The fourth world in Scribblenauts is entitled “Ancient”. Without spoiling any of the early game (worlds 1-3) for anoyone just starting the game, I’d like to discuss some things about the fourth world. If you’ve not made it all the way through, you may not want to read further for fear of spoilers. But if you’ve already finished “Ancient”, read on. Maybe I’ve found some solutions you haven’t thought of. If you’ve found some that I haven’t tried, feel free to post.

Since the world is all about mythological creatures, I summoned my fair share here: manticore, medusa, even Scylla. But I was a bit disappointed to find that Scribblenauts simply didn’t have certain creatures in its dictionary: Catoblepas, Lamia, and Wolfman don’t exist!

First, let’s look at the puzzle levels. In the interest of not writing a novel here, I’ll only discuss the levels that stood out to me. I’m sure that will be plenty.

4-2: Paint a Portrait

I really liked this level because I thought there was a lot of room to be creative. You can paint on lots of things and paint with lots of things. I’ve used crayons and spray paint amongst other things to complete this level in expert mode. Painting on the actual subject is fun too – he’ll change colors, but doesn’t seem to mind.

4-4: Bull in a China Shop

Another fun level, although getting the bottles in the niche at the left can be very difficult. I’ve had to use grappling hooks and TNT to get at them when I solved this one on expert mode. A boomerang can be very useful in getting the hanging chandoliers. A baseball bat works very nicely for the rest of the stuff.

4-5: Deliver the Baby to the King and Queen

I found this one to be really hard. I tried luring the baby with a pacifier, scaring it with a ghost, and tying a rope to it. Nothing worked. Babies seem to be immovable. I should go back and try using a snowplow. In the end, I used the ghost to scare the king and queen so they ran over to the baby.

4-7: Return the Chariot to the Fort

Getting that damned chariot up the hill took me forever. I should have tied it to a helicopter, but I decided to pull it with a horse. I lured the horse up the hill with hay (I probably used 15 different hay items) but even then the horse wasn’t strong enough. So I tied 4 or 5 balloons to the chariot to lighten the weight. Yeah – I was way over par on this one.

4-9: Lead the Sweethearts back to each other but don’t harm the Witch

The most aggravating thing about this level was the fact that the knight kept jumping into the water-filled trench. Why are all the NPCs in this game suicidal? I first killed the behemoth with a slime. (slimes are so badass) Then I built a suspension bridge and led the knight over the water-filled trench. I trapped the witch behind a wall and moved the suspension bridge over her so that the princess could pass. I lured the princess away with a jewel, and kept moving it every time she got close until I got her close enough to the knight. Viola.

4-10: Destroy the Enemies Before they Hurt the Royal Family

I’m really not a big fan of timed levels, but this one wasn’t so bad. First thing, I built a landmine near the noblewoman so that the minotaur couldn’t get to her. Then I gave myself a rifle and shot the ninja. When the door opened to the rogue, I was able to shoot him too before I ran out of ammo. I can’t remember whether I used a flail or a halberd to beat down the assassin on the bottom level, but when I did the door just opened and the minotaur hit my landmine. Boom. Starite.

4-11: Help the King Get to His Castle

What kind of an insane king rides a goat? I nearly had to build a wall in front of myself on this level to stop myself from running into lava, but I managed. I also discovered that bridges over lava burn if they’re wooden bridges. In the end, I put out the two fires with a raincloud, killed the dragon with a blob, and glued two drawbridges together to get the king across the pit. I then flew up with a pegasus to collect the star. Yeah – I’m not generally concerned about par in this game.

The action levels in Ancient weren’t nearly as interesting, as I expect is the norm in Scribblenauts.

4-2: Survive the Samurai

This one was fun. It was mainly about coming up with different creatures to kill the samurai. I ended up digging under the Oni with a jackhammer and avoiding that door.

4-5: Watch for the falling spikeballs

It’s fairly easy to move those giant spikeballs with a simple magnet. I think I ended up winning this level while standing in lava. Very strange how sometimes it lets you win when dead/dying and sometimes it doesn’t.

4-6: For Massive Damage

Probably my favorite level name. If you’re not in the know, this meme harks back to E3 2006 where Bill Ritch spoke of attacking a giant enemy crab‘s weak point for massive damage. Very much a gaming in-joke nowadays.

Anyway, in this level, you’ve got to get past three samurai. As soon as you get close, the giant enemy crab attacks. This one’s a lot of fun. I already beat this level in advanced mode by doing things like hiding in a helicopter while other creatures beat up the foes, but I’d like to retry again riding a T-Rex or a mech.

4-10: Race the Leprechaun

Originally, this level had me very frustrated. I hate timed levels, and items like rocket skates and fighter jets weren’t getting me to the finish quickly enough. Then I realized that you were allowed to kill the Leprechaun. After that, it was easy. I put a landmine in his path, a demon, and whatever else would stop him.

That’s it for my analysis of World 4: Ancient. I’ll probably do the same for world 5 when I finish.