![]() Longtime Scribblenauts fans shouldn’t be put off if they're not experts in DC lore. Even bloodthirsty killers like Doomsday and Mr. Bats seems a little too quick to accept help from a preteen interloper with near limitless power for my jaded eyes, but - as is clear from Scribblenauts cutesy art style and presentation - this is a friendly adventure that’s fit for kids and adults alike. It’s an excellent excuse for a team-up, as Maxwell meets Batman and joins up with the rest of the Justice League. The appropriately cute story hinges on Maxwell and his sister Lily traveling to the DC Universe, where their world-hopping globe gets broken, releasing all its energizing starites into the hands of super-villains. Of course, in the greater scheme of Scribblenauts Unmasked, a missing character here and there is pretty minor because there’s so much to work with. That might sound pretty nitpicky to those of you unburdened by longboxes full of comics cluttering up your closets, but it means something to us geeks! is in there - remember them?), but poor Sun Boy got left out. The Legion is represented (heck, even L.E.G.I.O.N. ![]() The weirdest omission for me was when I needed the perfect hero to counter a villainous rampage by the frigid Killer Frost and attempted to call upon Sun Boy, one of the Legion of Super Heroes’ most prominent members, only to find him missing. Due to licensing issues, DC’s Milestone comic book characters like Static Shock have been excluded from the fun. That said, there are some odd exceptions. (Fun Easter egg: Type in “Jim Lee” or “Geoff Johns” and you’ll summon DC’s creative bigwigs.) As a hardcore DC fan, I absolutely loved the incredible diversity and staggering breadth of DC toys to play with in this sandbox. Some available characters, like lovable rugrats Sugar and Spike, were published by DC Comics but aren’t even a part of its superhero universe. There are characters in here so obscure that they may have only ever appeared once in the comics. I’ve always considered myself to be a walking repository of useless DC trivia, but Unmasked showed me what a chump I am. Define your own world before you tie in with another one.In fact, Scribblenauts Unmasked’s database is so packed with DC characters and iconic items - over 2,000 of them - that just browsing through the lot can be daunting. Just stay in your own universe, Scribblenauts. It feels like a DC game with Scribblenauts hastily written in. It's very good on its own, but it doesn't feel like a Scribblenauts game. Overall, the game is an enormous case of "this does not feel right". (It also jossed a headcanon I had for Dopps, which annoyed me for personal reasons.) If the tie-in comic had become a thing while Unlimited was still the latest game, it would've worked, because like Pocket God, at the time the characters and world were blank slates to develop and play with. With Scribblenauts? It doesn't work as well, because it ONLY explores the DC universe, without touching on Scribblenauts's own universe much at all. With games like Pocket God, it can work because the characters are blank slates, as is the world- leaving lots of room to insert new ideas and play with the concepts the game has already provided. With games like Sonic, it can work, because the characters and world are already established, while still leaving room for new ideas to be inserted. As cool as it is to see Maxwell and company further developed, it doesn't sit right. (The tie-in comic DOES remedy this by making him grumpy and snarky, but still. I expected more sassy dialogue from him, but he felt more like the typical generic evil guy. I always saw him as the mischevious, recurring Team Rocket-type villain who's not too hard to deal with. Making him a full-fledged villain doesn't sit right with me. They give us ALL these characters in one game, and do nothing with them. Of course, that does give me satisfaction in the fact that I can keep my headcanons for them, since they haven't been jossed, but it is kind of disappointing. They gave Maxwell, Lily, and even Doppelganger extended personalities, but all of the potential to develop the numerous other characters is completely ignored. ![]() The thing that bothers me the most, though, is all of the characters that Unlimited introduced- they're completely absent in this game, unless you spawn them. The story doesn't do a good job of explaining it, either. The DC tie-in bothered me from the start it feels kind of tacked on and out-of-place. It's a good game, I can assure you that, but it just doesn't feel right when it comes to Scribblenauts.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |