‘Scribblenauts: Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure’ First Thoughts

The “Scribblenauts” series has always thrived on creativity, but without any cool licenses, your imagination could only travel so far. The inclusion of Nintendo characters in the Wii U and 3DS’ first entry in the series in 2012 added a whole slew of gameplay to the cult series and the newest addition, “Scribblenauts: Unmasked,” adds essentially the entire DC Comics universe. The end result is a game you’ll absolutely eat up if you’re a comic book fan and one that’ll educate you if you’re not.

If you’ve played any prior game in the series, “Scribblenauts: Unmasked” will feel extremely similar. The only difference is the story. Traveling to a plethora of DC Comics hotspots including the Batcave and Metropolis, you’ll quickly become part of an epic story. As cool as this is, it’s not even the game’s coolest quality.

Using Maxwell’s sketch pad was fun before, but with literally thousands of characters and items to create, there’s a myriad of ways to attack every challenge.  While classic characters such as Superman and Batman are in the game, even more cult characters the likes of Swamp Thing, Plastic Man and Jonah Hex are in the game.

Simply put, the best way to play the game is with the official DC comics encyclopedia in hand. Although many Vertigo comics characters, John Constantine being the most noteworthy, not included, the amount of content here is staggerings.

At the same time, like previous games in the series, problem-solving isn’t as straight forward as you’d like and having more tools to create can sometimes create sticky situations. At times you’ll have to almost use a strategy guide. The answers to questions are usually ones you didn’t think of, but naturally make sense.

Regardless of a few blips on the quest front, “Scribblenauts: Unmasked” is a geeks dream come true and a gem to play in a handheld environment.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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