5th-Cell
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Scribblenauts Facebook page teases 'special announcement'
The Facebook page for 5TH Cell's Scribblenauts is teasing ... something. "Get your rooster hats ready!" a message posted on the game's "Wall" reads. "We have a very special announcement coming very soon..." We have no idea what's being announced, or even when, but it seems really early for a sequel announcement. Maybe another platform? Or maybe something outside the game, like a contest. In any case, if you like Scribblenauts, 5TH Cell is going to tell us all something that will probably be delightful. Speaking of delightful, the pictured object is "Game of the Year" as rendered by the game. That's just adorable. [Thanks, Josh!]
WB thinks Scribblenauts will have 'Layton appeal'
Warner Bros. says it's counting on Scribblenauts to start a new puzzle franchise, getting a taste of the same success that a certain top-hatted DS puzzler has enjoyed. "What Scribblenauts offers is something akin to Nintendo's Professor Layton – an addictive and challenging game that has real mass-market appeal all wrapped up in a uniquely stylised package," said WB marketing manager Phil Lamb. He seems to be making a logical argument until dropping this bon mot: "Many forum users are saying the game is the biggest incentive they've had to revisit their dormant DS in a long time." So ... umm ... did they not know Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box was out or what?
5TH Cell: Scribblenauts' scandalous-looking 'sambo' item is a misunderstanding
Reader Zachary spotted a rather unfortunate term in Scribblenauts entirely by accident: "sambo," which summons ... a watermelon. We thought there was no way 5TH Cell would intentionally hide racist, or even racially charged, imagery in its game, so we contacted creative director Jeremiah Slaczka to figure out what happened. It turns out that like Zachary's discovery, the item was an unfortunate accident. Slaczka explained to Joystiq that "sambo" is used in the game as an alternate term for "fig leaf gourd," an ingredient in the Ecuadorian dish fanesca. "Sambo" is the local term for the gourd. As for the watermelon-like appearance? "We reuse art," he said. "Fig leaf gourd looks a lot like a watermelon. It's just an alternative name in a giant list of tens of thousands of names." Slaczka noted, offering evidence to the contrary of calls of racism, that many of the human characters in the game, including the fireman, winemaker, and dancer, manifest as black, as does "Brandon," the in-game representation of a 5TH Cell "wordsmith" (one of the employees tasked with finding words for the database), who is of course black in real life. He also mentioned Isaiah, a major character in the developer's last game Lock's Quest. We must admit, a random, potentially slightly embarrassing art/word pairing in the game seems a lot more likely to us than endemic racism expressed through antiquated epithets. Slaczka told us he didn't even know "sambo" (the slur, not the gourd) until tonight.
5th Cell: Leaked Scribblenauts word list is incomplete
Of all the criticisms that could fairly be leveled against Scribblenauts, the fact that it only recognizes 22,802 words is not among them. 5TH Cell creative director Jeremiah Slaczka told Fast Company that the leaked word list was not comprehensive, though he said it much more colorfully than we did: "That was leaked by a hacker who does not know anything," Slaczka said. "It's more than that." Slaczka also revealed the last word to be added to the game's database: "Low Rider." Presumably this was added at the insistence of his friends, all of whom love a low rider. [Via VG247]
Review: Scribblenauts
There's this part I love in the movie Ratatouille where a critic says, "The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations. The new needs friends." It's something I always try to keep in mind and it's moved me to first, before we do anything else, celebrate what a staggering accomplishment Scribblenauts is. It's a game where you solve simple puzzles with almost any object you can dream up (as long as it's not libations, licensed or lascivious) and every item acts the way you'd expect: bears chase honey and dogs chase cats. It's a game where you can spend hours just messing around to see what creatures can beat God in a fight (zombies: no; vampires: yes). As a technical achievement and as a toy, it's really brilliant. Scribblenauts is a thing of wonder. %Gallery-68669%
This Week on the Nintendo Channel: Behind the scribble with Scribblenauts
Sure, the Nintendo Channel may have received quite the facelift today, adding a host of new features and tossing a much needed fresh coat of paint on top of it all, but the best and brightest of the new content on offer is undoubtedly the behind the scenes look at Scribblenauts. We say this because, well, everything Scribblenauts wins. Sorry, interesting and informative Dead Space Extraction video! You picked the wrong week to be new. Anywho, if you've got a Wii, check out the Nintendo Channel for a bunch of new content. Or, if you're lazy and want to know what's there before booting up the system, head past the break where we've got you covered, baby!
