I bought a Nintendo DS Lite on day one, and as you may have read back in 2006, the day one Nintendo DS Lites had an issue with hinges cracking. My own DS has had a cracked hinge since 2006, but tonight it just got a lot worse. After a session of Retro Game challenge, I folded the DS just like I always do, and crrunch. Check this out. Not good.

It looks like Nintendo may repair issues related to cracked hinges for free, so I guess I need to get in touch with them and find out.

I’ll only be looking at the puzzle levels this time. Because they’re awesome.

5-4: Get Her In The Pool

While this level certainly wasn’t easy, it took me a bit. I tried to lure her with taffy, but she didn’t go for it. I tried to lasso her and pull her into the pool, but she was moving too quickly for me to lasso. At last, I pushed her in with a construction crane. I also put an Ice Block on the diving board – beneath her while she was in the air. She seemed to slip off of that and into the pool nicely.

5-5: Rescue!

Here, you’ve got to rescue a beached whale. I managed to shove the whale into the water with a snowplow, pull it into the water with a flotilla, and dig beneath it with a spade until it just fell in.

5-6: Play Ball

Perhaps my favorite level in the game yet. How many things can you throw at this guy? For some reason, the first thing I tried was an eggplant. Beautiful. I also threw a human heart, which quickly netted me a starite. Then I threw a starite at him. That worked too. For some reason, you can’t throw a gerbil or a light bulb, and a grenade kills him before you get a starite. Too bad.

5-8: Win the Race

I’d learned from the leprechaun race that the first thing to do here is stop the other racer. So of course I put up a wall in front of her. Putting a lunar rover in front of her worked too, although I had to put a boulder in front of the lunar rover to stop her from pushing it up the hill. The toughest obstacle in this whole thing is the spiked ball. I had to push it out of the way with various vehicles for the most part, since bombs wouldn’t destroy it and I could only use the magnet to move it once.

That’s all for now. I’m not loving world 6, so perhaps I’ll revisit this topic once I find a world I do love.

Scribblenauts gives most people some truly transcendant moments of emergent gameplay – that’s what makes the game so great. This is the bright side of Scribblenauts – when you first realize that an elephant is afraid of a mouse or that a mirror really will cause medusa to turn to stone. But Scribblenauts also has a dark side, that being the movement controls and poor physics engine. For these reasons, Scribblenauts is one of the most frustrating games I’ve played in a while.

Let’s look at a few examples. On one level, there’s a starite dangling by a rope over a pit of lava, and between you and it is a tripwire that drops the starite into the lava. After many failed attempts to float something on or above the lava, I tied a chain to the starite and tried chaining it to different heavy objects to keep it from falling into the lava: a safe, an armoire… none stopped it. So I figured on trying something that moves. I chained it to a scooter and sat at the wheel, but that didn’t work because I had to get off the scooter to trip the tripwire. I ended up chaining the starite to a tiger and putting a ribeye steak in front of it. When I broke the tripwire, the tiger ran forward to the steak, puling the starite along. Yay! I ran up to get the starite, and Maxwell kicked it into the lava instead of picking it up. Noooooo! After all that! Aargh! The guys over at 4 Player Podcast have a great conversation about these same frustrations.

This is the dark side of Scribblenauts. It can crush your soul when you go through so much to get the Starite and then fail due to stupid movement controls. Ropes and chains are very useful, but angling them properly when attaching them can be an exercise in frustration. More often than not, some part of the chain will end up positioned inside a wall in such a way that you can’t drop them. And you can only move the ends – not the center. If you’ve got the chain attached to something, then you’ll move the whole mess. Detaching the objects can be even harder.

Perhaps one way to minimize the irritation of Scribblenauts physics is to view it as cartoon-like. A handheld magnet can fling a huge steel box as if it were a soccer ball. A fan will propel a mac truck. These things can be useful once you realize what’s happening.

The game is fun – don’t get me wrong. But there’s certainly a lot of frustration.

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.

