Ever since the series first debuted on DS back in 2009, Scribblenauts has offered something few games ever could: an experience limited only by the boundaries of your own imagination. Even up to Scribblenauts Unlimited on Wii U in 2012, the antics of Maxwell and his magical notepad have remained fresh and bubbling with potential. However, six years on, one cancelled game (the ill-fated, iOS-bound Scribblenauts: Fighting Words) and a change in developer later, and the Scribblenauts of 2018 is something far less enticing.
The same basic principle of Scribblenauts still applies - think of a word, type it into the game and voilà, it appears on screen. With a database of nouns that’s increased to a whopping 35,000 words (and their potential combinations), there’s still a pure thrill from thinking of a rare animal or seemingly insignificant object and seeing the game recreate it in cartoon form. However, Scribblenauts: Showdown never truly embraces the magic of its central conceit due to the shallow nature of its modes. It’s a party game, but one where all the party poppers are duds.
The classic narrative formula of old is gone, traded for a selection of mini-games that takes the fun of transforming the most random word that pops into your head and sucks the life straight out of it. There’s plenty of variety to the games you’ll play - swooping around a black hole in a rocket ship; smashing a piñata with a stick; catching your chosen noun on a platform as words fall from the sky - and you’ll shake your Joy-Cons and tilt your Switch along the way, but it’s nothing you haven’t done before in 1-2-Switch and the like.
The open-world story mode of the previous games has been dropped in its entirety, and in its place we have Versus, Showdown and Sandbox. Versus is a two-player mode where you compete against a friend (or against the CPU, if you don’t have any) in a series of party games. It’s fun, and ideal if you’re looking for a cute family-friendly game with a charming sense of whimsy about it, but it loses its appeal quickly.
Then there’s Sandbox, the mode that holds the closest resemblance to Scribblenauts of old. Available as a single-player romp or a two-player co-op experience, it’s split into eight themed sandbox-style levels with starites to earn, awards to win and objects to unlock. Talking of starites, these collectibles are now more of a currency for buying new levels and unlocking level-specific objects. You can spend them in the Sandbox Store, but once you get into each level you realise it’s just a tease for what Showdown could have been. You can explore each multi-tiered level, creating objects for NPCs based on the pictorial clues above their heads, but much like the Versus mode it’s a very shallow experience that barely taps into the depth of its imaginative potential.
Considering it’s in the title, Showdown mode is the centrepiece here, and it at least offers a little more meat on the game’s brittle bones. Supporting solo play against the CPU or local multiplayer with up to three other players, it works like a virtual board game where you deal and play cards, each with a certain mini-game attached and a certain number of moves forward/back on top. While it sadly falls back on those quirky yet unremarkable activities found in Versus and Sandbox, there’s some sense of strategy to be found from using boost cards to send your opponent flying backwards while you race towards victory. It's fun, but it’s just not Scribblenauts.
And that’s the feeling you just can’t shake if you spend any amount of time in this game. New developer Shiver has done its best to emulate the look, sound and feel of 5th Cell's classic formula, but it’s just that - a simulation of past glories, repackaged beyond all recognition. If this had been a harmless release on 3DS in its twilight years, Showdown wouldn’t have felt like such a wasted opportunity, but as a debut entry on Nintendo’s latest hardware, it’s just a collection of forgettable activities that squanders one of gaming’s few unique premises.
Conclusion
If you’ve played the series before, Scribblenauts: Showdown won't be the game you’re expecting. If you haven’t, you might be left wondering what all the fuss was about. Yes, it shares the name and the look of those previous games, but it lacks the all-important creative heart of its predecessors, and ends up being a by-the-numbers affair that goes through the motions in a shallow attempt to turn Scribblenauts' unique premise into a multiplayer party game. It’s certainly not the debut Maxwell and company deserved on Switch, and while its mini-game focus does suit the local multiplayer ethos of the console, it ends up feeling like a discount 1-2-Switch.
Comments 50
So ... uh ... Mario Party when, Nintendo?
Port?
A discount 1-2 switch? wow that's harsh. wasn't 1-2 switch a discount party game itself?
A discount 1-2 Switch released at the same price as 1-2 Switch. Hm..
Sad. Very sad.
Oh...
Wow. I was not expecting that! Yikes.
They should've just ported Scribblenauts Remix to the Switch. That game is at least true to the original concept!
There are also framerate problems, especially in handheld mode, that for the kind of game Showdown is, it's simply unexcusable.
A real bummer, but "a discount 1-2 Switch" has me interested, even if it's only out of morbid curiosity.
This is so sad, especially as I got quite addicted to the original DS game. It's such a bummer when devs don't seem to know what makes their game special in the first place.
I was very much looking forward to this as I thought this was a normal Scribblenauts game, then I found out last week that it's more akin to a Mario Party title. Killed all interest instantly for me.
That's highly disappointing.
"...it ends up feeling like a discount 1-2-Switch."
Ouch.
I almost picked this up the other day but WWE2k18 has made me some what gun shy on picking up oddball titles. Glad I didnt.
Any comparison of a game to 1,2 Switch and you know you're dealing with trash.