Reminder: Early Scribblenauts launch today at Nintendo World NYC
Friendly reminder for Scribble-natics in the tri-state region: the Nintendo World store will begin selling Scribblenauts today at 11AM as part of a special early launch. For those who don't want to wait until their retailer of choice gets the game sometime this week, now is the time to get on the LIRR, Metro-North, MTA, ferry or paddle boat and head on over to Rockefeller Plaza. The 5th Cell team should be on hand for autographs (hopefully for longer than an hour) and demos of the game. Scribblenauts will allegedly only be sold between 11AM-2PM, so take that into consideration. If you're reading this post from the line at Nintendo World, feel free to let us know how long the queue is in the comments.
There are 22,802 words in Scribblenauts
Some scurrilous vagabond somehow managed to get their hands on the supposed complete dictionary from 5th Cell's upcoming everything generator, Scribblenauts. We sincerely urge you not to go through the illicitly obtained list, looking for particular nouns of interest and internet memes -- why not save that fun for the actual game? However, everyone should absorb the final tally of words present in the final build of the game: 22,802. Also, if the list is legit, then "Plumbob" finally made it into the game -- as per our suggestion from E3. As we see it, we're owed around 0.00005 percent of Scribblenauts' total profits. We'll be waiting on the check, 5th Cell.
Watch this Scribblenauts ad with your pterodactyl
How often does a company get TV advertising for games absolutely right? There's usually some aspect of a game's presentation to the general audience that is groan-worthy or embarrassing -- and potentially damaging to the game's perception. That's not the case with the Scribblenauts ad!This live-action ad does a great job of getting the gameplay across, and presenting it in an appealing way. In fact, the events of this commercial would work as a real Scribblenauts level. Bonus points for using the real Scribblenauts art style for the summoned objects.
Toys R Us writes in $15 launch day savings on Scribblenauts
If you missed out on GameStop's rooster hat offer, or you decided against filling your home with pre-order novelties, you should consider Toys R Us for all your Scribblenauts needs. This Tuesday (and only Tuesday), according to CAG's NeoStrider, in-store purchases of Scribblenauts will be rewarded instantly with $15 gift cards, effectively dropping the price of one of the most promising video games of 2009 to $14.99.There you go. If you live near a TRU and you've been on the fence (for some reason) about this game, consider your decision made.[Via GoNintendo]
Scribblenauts UK release date erased, 'October 9' written over it
WB has announced a new UK release date for 5TH Cell's Scribblenauts: October 9. The company previously planned to release the title on September 25, then "October" (according to GamesCom press materials). Somehow, we doubt localization concerns are to blame. The North American version is still on track for September 15, which is so soon! So soon, in fact, that you could probably order one from the US and get it shipped to the UK before October 9. Just throwing that out there.In other Scribblenews, a bunch of fun downloadables are available at the website now. Your wallpaper could have more panda-riding on it.
GamesCom Scribblenauts booth is wide, wide-ruled
5TH Cell creative director Jeremiah Slaczka pointed out this picture, taken by Krystian Majewski, of the GamesCom 2009 Scribblenauts booth. It's ... a bit bigger than the E3 booth, which consisted of two demo DS stations in the back of the largely Batman-themed WB enclosure. Like, behind it. "It's awesome WB is embracing it so much," Slaczka told us about the increased presence, "and really supporting the game."Majewski's Flickr gallery also contains images of items summoned in Scribblenauts, including stuff we hadn't seen before like "river," "echidna" and "lich." Hey, topical! For more Scribblenauts fun, check out the newly redesigned US site, which now shows a Flash simulation of gameplay in the background!
Scribblenauts dev 5TH Cell looking to consoles
Originally a mobile developer, 5TH Cell rose to prominence on the strength of its DS games Drawn to Life, Lock's Quest and current media obsession Scribblenauts. In an interview with GameSpot, creative director Jeremiah Slaczka said that the company is now looking to start making games for bigger boxes, following the release of Scribblenauts and Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter."This is our big last hurrah for DS games," Slaczka said. "That's it for original stuff. We're now going to move on to consoles in the next year. We might still do DS; I'm not saying we're not going to [develop DS games]. But our focus is definitely going to be on console." Slaczka did not offer any details of console projects.Slaczka also indicated that Scribblenauts could see more installments -- but not an outsourced Spongebob edition: "We're definitely keeping it in-house for a while," Slaczka told GameSpot. "I really like Scribblenauts and think there's a lot of potential there, so we'll see what happens."
