My thoughts on the "masterpiece" called Scribblenauts.

[superyoshi888]

Link to original post: [drupal=2433]My thoughts on the "masterpiece" called Scribblenauts.[/drupal]



For my first blog, I guess I will be tackling Scribblenauts and be telling you people why it isn't the most amazing game ever like some make it out to be.

Well, first of all, let's flashback to a few months ago. E3 has just happened, and I was pretty much pumped up with excitement over the Metroid: Other M trailer and New Super Mario Bros. Wii(looks like it'll be the best Mario game ever). Then out of nowhere, there is an explosion of excitement over a game that came from "nowhere"(not really, people just ignored it initially because it was on the DS). What was it called?

Scribblenauts.

My God, the hype it got was amazing. And how could blame them? Summoning God to fight Cthulu with a shotgun while riding a skateboard? This is like a dream game.

Flash foward to September 15. I get my copy of the game and my rooster hat. I pop it in my DSi. For some reason, I had to sit through around 11 to 15 tutorial stages. Er....I just want to play the game. FINALLY, I start playing. It's fun, but eventually it became...well, repetitive, to put it bluntly. Challenging my imagination isn't as fun as it appeared it would be.

Now, about a week ago, I go with my brother to GameStop to pick up a PS2 memory card. While there, I decide to also get a game that had me interested for quite some time: Metroid Zero Mission. Being my first Metroid game, I set the difficulty to Easy. It is an AMAZING game.

But why did I bring up Metroid of all things? Because, it and Scribblenauts have one thing in common: discovery. Trying to think of new words in Scribblenauts wasn't that fun or great, like everyone said it would be. However, exploring Planet Zebes and discovering new things in game has been one of the best experiances with a GBA game I've ever had, right up there with Pokemon Emerald version. Simply put, it acheived what Scribblenauts has failed to acheive: be addicting.

Now that I'm done hating on Scribblenauts, what did I like about it? Actually, the same exact things that I was disappointed with. Seriously, it is entertaining. The other day, for example, I shot a T-rex with Cupid's Bow and rode it while wielding a sword. Then, I spawned an Allosaurus and together we fought the Allosaurus. Or, shortly after getting the game, I saw a Polar Bear kill God. Really.

The point of the blog? Don't give into hype. Just because a game is "the best game ever" doesn't mean it is.

 

[Jim Morrison]

Lol, Metroid Zero Mission was awesome. I enjoyed it over the original Metroid game, which is really rare for me, to enjoy a sequel more. Pokémon Emerald was alright, but mine ****ed up right after beating the 1337 4, just when the game gets awesome.
I haven't played Scribblenauts, nor have I even heard of it. You make it sound gay lol.

 

[finalark]

The point of the blog? Don't give into hype. Just because a game is "the best game ever" doesn't mean it is.

The message I've been trying to get across every since I first started blogging. I'm kind of sad that you said this on a blog about Scibblenaughts as opposed to a blog about Ocarina of Time some other game that's being super hyped. Although nothing can quite compare to the the hype that Halo 3 received, me thinks.

 

[Jim Morrison]

I think Ocarina of Time most definitly lived up to the hype. It was a really complete game, it was long, it was the first 3d Zelda, the story line made sense (very rare), it had SOME level of difficulty if you hadn't played the game before. When I played it for the first time, I just felt really epic. Ocarina of Time deserved the hype. Majora's Mask deserved more hype. Halo 3 DEFINITLY got overhyped. Brawl was probably the biggest hypefail we've seen on these internets nowadays. It's just a ****ing partygame, designed to murder any competative aspect, but we still play it competatively lol.

GG.

 

[finalark]

I think Ocarina of Time most definitly lived up to the hype. It was a really complete game, it was long, it was the first 3d Zelda, the story line made sense (very rare), it had SOME level of difficulty if you hadn't played the game before. When I played it for the first time, I just felt really epic. Ocarina of Time deserved the hype. Majora's Mask deserved more hype. Halo 3 DEFINITLY got overhyped. Brawl was probably the biggest hypefail we've seen on these internets nowadays. It's just a ****ing partygame, designed to murder any competative aspect, but we still play it competatively lol.

GG.

Don't get me wrong, I liked Ocarina of Time, but it cannot build up to the hype that it gets. This is probably because I had a PlayStation back in those days and I really wasn't into the gaming community all that much, so I wasn't getting this whole "OMG OCARINA OF TIME IS TEH BEST GAME EVAR!!!11!" shoved down my throat by everyone. And how do I put one of my main problems with the game....

Nintendo guy: "Okay, I have an idea for a temple. Lets make it a sprawly dungeon with puzzles all over the place! But here's the catch, there's no hint or indication to what order to do the puzzles and if you do them in the wrong order and save, you have the start your game all over again!"

Miyamoto: "Good thinking! Just so long as we keep on paying gaming websites and magazines bribe money to convince all of our slave monkeys that each Ocarina of Time cartridge is made out of a piece of the Cross of Christ no one will even think about criticizing that! Tell the development team to put it in right away!"

 

[Grunt]

there's no hint or indication to what order to do the puzzles and if you do them in the wrong order and save, you have the start your game all over again!"

that can't happen in any dungeon I know of, and i know OoT pretty **** well.

 

[Jim Morrison]

I owner a Playstation too, and I stand by it that the Spyro trilogy beats the Zelda games, that doesn't take away OoT was a great game.
I never encountered a part where you had to start all over because you did something in the wrong order. Of course, a game back then was glitchy, sure, they could have putten more thought in the game-restarting glitches.
I guess we can never convince one another <_<
(You must agree that Spyro trilogy was too ****ing awesome, as you owned a PS1 back in the days, though)

 

[finalark]

that can't happen in any dungeon I know of, and i know OoT pretty **** well.

*cough*watertemple*cough*

(You must agree that Spyro trilogy was too ****ing awesome, as you owned a PS1 back in the days, though)

YOU ARE AWESOME.

 

[Grunt]

water temple is confusing but you can always get through it.

 

[finalark]

water temple is confusing but you can always get through it.

That doesn't excuse poor level design.

 

[Grunt]

I agree, it was a terribly planned out dungeon, but that wasn't your problem. :/

 

[finalark]

I agree, it was a terribly planned out dungeon, but that wasn't your problem. :/

That was part of the reason why it was such a big problem. What I mentioned before was just my main problem. You know, I wouldn't mind the Water Temple so much if it was optional, but... it wasn't.

 

[Jim Morrison]

Or, you could've used glitches to skip the complete temple. Just sayin.

 

[finalark]

Or, you could've used glitches to skip the complete temple. Just sayin.

Yes, however, I shouldn't HAVE to exploit glitches in order to make the game better. It should already be better just by the way the developers made it, not because you skipped some content. That's like saying "Oh, Super Man 64 is really good if you can use glitches to skip to the end of the game."

 

[Jim Morrison]

Or you could have your first time expierence of being screwed over by a game and learning from your mistakes in a cruel harsh way. Or do it right at once (like me :D).

Anyway, let's not make this an OoT debate thread. You can make your own blog on that.
This blog is about Scribblenauts not being as awesome as Metroid Zero Mission, which is quite true.

I want to play Spyro now, ****.

 

[finalark]

I want to play Spyro now, ****.

I'm going to go pop in one of the originals now.

But going to back hype, why do we give into? Or, well... I don't know, hype really never effected me (this is probably while I liked Twilight Princess). Anyway, we've been let down over and over again, so why do we give into hype?

 

[superyoshi888]

Oh wow, I didn't really expect this to get that many posts. O.o

I think the reason why we fall for hype is probably a couple of things:

A) We are conditioned to give into hype. This is probably most apparent whenever Nintendo reveals ANYTHING regarding their core games(Mario, Zelda, the like) or when Microsoft says "hey! New Halo coming out." Or sometimes....
B) Word of mouth gets twisted. Basically, we are playing a large game of telephone. Someone mentions something that's a great(Scribblenaut's word bank), and then someone hears it and starts shouting how its suddenly the best thing since OoT.

Either way, Game Developers need hype, since it will boost sales beyond what it would be. Because of this, it is often them that starts the game of telephone.

BTW, I got into the Zelda games kinda late, so I never saw what was great about Oot. However, I find Twilight Princess fun(though I haven't touched it in the longest time) and I ADORE the original game, which I only played when I got the GBA cartridge.

 

[CRASHiC]

I think I'm the only person in the world he loves the water temple

 

[SuSa]

I love the Water Temple as well.

In fact, I love OoT.

Quite possibly because I never owned a PlayStation.

I was a Nintendo boy.

OoT lived up to it's hype.

 

[Scott!]

I don't love the Water Temple, but only because I prefer other dungeons in OoT from an aesthetic point of view. I put the Forest Temple as my favorite dungeon of all time in anything ever, so compared to that, the Water Temple is just that one that people like to complain about. Never had much of a problem, and I scoff an elitist scoff at everyone who complains about backtracking. I liked the water levels. I thought it gave the dungeon depth

Spoiler

(pun intended)

. But I played OoT years before I knew anything about it being considered the greatest game ever. So when I got into the gaming world and heard everyone saying all that, I was pretty much like "Duh. At least they got something right."

Yeah, I'm a Zelda fanboy. But I also enjoyed TP a lot. Yes, it was too easy, and too familiar. That's why I can't rank it above games like OoT, Wind Waker, and Majora's Mask. But the dungeons were fun, the swordplay was lots of fun, the overworld was mostly all I could have asked for, and it felt like a Zelda game. It's a great game that, if not for it borrowing just a bit too heavily from OoT, could have been my favorite.

 

[Man of Popsicle]

As long as it's 1 or 2.
Right Spyro man?
I love the first Spyro.

 

[Kholdstare]