i played this when i was a young kid, and i had a blast. to get this out of the way quickly, this is a review based on how i felt about the game back then, not how i feel now - can i recommend this to an adult or teenager (without any nostalgia elements included)? not unless english is your second language and you want to improve it - this game has a wide list of vocab, but it can be still fairly limiting if you write a word which the game doesn't recognise, which is rare if you're a young kid, but not so much if you're older and know more words. the age range i think would enjoy this game would be 4-8yr olds, assuming they're speaking english as their first language!
so, bearing in mind the rest of this review will be assuming it's a younger child playing the game (or ofc someone looking to improve their english as a second language, this looks like it'd be a good game for that!):
does this game hold up? absolutely. gameplay can feel a little clunky at times with the UI being you have to click on something, then click another button, then click another, just to add an adjective, but it's really nothing annoying or noticeable, just something that i feel could have been streamlined a little lol! there's a large list of words, and the game encourages imagination and trying to learn, while having moments that, while are admittedly less funny to me now, were still funny when i was younger!
there's a couple of puzzles in-game which require more specific summons, which i feel mixed about - on one hand, it requires the kid to ask their parents for help, or look it up online, which teaches going out of your way to discover new information! on the other hand..... you shouldn't be forced to look up a guide to a convoluted puzzle in a game clearly made for young kids. it feels like a "haha this is so difficult we're so smart"-type move from the devs, which is.... less great. still, i've learned new things from this lol, so it's not that bad! just a pain haha - most puzzles are INCREDIBLY easy, so dw!!
i... will admit that i felt the fact that placing 2 girlfriends together causes them to fight was.... a little. y'know. sexist. i get it's an older game (13 years old..... oh man i'm elderly /jk), but it still feels iffy. so if that happens while your kids are playing it, then maybe talk to them about that stereotype isn't true! <3 (other than that, the only other thing that can be interpreted as sexist is the fact that there's 42 people in maxwell's family, and only lily is a girl, who then is a damsel in distress the whole game - it doesn't feel purposeful considering the game otherwise treats all genders equally (eg. maxwell's mother being a great adventurer who would always beat her husband-to-be to the treasures, and how nouns like 'doctor' or 'teacher' have a 50/50 chance of spawning a man or a woman), but it's still a poor oversight on the devs' front imo.)
overall, i absolutely do recommend scribblenauts!!!!!! it's a great game for younger kids/non-native speakers looking to improve their writing/reading skills, just not for more experienced speakers (going through the game nowadays feels like a slight chore lollll), and the negatives i listed are pretty minor in the grand scheme of the game. i will say though that i can't recommend scribblenauts unmasked. different game, i know, but i'm not willing to buy it AGAIN just to give a bad game a bad review lol - it... wasn't good, even when i WAS younger. unlimited is much better!!!!! so if you're going to get one of the ones on steam, this is the one to get!!!!! ^w^