Scribblenauts trailer highlights press scribblings
The latest trailer for Scribblenauts reveals that lots of websites, including this one, have written words about the game. Many of those words even reflect positively about it! While we knew that a bunch of words had been typed, having been responsible for the typing of some of them, we were still impressed by the number of websites whose writers took time out to write (at least) one word about Scribblenauts. Oh, the trailer also reveals Abraham Lincoln with a minigun. For those of you crying foul because "Abraham Lincoln" is a proper noun ... it's an Abraham Lincoln, not necessarily the Abraham Lincoln. %Gallery-68669%
The Joystiq Scribblenauts Challenge: Your Solutions! (Redux)
After giving ourselves a few hours to turn our video words into internet words, we're presenting the results of the Scribblenauts Challenge again, now in a non-video form. If you're curious about the original puzzle (which tasked us with knocking some bottles off a table without a gun), read all about it.Now, if you're curious about how your guesses fared, get thyself to the jump!%Gallery-68669%
Take the Joystiq Scribblenauts Challenge
So, we managed to get our grubby mitts on a copy of Scribblenauts for a few days, but the last thing we want to do is keep all the fun to ourselves. So, here's our idea: We're going to be presenting a puzzle from the game, and we want you to tell us in the comments how you'd solve it. Remember, you can create pretty much any physical object to do the job, but no proper nouns, no trademarks and nothing suggestive or illicit (drugs, hookers, scat, etc.) And try to be as specific as possible when you're describing what you want us to do.We'll try out some of the best ones and let you know how it works on Monday. We've got the puzzle right after the break, and if you're completely new to the concept, we've got you covered. Good luck!
Scribblenauts 'rooster hat' becomes real GameStop pre-order bonus [update]
Click to e-n-l-a-r-g-e [Update: See 5Th Cell's Jeremiah Slaczka rocking the Rooster Hat after the break!] If Scribblenauts' September 15 release date is already noted in permanent marker on your calendar, here's a reason to pre-order the puzzle-platformer for wordsmiths from GameStop: Max's Rooster Hat. The real-world plush hat will be handed over to pre-order customers in the US and Canada (and Australia) at the time of purchase. Quantities are limited, so make sure to ask the sales associate how you can be sure to get one at launch. We want. Want bad. Wait, let's try this: W-A-N-T B-A-D. *poof* Yay!
That's a wrap: Comic-Con 2009
Last week's San Diego Comic-Con was one crazy ride. The Joystiq representatives in attendance were trained in advanced interrogation tactics and managed to extract information on a variety of subjects. We've got an update from Peter Jackson himself on the Halo happenings, first footage of South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play! and a new game mode for Uncharted 2! Friend, you missed one heck of a week.But, that's okay! You can get caught up right here, right now. Simply head past the break for a complete summary of all the headlines. [image] %Gallery-68768%
Australian Scribblenauts pre-orders get sweet hat
If you happen to come from the land down under, pre-ordering Scribblenauts at EB Games will award you with some Scribble-haute couture. More specifically, a pre-order will snag lucky gamers a hat (a Scribble-hat, if you will). You might be wondering on what occasions it would be appropriate to wear such a hat. The correct answer to that question is all of them.We contacted GameStop to see if the hat would be available for North American pre-orders as well. Should they be exclusive to Australia, we're assuming the only other way to obtain the hat would be to write "pre-order bonus" within the game itself.[Thanks, Klim!]
Scribblenauts trailer attacks our weak point for massive damage
How many game trailers will you see today that start with a guy jumping a bicycle over a baby? Like, three at most. Even the trailers for Scribblenauts are mindblowing. There's even a little riff on Genji! To demonstrate the versatile gameplay found in the procedural adventure game (that's our awesome term for it), 5th Cell included things like helping improve an old man's vision by giving him another eye. That doesn't work? How about a sniper rifle? And while we're talking about that, we'd like to express our delight that there is a game in which improving an old man's vision is an objective. Even beyond all the item-summoning stuff, there's a ton of creativity at work here. %Gallery-68669%