Welcome back! I’m Vince Clortho coming to you live from the Lungfishopolis Coliseum in beautiful downtown Lungfishopolis. With me here is color commentator Gordon Freeman, whose career as a sports announcer I can only imagine will be coming to an end soon. What? You know I’m telling the truth, Gordon! You haven’t said a word all week! Oh come on, don’t be juvenile. Come back here.

Sorry about that folks. So with today’s big event only minutes away, let’s take a quick look into the colorful histories of each of our competitors.

The Blob is best known for its original attack on the town of Downingtown, Pennsylvania in 1958, although it appeared in many later movies. And… is this really all we have on the blob? One sentence? Not much of a retrospective.

Let’s see.. The Kraken is a member of an ancient race of leviathan-like giant squid that often claim relation to the god Cthulhu. He’s had numerous appearances in popular fiction going back to the 1870 title 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, although the Kraken would like it to be known that the bipedal “titan” that appeared in the 1981 film “Clash of the Titans” was a fraud. This kraken auditioned for the remake of that same film, but was rejected. Following the rejection, the kraken destroyed much of the set, killing six cast members and causing the release of the film to be delayed until 2010.

They tell me now that the competitors are ready. And there are the lights. There they are, folks. The two toughest creatures in Scribblenauts. Yesterday, we watched the kraken pull a dragon limb from limb. And the blob dissolved death himself. Today, they’re out for blood. Wait – do either of them actually have blood? No, I thought the kraken would have like… ichor or something.

Versus

The lights have come up and they’re playing the blob’s theme song as it oozes up the island where the final round will take place. How odd it is to hear the crowd cheering like that for an amorphorous blob. But as small as the blob is compared to the kraken, we’ve not seen anything yet that has truly hurt the blob. The dragon yesterday did a bit of a number on the kraken, but the blob has yet to show any true vulnerability.

And there it is. Someone has shouted “release the kraken!” over the PA, and here it comes. The kraken is obviously close to ten times the size of the blob – a clear weight advantage. But we’ve seen great things out of the Grim Reaper, and he was far smaller than many of his adversaries. Size may be a factor, but it isn’t everything.

And there they go! The kraken is slashing and grabbing away at the blob, but it looks like it’s getting hurt each time a tentacle touches it. The blob has managed to get past the tentacles and is attacking the kraken’s body. It’s not looking good for the kraken.

The kraken has gone limp! I think this may be it. Yes! The blob is the Scribblenauts Smackdown Grand Champion! The blob has won! The officiator has stepped out onto the island to award the blob with a medal.

Oh. That’s awkward. When the officiator put the medal around the blob, it dissolved. And now the blob is eating the officiator. This is not good. It’s moving out towards the audience now. Lots of screaming and running. I’ve got to be going now, so until next time, this is Vince Clortho signing off.

Hello, Scribblenauts fans! Welcome to the Scribblenauts Smackdown Semifinals. I’m Vince Clortho, with you on a beautiful Thursday here at the Lungfishopolis coliseum. The crowd here today is about double what we saw on Monday. With me here today, as always, is color commentator Gordon Freeman.

There is quite a bit of anticipation about today’s matches. The dragon has done surprisingly well this week, but today he’ll be fighting the kraken. And our second match will be between the blob and the Grim Reaper. The winners of these two matches will face off in the finals tomorrow afternoon.

Since we’re in the semifinals and we’ve only got the two matches today, our competitors will each be fighting three rounds. Best two of three wins.

By the increased volume of cheering I’m hearing now, it looks as though the big fight in the center of the coliseum is about to begin. The Kraken has climbed out of the water, and the dragon is flying in. Round one begins!

Vs

The Dragon is trying to play this smart, flying in circles, staying away from those tentacles, and breathing fire. We’ve seen this week just how much that fiery breath can do. But the kraken is one mean customer.

The dragon seems to be biding his time, and staying out of reach of those tentacles. His fire is starting to have an effect on the mighty kraken. Anything to add Gordon? Didn’t think so.

It looks like the kraken is down! It’s retreated to the water to recover for round two.

