Browny
Smash Hater
Link to original post: [drupal=2535]Scribblenauts is really good...[/drupal]
Something has been bugging me recently regarding the way this game is critically received.
Many reviews seem to hover around the 8-8.5 mark and although I know the game has many flaws which indeed would warrant such a score I cant help thinking that this game deserves far better reviews than it is getting.
Scribblenauts represents to me one of, if not the most ambitious game projects in a very long time. How do you expect a publishing company would react to a devloper asking for millions of dollars to design a game where you can summon any material object imaginable into your world to help solve puzzles? No doubt this was a major risk as there is absolutely no base to go off when determining how well such a game would sell, let alone play.
Can you name any games recently which are this unique ambitious? I can think of... Guitar hero to a slight extent, and thats about it. Just about every single good game released these days is a sequel to something or continuing along a well-defined genre.
But this isnt subjective, if anyone looks at all the top ranked games for any console or PC you will find they are all either sequels (an extremely large % of new, good games are mere sequels) or different versions or old, proven games (rhythym games -> guitar hero). Granted Scribblenatus could classify as a 2D puzzle game, but its so much more than that.
What REALLY annoys me about all these high ranked reviews though is the criticism such games receive. How often do you see sequels slammed because they 'didn't expand upon the original enough'? Yet some games seem completely impervious to this criticism. Nothing annoys me more when I see the gamerankings top 10 of all time with the likes of metroid prime and Zelda oot being overtaken by Cod4 and GTA4. Youve got these highly ambitious, first-in-their-genre (albeit specific) incredible games getting rated lower than mere rehashes of old games with flashy graphics. whether they are good games or not is irrelevant. MP1 and oot was an endless stream of aspects in gaming you experienced for the first time ever while modern day rehashes are just the same thing done 10 times before.
But how does this all relate to Scribblenauts?
Scribblenauts NEVER pretended to be anything other than what it claimed. It didnt say it would redefine a genre, it didnt make claims of epic battle, amazing graphics, engrossing storyline or anything. It lived up exactly to what it planned to be, and it did it perfectly. You can not criticise it at all in this regard, the only criticisms arise from its lack of replayability and controls, which to me is completely unfounded to warrant its low score. I see games like Drakes fortune 2 and Cod4 getting incredible reviews, and i have to ask WHY? a 10 hour storyline is a pathetic excuse for a game and not worth the asking price ($110 in AUS rofl) and cod4 offers multiplayer which is not only completely devoid of any inventive credit, it is merely standard, plenty of other FPS games offer superior multiplayer.
Yet these flaws are completely ignored in these games.
Simply put, Scribblenauts imo, will be remembered forever. In the same way that Blast Corps was a completely ambitious title, it did what it planned to do perfectly and nothing more, hence becomes a classic. When I played through games like Oot, MP1, CBFD, melee, advance wars, even WoW i knew they would be top rated classics that would be remembered forever. I almost never get that feeling anymore. Everything new these days is forgettable and when sequels come out, it only cements this idea. The last game that had me thinking 'I will remember this experience forever' was probably WoW, and I quit 4 years ago. IMO, Scribblenauts is the next game that makes me feel this way about it.
It is not perfect by any means, but as an experience you will remember forever and was fun while it lasted, Scribblenauts deserves full marks imo, and is FAR more deserving of a better review than the countless new games these days which offer no new experiences whatsoever and are simply building on an already mastered game genre. For these games to be rated highly, they must do EVERYTHING perfect. There is no excuse AT ALL for pathetically short storylines or stock-standard multiplayer
Something has been bugging me recently regarding the way this game is critically received.
Many reviews seem to hover around the 8-8.5 mark and although I know the game has many flaws which indeed would warrant such a score I cant help thinking that this game deserves far better reviews than it is getting.
Scribblenauts represents to me one of, if not the most ambitious game projects in a very long time. How do you expect a publishing company would react to a devloper asking for millions of dollars to design a game where you can summon any material object imaginable into your world to help solve puzzles? No doubt this was a major risk as there is absolutely no base to go off when determining how well such a game would sell, let alone play.
Can you name any games recently which are this unique ambitious? I can think of... Guitar hero to a slight extent, and thats about it. Just about every single good game released these days is a sequel to something or continuing along a well-defined genre.
But this isnt subjective, if anyone looks at all the top ranked games for any console or PC you will find they are all either sequels (an extremely large % of new, good games are mere sequels) or different versions or old, proven games (rhythym games -> guitar hero). Granted Scribblenatus could classify as a 2D puzzle game, but its so much more than that.
What REALLY annoys me about all these high ranked reviews though is the criticism such games receive. How often do you see sequels slammed because they 'didn't expand upon the original enough'? Yet some games seem completely impervious to this criticism. Nothing annoys me more when I see the gamerankings top 10 of all time with the likes of metroid prime and Zelda oot being overtaken by Cod4 and GTA4. Youve got these highly ambitious, first-in-their-genre (albeit specific) incredible games getting rated lower than mere rehashes of old games with flashy graphics. whether they are good games or not is irrelevant. MP1 and oot was an endless stream of aspects in gaming you experienced for the first time ever while modern day rehashes are just the same thing done 10 times before.
But how does this all relate to Scribblenauts?
Scribblenauts NEVER pretended to be anything other than what it claimed. It didnt say it would redefine a genre, it didnt make claims of epic battle, amazing graphics, engrossing storyline or anything. It lived up exactly to what it planned to be, and it did it perfectly. You can not criticise it at all in this regard, the only criticisms arise from its lack of replayability and controls, which to me is completely unfounded to warrant its low score. I see games like Drakes fortune 2 and Cod4 getting incredible reviews, and i have to ask WHY? a 10 hour storyline is a pathetic excuse for a game and not worth the asking price ($110 in AUS rofl) and cod4 offers multiplayer which is not only completely devoid of any inventive credit, it is merely standard, plenty of other FPS games offer superior multiplayer.
Yet these flaws are completely ignored in these games.
Simply put, Scribblenauts imo, will be remembered forever. In the same way that Blast Corps was a completely ambitious title, it did what it planned to do perfectly and nothing more, hence becomes a classic. When I played through games like Oot, MP1, CBFD, melee, advance wars, even WoW i knew they would be top rated classics that would be remembered forever. I almost never get that feeling anymore. Everything new these days is forgettable and when sequels come out, it only cements this idea. The last game that had me thinking 'I will remember this experience forever' was probably WoW, and I quit 4 years ago. IMO, Scribblenauts is the next game that makes me feel this way about it.
It is not perfect by any means, but as an experience you will remember forever and was fun while it lasted, Scribblenauts deserves full marks imo, and is FAR more deserving of a better review than the countless new games these days which offer no new experiences whatsoever and are simply building on an already mastered game genre. For these games to be rated highly, they must do EVERYTHING perfect. There is no excuse AT ALL for pathetically short storylines or stock-standard multiplayer
