does not do justice for the game’s overall difficulty. The game’s Race Mode is divided into difficulty categories ranging from Beginner to Extreme, each category containing a set number of levels. You gradually unlock the levels in the Hard and Extreme difficulties, based on the score you receive in the Easy and Medium difficulty levels. Your score in each of the main levels is determined by the number of “checkpoint restarts” you had to use and the amount of time it took you to reach the goal line.

Upon playing the Hard and more specifically Extreme difficulties, I found that the levels started to transition from fun, fast-paced, and even breath-taking at times, to a series of jumps that require near-perfect timing and obstacles that seem impossible to get past. In short, the game almost turns into a puzzle game. Though there are difficult levels that are still fun, I found this frustrating transition to be my only complaint about the game.

As you progress through Race Mode, you unlock Trials’ other cool feature, Skill Games. These mini-games just add to the creative aspect of the game and the amount of thought that the developers put into Trials. These Skill Games include everything from rolling a giant cage ball, to bouncing your bike around in a pinball-esque designed level, to flying your bike through rings of fire. Your objective in these mini-games is purely open-ended as you strive for a best personal record and/or a spot on the Trials leaderboards.

It is also worth noting that throughout the game new bikes become available to you, however, there are only a few that unlock by only playing the main levels. Most of the bikes are unlocked by playing the skill games, and playing them to near-perfection. Your score in each skill game is determined by the distance you traveled in any particular level as well as the time it took you to do it. Gold, silver, and bronze medals are rewarded to you based on how well you performed, and consequentially unlocking the new bikes as a result.

All in all Trials HD is an awesome game and is easily one of the best XBLA games out there. The game is well worth the $15 price tag that Microsoft slapped on it, as it provides a beautiful display of simple game play, yet challenging and addicting enough to keep you coming back for more.

Scribblenauts (NDS)

A perfect example of great idea that was poorly executed.

From time to time I find myself getting bored of playing the same type of games over and over again, whether it’s a shooter or an action game I find myself looking for something new and different to play. Lower budget games like Braid, World of Goo, and Shadow Complex are just a few recent games that have filled that void. Scribblenauts was supposed to be one of those games, however it seems that I have been let down after just a few hours of game play.

Scribblenauts is one of those games that leaves you wondering how such a good idea can go so wrong.

The game starts the player off with a tedious, un-skippable tutorial that goes through the basic mechanics and introduces the game’s hero, Maxwell. His main objective in each level is to acquire an object called a starite. Each world, with the exception of the first one, has to be bought with the game’s cleverly named currency, “ollars”. Within each world there are two different types of challenges: one that is more objective driven and the other which is more puzzle driven, each progressively getting more challenging.

To help you accomplish these objectives, Scribblenauts is equipped with an impressive dictionary consisting of about 30,000 words. This is the game’s coolest and most innovative feature…when it works. Ironically the most fun I had with the massive dictionary was at the title screen, where you can create whatever you want with your notepad.

However, once the game tried to combine objectives with the creative dynamics of the dictionary, it caused a lot of frustration. This frustration was mainly due to the poorly executed control system. In order to move Maxwell throughout the platform-style levels you simply touch your destination with the stylus, unfortunately this control system is extremely inaccurate and inconsistent.

The same frustration applies to the interaction between Maxwell and most objects you create. Whether it’s trying to get Maxwell to cross a small body of water or strapping a jet-pack to his back and attempting to fly to a higher platform, the controls make the game anything but enjoyable.

Nevertheless, Scribblenauts is a fun game, fun meaning that your only limitation in the game is your imagination, but as previously stated, this is best put to use in the title screen.

Despite the creativity that 5^th Cell put into this game, I found myself wishing that they postponed the game’s release to polish some of the more simple aspects of the game; such as controlling the camera, which can be extremely frustrating because of the whip-like effect that takes place a couple of seconds after you’ve placed the camera where you want it.

With that said, Scribblenauts just doesn’t feel finished and sadly this will cause me to only be able to play one or two levels at a time in order to maintain my sanity.