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…and we’re back to the second round, already in progress. The kraken has dropped back into the water, and the dragon’s fire seems largely ineffective, as the kraken is using the water as a shield. It’s been a while now, and the crowd is beginning to boo at this apparent stalemate.

Oh! The dragon has swooped a bit too close, and the kraken lunged forward and now has a grip on the dragon with its tentacles! It’s dragging the dragon underwater. This round may be over. Yes, it looks as though the dragon has been drowned. We’ll need a third round to break the tie.

While we’re waiting for the third round to begin, let’s check out today’s other event. The competitors seem ready. Both the blob and the Grim Reaper are in position, awaiting the results of the first match.

Versus

Those two certainly look anxious and ready to go. No, Gordon, I’m not sure how either of those faces would show anxiety, I’m just trying to do your job for you and add some color. Oh, put down that crowbar, you know you’re not gonna do anything. Twit.

Okay, we’re now ready for the tiebreaker between the kraken and the dragon. The judges have ruled that the dragon has too much of an advantage in the air, and that the kraken has too much of an advantage in the water, so this round will be fought on land.

They’re rushing towards each other now. Jeebus, this is brutal! The kraken is bleeding profusely from bites, and the dragon seems to already have a broken arm… er… paw? And the kraken is constricting it. Was that the sound of ribs cracking? Oh, it seems it was. This battle is over! The kraken wins! The kraken has defeated the dragon in a tiebreaker. What a show!

And now it’s time for our second and final match of the day, to see who gets to face the kraken in tomorrow’s finals. Will it be the blob? Or will it be the grim reaper?

Whoa. Those two have been waiting quite some time for the previous fight to finish, and they were raring to go. Now they’re fighting in earnest. Yes, I suppose it’s no surprise that the scythe does little to the blob. Oh, it’s really not looking good for the grim reaper. Nope. That was certainly over quickly.

Wow, Gordon. There are still two rounds to go, but with a match like that it’s hard to imagine any other outcome. The audience is already starting to leave, to beat the traffic. I suppose it’s time for us to sign off as well. Who will come out on top? Will it be the blob or the kraken? Tune in tomorrow for the big final match.

Welcome back to the Scribblenauts Smackdown! It’s a big day today. We’ll be seeing the return of competitors from the first round. Favorites like the dragon and the kraken.

I’m Vince Clortho, and I’m here again with color commentator Gordon Freeman to bring you the big second round of the Scribblenauts Smackdown. Our first match is going to be between the Blob and the Ogre. The blob had an easy first round, as bullets didn’t do much of anything to it, but after seeing the ogre in action, I’d say that this one could go either way. Anything to offer, Gordon?

Versus

Okay, there they go! The ogre’s punches are certainly moving the blob around quite a bit, but the blob is not backing off. The ogre’s skin is already beginning to melt. Oh – things are not looking good for the ogre. Yes, I’m going to have to call this one. Most of the ogre’s left leg is gone now. I can’t see him winning. Our next match is going to pit the Dragon against Charybdis. Frankly, I can’t stand looking at dissolving ogre any more, so let’s move on. That ogre is toast.

Versus

Let’s see how these two match up as they enter the combat area. The dragon’s got firey breath and can fly, but Charybdis has three heads, each with some very sharp teeth. The dragon is flying in now, and breathing fire on Charybdis. Charybdis is biting back. Ugh! Gorefest! It’s all teeth and blood as the two roll around on top of each other.

My god. It’s hard to even see what’s happening. Can you tell anything Gordon? Wait – it’s looking like the dragon is coming out on top. He’s broken one of Charybdis’s necks and burnt one of her heads to char. Yes, indeed. The dragon wins, but he’s not looking too good right now. Let’s just hope he heals up okay for tomorrow’s match, when he’ll have to fight again.

Our next match sees the return of a fan favorite: the Wizard. In the first round, he disintegrated the behemoth with a single shot from his wand. This time, he faces the Grim Reaper.

