Trade Paperback Writer: Scribblenauts DC
IGN bring news that the next Scribblenauts game, to be officially announced at E3, will use the DC license. Even without potential legal problems, Scribblenauts has always been somewhat shy of licensed characters due to Max's inability to summon into existence specific people and places, described by proper nouns. The series has previously included Nintendo characters, although only on the developer's own platforms, but otherwise it doesn't share its universe with anyone. How much can a license add to a game where a little imagination can create equivalents of so many characters though? I jumped into Scribblenauts Unlimited to create my own DC universe. The results are below.
I decided to make Batman first but the game doesn't recognise bat as an adjective, which is fair enough. I went with the closest suggestion instead and ended up making this guy.
He's a Bad Man but that doesn't mean he should fight alone. I created a suitable sidekick.
After being punched by the Bad Man repeatedly, I decided to dispose of him with a lit bomb, remembering how much Adam West had been confounded by just such a thing. I wasn't entirely successful.
He took the bomb, lobbed it at me, set me on fire and then left me for dead. I considered this my own infinite crisis and reset the level, diving back into the multiverse and starting from scratch. First things first.
Can't be done. What's the closet thing?
Really Scribblenauts? Really? I think I'll go for an aquamanile instead. Whatever it might be.
That's what it is. When I tip it over, water spills out. OK. It's a statue of an animal with a hole in the top and it's full of water. I should have known. This is quite rubbish. I need something to make it fizz and spark. Here's a psychotic jester.
He just kind of leers at me. I was expecting violence. In order to deal with the (non)threat that the joker poses, I decide it's time for Superman to hit the scene. My first effort - Super Man - is just a really big chap, so I make a flying man as well for good measure.
Killer Croc is the first name to work written as it should be. It's not perfect, but, hey it's an angry crocodile and it attacks giant superman immediately, although he kills it with a couple of blows. The joker dances at the edge of the fight. I think he's aroused.
Oops. The joker has a green lantern now and he seems to be thinking evil thoughts. This could be quite a good storyline. What will he do?
Before he has a chance to discover the powers of the lantern, the joker finds something else that he's more interested in. It's a clay face.
He lobs the clay face at the chap running away on the right there. Despite being completely peaceful when confronted by supermen, the joker is happy to pursue a new arrival in the universe, Mild Mannerly Reporter, who is an odd and cowardly individual. He wears a monocle.
Feline Woman, who is gray and a bit ghostly for some reason, doesn't involve herself in the fight, but the joker is eventually chased away by the Master Freezer, which hops, skips and chomps, eventually devouring him.
A Teen Titan and a Penguin make friends, and that's when I realise that there is, definitively, no need for an actual license. My world is perfect.
And it really is my world.