Is that "Dance Dance Revolution" on Scribblenauts ?
@GoldenGamer88
Just draw a car for the players to take turns in then you have the same experience.
@GoldenGamer88 hoping for an E3 reveal, without the fun ruining cart or random chance boss battles. What I'm saying is do it right or just port over Mario Party 8. Lol.
@Alikan Tbh, I‘m getting rather desperate at this point. Just gimme a Mario Party on Switch. Best case scenario, though: N64 VC with MP2 and 3!
@Xaessya Too true, sadly.
As expected, I will give this a miss
@SLIGEACH_EIRE 1-2 switch was fun, just overpriced. Definitely not trash.
@bLiNdSiDe82 It's trash in my opinion at any price. You couldn't pay me enough to play it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VkAU5D0JzI
@GoldenGamer88 I'm down with that.
The presentation works for a puzzle game, it does not for a party game.
Ill pass on this one
Love this series, and was delighted to hear there was a Switch game coming out. This was going to be a Day 1 buy for me, until I saw the trailer and thought "I better check out a review first".
So here I am... checking out a review first. All my worst fears confirmed. How did a Day 1 buy become a hard pass? I guess the heart and soul of Scribblenauts disappeared along with 5th Cell. Very disappointed :/
About expected. That trailer looked terrible. You can't plop a versus mode on just any game type and expect it to work, especially a game like Scribblenauts.
All they had to do was expand the game glossary and add co-op. How hard is that, Shiver?
after seeing the gameplay. im not surprise about this review. but, i'll get it when it's cheaper. not worth $40 imo.
I played it briefly on xb1 before trading it in the next day , very poor . In fact I much preferred the mini games in 30 game collection / party planet - I know reviews of that haven’t been stellar but honestly it’s much more fun than Scribblenaughts Showdown if your’re looking for some local mini game action
My brother picked this up and had me play a round of the board game mode with him. It was... okay. Not terrible, had some fun here and there and did make a huge comeback to win it with a nice string of minigame wins and a lucky card draw. But the whole time, I was like... surely this can't be it for $40. And it pretty much was it. The wordplay aspect wasn't even done very cleverly for most games, and the speed games are just arm-tiring wagglefests. I would play him again if he asked, but there's no way I'm spending $40 on this game when I could get Celeste, Night in the Woods, Crypt of the Necrodancer, and other much better games for half the price.
What would people say is the best scribblenauts game? I haven't really played since the original and I wanted to pick up another game in the series (aside from this one of course)
That’s really disappointing. I have never played the series but always heard great things about it. I wanted to get this for my 7-year old son but now I may pass, unless it gets a deep discount down the road.
Pour one out for Scribblenauts. I'll look for more reviews but it looks like it is getting panned everywhere. I really loved that series as well. Even bought the DC themed one and I'm not a fan of DC.
What a great way to kill a brilliant franchise Warner Bros, you should've made a proper new scribblenauts game not this tosh.
@WiltonRoots not a port
Yikes. 😳
@SLIGEACH_EIRE Yow. Was that really in the game???
"it ends up feeling like a discount 1-2-Switch"
Making it worse then the already rubbish 1-2-Switch. Not to mention that the Scribblenauts franchise was never strong to begin with. Paaaasssss!!
Well I like it, plus I have a six year old son who also is a big fan. It's no way a 5 out of 10 (in my home at least!!).
@wyzworld76 Yep, and a whole lot more of equally awful, cringey games.
Quite a shame. I was really looking forward to a Switch Scribblenaughts and throwing in some party games sounds like a great idea. I hope this doesn't stop a true Sribblenaughts from coming to Switch.
The DC Scribblenaughts is one of my favorite Wii U titles. I'm really sad to hear about this.
I figured the Switch wouldn't really be the right console for Scribblenauts game. I mean it would work well in portable mode, but I use my Switch docked over 90% of the time.
I loved the first Scribblenauts, but... I don’t know if it went down in quality or the novelty faded, but in later ones I ended up realizing that, outside of puzzle levels that need one of a few specific items, the “reach the end” levels could almost all be beaten with a few words. “Jetpack” can get you through most platforming bits (“Pegasus” works too but you end up with a bigger hitbox that can die) and “God” can kill any enemy in your way (Gave him a flamethrower once for comic relief but he’s more effective unarmed because he’s a god). There were a few other words here and there but when I could beat half the levels with less than 10 different objects, the magic faded a bit. :-/ and adding adjectives made that worse, because you could just make everything “invincible”.
I don’t know how they’d balance that without taking away freedom. I realize I could just not use overpowered stuff but it’s hard when the first thought in my head ends up just being, “I could just fly over it all with a jetpack again”.
Random fact: on Gamerankings Nintendolife gave this game a 9/10. I was shocked but now I saw the real score 😂
Wow what a let down. I have to say, with as fun as this idea should have been, that makes it a double let down.
That is disappointing. Best Looking Box Art For Suck Game Award?
@Oat unmasked was good fun. Specially if you are a DC fan.
@NintendoFan4Lyf
Sandbox mode kinda fits the bill. Kinda.
It can now be picked up for just under £10 physical.
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