Scribblenauts is absurdly ambitious. Almost unbelievably so, in fact. It may look like a fairly standard puzzle-platformer, but it has a major twist: the player can conjure up any item they wish, simply by writing the object's name on the touchscreen. Again, for emphasis: any item.But ... isn't that sort of, well, impossible? MTV's Stephen Totilo had his suspicions, so rang game designer Jeremiah Slaczka with a list of obscure items to test the veracity of 5th Cell's claims. Would we be able to summon cake mix, Totilo queried. Yep. How about an hourglass? You bet. Pushpins? A briefcase? Lint? Yes, yes, and yes.
Slackza does warn us not to expect "some eastern mountain Bolivian dish," (sorry, fans of Charque de llama), and has already ruled out licensed products or vulgar terms. Aside from those understandable exclusions, however, Scribblenauts really does seem to match the hype; it passed the Totilo test, at least!
