Happy Sunday, everyone!

Every Wednesday, blogging buddy Aaron over at The Confusing Middle posts a “Sunday Scribblings” prompt for other bloggers to ponder and respond to on the following Sunday. If you’re a blogger looking for more inspiration, I highly recommend jumping in and joining in on the fun!

This week’s prompt is: Scribble!

FINALLY! An excuse to talk about the video game Scribblenauts! I’ve been waiting my entire life for this…

Okay, so maybe not my entire life…

I first learned about the game Scribblenauts when I was in high school. While I didn’t play many video games when I was younger (mostly Disney and Nickelodeon games on my GameBoy Color and EyeToy and party games on my Playstation 2), I still had friends who introduced me to some fun games. One of the other girls in my high school homeroom showed a bunch of us the game Scribblenauts on her Nintendo DS and I have never been the same since.

For anyone who doesn’t know, Scribblenauts is a game where you play as a character named Maxwell (he has a rooster-type hat…I’m not sure why) who carries around a magic notebook that enables him to conjure any nouns and adjectives that you write down. Well, almost anything…of course, there is a predetermined repository of words and the game is designed for children, so you can’t conjure anything inappropriate. Like normal teenagers, we had her conjure Santa who appeared with a sack and kept dropping toys everywhere. We then conjured Jesus and Satan and Jesus destroyed Satan. Gotta love high school homeroom.

Since I didn’t have a DS, I didn’t get the opportunity to play Scribblenauts again until college, where I downloaded the app for my phone and conjured this giant George Washington riding a dinosaur skeleton holding a teddy bear. I then posted it on Facebook with the comment: “I have a giant George Washington holding a teddy bear and riding the skeleton of a T-Rex. Your argument is inalid.”

Like you do.

See? I told you…weird rooster hat.

I’ve played on the phone app a bit, but I didn’t love playing on such a tiny screen. Luckily, Dan and I found the game on the Nintendo Switch. Even though it’s a one-player game, we play together by taking turns controlling Maxwell and suggesting odd things to conjure up. In this version, like all other versions (I’d imagine), Maxwell travels to all different lands and uses his magical notebook to help people and creatures who need his help. Sometimes, this simply means adding an adjective onto a pre-existing item or creature, but sometimes it involves conjuring something totally new.

There are plenty of different ways to play Scribblenauts, but here are some tips that I’ve found to be helpful when I play.

Flying Maxwell

There are times in the game where you’ll need to get to something that’s higher up. Sure, you could conjure a ladder or something silly like that, OR you could do something way cooler like FLY!

I start every level off by either adding the adjective “flying” to Maxwell or conjuring wings and putting them on Maxwell. This way, I don’t need to spend time conjuring objects to help Maxwell get higher up every single time I need to. I can just guide Maxwell to move higher and he can fly where I need him to go.

Plus, don’t forget the very obvious other benefit…flying is awesome!

Don’t sleep on the hilarious, neat, helpful adjectives

Don’t get so caught up in conjuring items that you don’t think to add unnecessarily random adjectives to objects and people. Adding adjectives can have funny consequences like adding the adjective “royal” to something and seeing a crown appear on it.

The opposite can happen as well. Sometimes adjectives get added by the game itself when you do certain actions, so make sure you watch for when they change. The results can be pretty hilarious. For example, if Maxwell “uses” a sponge on someone, they get the adjective “clean.” When Maxwell takes something from another person, he becomes “Suspect Maxwell.”

Not only are they amusing and make the game more interesting, but sometimes it’s better to just add an adjective to something than to conjure something totally new. If Maxwell needs to slip through a small area, you can give him the adjective “tiny.” If you’re worried he’ll be destroyed during a challenge, add the adjective “invincible.” If someone is attacking Maxwell, give them the adjective “pacifist” so they stop. Leverage those adjectives whenever you can.

Clowns make everything better

Take every single available opportunity to conjure a clown. Someone bored and in need of entertainment? Clown. Someone down in the dumps and need to smile? Clown. Want to scare the crap out of some kids? Clown.

There are no limits to the uses of clowns. I cannot stress this enough.

Think outside the (magic note)book

If you can’t tell, Scribblenauts encourages finding creative solutions to problems. I love trying to come up with random and unexpected ways to solve the puzzles. For example, on the medieval level, there’s an executioner who is about to hang someone, and you’re challenged with letting the person go free without killing anyone. How can you do that, you may wonder? Maybe you make the executioner blind! Maybe you make the person invisible! Maybe you give them the ability to fly and flying Maxwell can fly with them into the sunset! There are so many neat ways to do it. The only limit is your imagination!

There’s no shame in Googling

Scribblenauts isn’t hard by any means, but a few of the challenges can still be a bit tricky. While the game doesn’t have a huge following, there are still plenty of people who’ve played it and posted about it online. If you can’t figure out how to solve a particular puzzle, odds are that other people have struggled with it, too. Don’t be afraid to look up an answer so that you can move onto other puzzles and conjure more clowns!

Replay it!

One of the awesome things about Scribblenauts is its replay value. After you finish the entire game and wait until you forget all of the challenges and solutions (or, if you’re like me, even if you still remember a lot of the challenges and solutions because you never forget anything), you can always replay it! Since there are several solutions to many of the challenges, you can jump in, strap on that rooster hat, and flex that creative muscle all over again!

If you’ve never played Scribblenauts, I highly recommend it! Since it’s designed for children, it features animation with bright colors, so it’s really nice to look at. But most importantly, it’s a great game for anyone hoping to do a really cool creative exercise and anyone who just wants to conjure a bunch of clowns!