Scribblenauts Remix

£2.99 – iTunes

In 2009, 5th Cell created a little gem for Nintendo DS called Scribblenauts and followed it up with the more refined Super Scribblenauts in 2010. Scribblenauts is an intelligent puzzler, where the main protagonist, Maxwell, must solve a puzzle by conjuring up an object via his “magical notebook”. The player inputs a noun (adjectives were added in Super Scribblenauts) via the on-screen keyboard, uses the noun to solve the puzzle, gets the star, or “starite” and hey presto, you’re adventure moves onto the next level.

I must preface this with the fact that I’ve never played the original DS games, therefore when I saw Scribblenauts Remix for sale on the Apple App Store, I couldn’t have been happier, as it’s something I was always intrigued with. It has been ported to iOS by developer, Iron Galaxy and it pretty much takes all the best bits from the two DS games and wraps them up into one neat package.

You take Maxwell through 50 levels (40 from Scribblenauts and Super Scribblenauts, with 10 new levels) and your goal remains the same as the previous games; Get the starite. The gameplay is simple. That’s not a bad thing. The iPhone/iPad is a platform that can be used brilliantly, when used simply. Tiny Wings, Cut The Rope and Angry Birds are all terrific examples of exactly what an iOS game should be and Scribblenauts Remix uses the touch interface of Apple devices really well.

You make Maxwell go left by pressing the left side of the screen, or press on the right side to, guess what? You got it, go right! There is also a virtual d-pad, however, the use of touch is far easier and reduces the “screen blockage” caused by “fatfingeritus”. One problem I did have however was that sometimes I couldn’t grab the objects that were “created”. When trying to grab the object and place it where I wanted, it wasn’t responsive. Also, if there was a number of Non-Player Characters in the one area and I wanted to give an object to a particular NPC, it proved difficult with the small iPhone screen.

The dictionary in Scribblenauts Remix is amazing. Pretty much any word you can think of is in there. Proper nouns (specific names of people or places) and the more…*cough*, “adult” words are not allowed though…believe me, I’ve tried! Remix uses the adjectives that were first implemented in Super Scribblenauts and that just adds another dimension to proceedings. You want a dog? Why not make him a, big, smelly, zombie dog! You can even summon Cthulhu for God’s sake! The difficulty of Scribblenauts Remix is fairly simple sadly, but at times, you can come across certain levels that can stump even the most prolific of wordsmiths.

If you’ve already played the original Scribblenauts, there isn’t a lot here for you as so much is recycled. That is one qualm I have, it doesn’t take the series to new heights, just a few small additions like online leaderboards and Facebook integration. But if you haven’t played it before, it’s a really cool game that will keep you entertained on many forms of public transport whilst you leap for joy at solving that puzzle that seemed impossible at first glance!

Colm Ahern