Super Scribblenauts Strategy Guide Review

Strategy Guide Review Policy:

My goal for these strategy guide reviews is not to discuss whether one needs the guide to complete the game. Every gamer has different strengths and skills, and one may need every bit of a guide, another may need to look up information for quick assistance once, and another may laugh at the idea of ever using a guide, even the online freebies. My goal is to determine whether the guide is 1) helpful in the first place, 2) does it encompass gamers who need hand-holding as well as those who need a quick reference and 3) how much information does it really have.

Review:

While a strategy guide for a puzzle game like Super Scribblenauts may seem like cheating, the best way to think of it is a suggestion guide for when you’re feeling uncreative. Let’s face it; Super Scribblenauts demands creativity, at times even more so than the first game, because now there are adjectives to be used and often required. The guide follows this philosophy of offering creative pointers, and it does it very, very well with the inclusion of crazy solution suggestions, a giant word list, and an even larger list of adjectives.

The guide’s design is identical to the guide for the first game. Prima Games obviously decided that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. For those unfamiliar with the first guide, the design goes like this for each puzzle:

• Set up the puzzle scenario;
• Explain what Maxwell must do;
• List of possible words/adjectives to use;
• Blanks in the list for players to fill in on their own; and
• A suggested crazy solution.

The crazy solutions are some of the best parts of the guide, and it’s just unfortunate that the structure game didn’t allow for as many crazy solutions like the first game, so I personally didn’t have as many laughs as I did with the first guide. But for this guide, my favorite crazy solution idea is the flaming mermaid for Puzzle 4-9. Second favorite is the ninja shark for S1-9.

The Merit system also changed for this sequel, and the guide compensated for that as expected. The Merits are now more like Achievements or Trophies, so the guide explains the Merits in the same way a guide would for Achievements and Trophies. The game will show hints for how to score these Merits, but the tricky ones are a little vague and don’t fully explain what Maxwell needs to do to achieve them. For example, what is the Super Scribblenauts adjective required to earn The Fourth Wall Merit?

As for bonus material, there is quite a bit. It includes an interview with the 5th Cell development team AND the complete walkthrough for the first Scribblenauts game. The latter portion seems to be a bit of a waste of paper, in that the first Scribblenauts game had huge problems in terms of controls (something that caused me to quit playing), so while I see how newcomers to the franchise could become intrigued by the first game, I bet the controls will frustrate them into quitting early and thus rendering the last half of this guide a bit useless. But hey, it’s still a nice inclusion.

The Super Scribblenauts Strategy Guide offers everything a user could possibly need for creating anything and solving everything in Super Scribblenauts. I honestly can’t imagine a more perfect strategy guide for a puzzle game.