Versus

So which will win out? We’ll find out in moments, as mortal magic is pitted against the reaper of souls. The two seem to be ready. The Grim Reaper is moving towards the wizard, and the wizard is casting his spell. There it goes! It strikes the Grim Reaper… no effect! The death spell doesn’t seem to affect the bringer of death! The wizard casts it again, but… OH! Cleanly decapitated by the reaper’s scythe. Well, I’ll take that over being slowly dissolved by the blob, I guess.

Our final match of the day sees the return of The Kraken. He’ll be fighting the Superhero today. And although the superhero made quick work of the elemental in round one, I can’t imagine him doing very well against The Kraken.

Versus

The Kraken is in position, and the superhero is hovering nearby waiting for the bell to ring. Aand… there it is! The superhero is flying down and… oh! Grabbed by the Kraken’s many tentacles. I can’t even see him anymore! He’s… eww. Did you see that, Gordon? That’s a lot of blood. I don’t think the superhero is going to make it.

So… that’s it for round two! We’ve got four finalists now. The Blob, the Dragon, the Grim Reaper, and the Kraken. Join Gordon and I tomorrow at noon for the semifinal round. There can be only one!

Hello once again, I’m Vince Clortho coming to you from the Lungfishopolis Coliseum for the second half of round one in the Scribblenauts Smackdown. Here with me is color commentator Gordon Freeman. We’ve got some fantastic matches lined up for today. Any favorites, Gordon?

…okay, Gordon. Don’t look at me like that. So I’ve got to say, personally, I’m expecting to see some great things out of the Giant Enemy Crab. But our first match is between a Wizard and the legendary Behemoth.

Versus

I don’t know much about this wizard, so it’s very hard to say what he might have up his sleeves. But both competitors are taking positions inside the center ring, annd… there they go! The behemoth is rushing toward the wizard, and the wizard is casting some kind of spell. He’s shot some kind of energy at the behemoth. Ohh! And the behemoth is down! The behemoth is down! That was one quick fight, Gordon!

This wizard is one tough customer! But as he’s leaving the ring, the Grim Reaper is already moving into place for the next fight.

Versus

That’s right, folks. Old Grim will be fighting the Giant Enemy Crab. I know he’s death himself, but I don’t give him odds against that crab. And there they go! The grim reaper is swinging his scythe, but the crab is bringing its giant claws to bear. Once it’s able to… Oh no! Ugh! The grim reaper seems to have attacked the giant enemy crab’s weak point! For massive damage! And the crab is down!

Sweet grandmother’s spatula, Gordon! Today is not my day. Seems like I just can’t call ’em. No difference, because this next one seems too close to call.

Versus

In this match, the Japanese demon known as the Oni will be facing off against an Ogre. Two mythological creatures from different cultures, both of them pretty tough customers. The ogre has an edge in height, but that Oni has some pretty sharp claws.

There they go! The oni has taken a vicious slash at the ogre’s knees, but the ogre is delivering some vicious left-right punches. Ugh – I can’t imagine that the oni can take much of this. It’s stumbling… and the oni is down! The oni is… ugh! I can’t imagine that that was necessary. The ogre just stamped on the downed oni’s head. What a mess. It’s a good thing this ring won’t be needed until tomorrow’s matches.

And now we move on to the final match. I hear they’ve got a Space Invader for this one – I’m anxious to see how it does.

Versus

The Blob will be facing off against… is that a space invader, Gordon? Doesn’t look much like the Atari 2600 version I’d expected. What that? Uh huh. Oh. I’m being informed that we’ve gotten just a plain old Invader, not the space kind. I wonder how he’ll do against the blob. He’s got a gun, but… I can’t see bullets doing very much against the green flesh-eating mass of primordial ooze. The final match of the day may be a bit anti-clamactic.

And there they go! The invader is shooting at the blob, but the blob hardly seems to notice. It’s eating away at the invader’s legs. Yep, this fight is over. The invader didn’t stand a chance.

That’s it for the first round of the Scribblenauts smackdown. Tomorrow, the eight remaining competitors will face off to see which eight will enter Thursday’s semi-finals. Join us then. I’m Vince Clortho with Gordon Freeman. We’ll see you tomorrow right here in Lungfishopolis Coliseum for round two of the Scribblenauts Smackdown.