A few years ago, the company 5th Cell created a game where you solve puzzles using your own ideas, with its catchphrase “write anything, solve everything” concept, published by Warner Bros. Interactive, Scribblenauts is a game that is unique on its own, the idea of creating everything out of your mind is what this game is all about. Scribblenauts Showdown is another entry of the franchise where they focus on the multiplayer side, Shiver created this game as a party game where friends would enjoy competing to each other (just like Mario party), but does it work? Well, I played the game and here are my thoughts.
Platform Reviewed: PS4
Platforms Available: PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Developer: Shiver
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Release Date: March 7, 2018
MSRP: $39.99
This review is based on a review code provided by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.
The game starts quickly by letting you choose the game mode you want to play, versus, showdown and sandbox. In versus mode, you play with a friend where you simply play a succession of randomly assigned mini-games, the most wins will be the victory of the game. Showdown is like a board game consist of 2 to 4 players, it uses cards to correlate events and mini-games, an example is you must pick a card from a specific mini-game, you and your friends must compete to each other, and the winner can move 4 spaces in the board. This becomes more exciting especially if you are given a special card where some of these cards can pull your opponents back to the beginning of the game, making your opponent compete again from the beginning.
And lastly the Sandbox mode, contains the classic Scribblenaut gameplay formula where you must interact with the NPC’s and find what their problem is and how you can help, this mode is my favorite, this is where creativity enters, you must read every sign of the NPC and find a way how to make them happy, you have the freedom to choose everything and make everything possible for them using your own words, example, if you write gun, you can have a gun, if you want to add adjective on that gun like a flash light, you then get a gun with a flashlight, it’s almost limitless and you must be creative about it.
The only problem that I have with this game is the amount of mini-games they put in this series, yes, they have a lot of mini-games in store for you, but the fact on how easy it is and how fast each of the mini-games can be finished makes it repetitive. I’ve noticed after a few hours of playing Scribblenauts, there is nothing more to do, the Sandbox mode might take my time but overall it was just too short and empty. This is really meant for multiplayer only. I just hope in their next game they can add more modes that not only multiplayers can appreciate but with the single player also.
Overall, Scribblenauts Showdown did not fail to impress me, with its freedom to write anything and make everything possible, this game is worth my time, if only they could add a little more to it, this could be better, I can see that this series will be here for a long time, 5th cell never fail to impress me with how creative they are, I hope they will make more of this soon.
