Get your imagination prepared as you enter a game filled with 220 levels stuffed inside of 10 themed areas. Scribblenauts is a side scrolling puzzle game where you have one major goal, solve the puzzle and collect your Starite. The beauty is you are able to use just about any means that you can think of to solve each puzzle.

Starting each level you you will be presented the map as the camera pans to objects/people/monsters that are important to the level. After you’ve had an eye full the stage will give you a hint on how to solve it. These may not always be the best hints at first as a few of them might take a little bit to understand before you can really move on while other hints  practically give you the answer. Take note to everything you see in a level, if it’s in the game, you can create it yourself if you think it might help.

As you select one of the ten different areas you will see the option to switch between puzzles and action levels. Puzzle levels seem to flow a little bit easier, more straight forward. You see the level, get your hint, figure it out. Quick example, starite is in a tree and you’re asked to get it. Action levels on the other hand can be a bit more tricky as they can be filled with monsters that will try to kill your character, Maxwell. These levels seem to give the most challenge and usually require a little more planning before you go off creating objects.

Each level in Scribblenauts, much like golf, has a par number where you want to try to solve the level under the par number. Managing to tie or stay under par will net you extra points which can be spent on unlocking new areas, background music and avatars for Maxwell. Another factor that comes into play when determining your score for each level is style. How unique was the way you solved the puzzle? Did you just write jetpack and fly to the star in the tree or did you use a beaver to bring the tree down?

Once a stage is completed you can go back and replay them again for more points and turn the stage icon into a gold starite. The catch? You have to beat the level three times in a row, each time using a different method. There have been a few levels I could only imagine one way to solve them. So getting all gold stars should help provide a good replay while putting your brain to work. You can also go back and use to level editor on any level you have solved and create levels to share with friends.

There are a few slight annoyances you will come across while playing. The touch screen can be a little sensitive and certain objects require precise tapping to pick them up. If you tap in just the wrong spot, Maxwell will begin running to the area you tapped. Sometimes leading him to run off a cliff or headfirst into a pool of lava. This issue will also come up when you try to attack a monster. Miss your tap and watch as Maxwell leaps straight towards some Ninjas without even taking one swing at them. With a game that allows such creativity, you might find yourself falling into a rut using the same items over and over again to beat each level. This can also be due, although Scribblenauts has a large word database, not knowing exactly everything you want. Say you want a large bridge to cross that extra large gap but typing it in only gets you a normal bridge.

Even with the few issues I’ve encountered, Scribblenauts manages to be a fun and addictive game. It is one of those games you can sit down for hours knocking out stage after stage or turn on, play for about 10 – 15 minutes and then go to class. Don’t be fooled by this being a single player game. If you pull this game out while amongst friends, you would be surprised at what kind of crazy and wacky ideas will come up when trying to solve a level. If you haven’t tried Scribblenauts yet, I highly recommend it. With Christmas right around the corner, I say it’s time to call in the good credits with Santa Clause.

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