The Rob Reviews Scribblenauts Unlimited

A title that's sure to test your family's imagination and creativity.

Before I even owned a Wii U, I owned Scribblenauts Unlimited.  That’s right, I was SO excited for this game that before the Wii U system even went on sale, I owned a copy of this game!

I have been a fan of the Scribblenauts series of games since the first iteration came out over three years ago for the Nintendo DS handheld.  The concept is as simple and brilliant as it was years ago…  If you can imagine it, you can create it.

Scribblenauts is a puzzle-solving game of sorts, which puts players in control of ‘cool young dude’ Maxwell who’s collecting stars.  His world is filled with puzzles and obstacles that are always missing some sort of key element.  The kicker is that Maxwell has in his possession a “magical notebook.”  If Maxwell writes anything in the notebook, it will appear…  ANYTHING!!

Literally, EVERY NOUN in the dictionary is a physical element in the game Scribblenauts.  The only exceptions are trademarked terms and dirty words.  (Sorry to everybody who wants to make “boobs,” “penis,” or “pubes.”  I’ve tried.)  The items you create all come to life and interact appropriately with the environment.  So for example, let’s say Maxwell is on the edge of a cliff.  There’s a gap between another edge of a cliff where his star is nestled, but the gap is too vast to jump.  Maxwell (the player) could solve this problem in dozens of different ways.  He could write “ladder” into his notebook, and lay the ladder over the gap and walk over it.  He could write “trampoline” and leap over the gap.  He could write “jetpack” and wear the device and fly over the gap.  You could probably think of many other ways to solve this brainbuster.

A year or so after Scribblenauts, Warner Bros. Games released a sequel called Super Scribblenauts, which played very similarly to the original, only now the game added ADJECTIVES.  So now let’s take the same situation we had earlier, a pit we’re trying to cross, but now there’s fire in the pit.  You want to use your LADDER to cross, but since the ladder is made of wood, the fire keeps destroying it.  In Super Scribblenauts you could make a METAL LADDER, which wouldn’t burn.

This third Scribblenauts game, Scribblenauts Unlimited,  keeps the nouns and adjectives and now also adds VERBS into the mix.  So now nearly every word in the English language is in the game.  So if your metal ladder from the previous problem was still riding too close to the flames, maybe a FLYING METAL LADDER would get the job done!  It’s all possible in Scribblenauts Unlimited!

That is actually the appeal of Scribblenauts Unlimited.  You will often find yourself “testing” the game to see if whatever oddball scheme you have cooked up in your head is possible…  And it will be.  Maybe you’ll want to create a SICK POLKA-DOTTED ELEPHANT to put into the zoo…  You can do it.  Have you been dying to dine on a DELICIOUS ZOMBIE JELLY-BEAN?  What are you waiting for?  Eat that thing before it eats you!  Want Maxwell to go on a date on a CHATTY LEVITATING CAVEWOMAN in a BUNNY COSTUME?  Then Scribblenauts Unlimited is the game for you!

Another joy of this game is comparing your answers to your friends or family, as no puzzle has only one answer.  You can share this E-rated game (the equivalent of a G-rated movie) with your kids and get a glimpse into how their brain works while simultaneously pushing their imagination to its truest creative limits.

Another reason that Scribblenauts Unlimited is a great game for the family to share is that it can be routed exclusively to Wii U’s Gamepad controller, meaning someone else can use the TV for something different or for another game.  If you own a Wii U, especially this early in the console’s life cycle, you would be foolish to not add this charming and inventive title to your catalogue.

Scribblenauts Unlimited is also available for the Nintendo 3DS handheld system.