Scribblenauts: racism or a contrived controversy?

Is Scribblenauts racist? Probably not, but a report on Kotaku and another on Joystiq implies that it is. In the report, Kotaku’s Brian Ashcraft puts the word “sambo” in the game and gets a watermelon. He types slave in and gets a white man in a suit.

5th Cell’s Jeremiah Slaczka says that the term “sambo” refers to something other than the racial epiteth used as an extremely derogatory term years ago to describe African Americans. But as damning as “watermelon” and “sambo” being associated within the game, 5Th cell’s explains that a “sambo” is a alternate term for “fig leaf gourd,” an ingredient in the Ecuadorian dish fanesca. DSambo is the local term for the gourd. He also points out that some of the art from the game is reused for multiple words.

I don’t have a copy of Scribblenauts in front of me to put every filthy and derogatory name in the book in there, but this particular case sounds like it doesn’t warrant a news story at all. And yet, here you are reading. I suppose this is a news story to tell you, that at least for right now, there is no smoke, nor is there a fire here.

Scribblenauts released

Scribblenauts launches today on Nintendo DS and Nintendo DSi. In Scribblenauts, players use the Nintendo DS touch-screen to help Maxwell acquire the Starite in each level by solving a series of puzzles armed with only a stylus, notepad and imagination. Players jot down the word for any object that comes to mind in order to reach the goal. Every object behaves as it would in the real world, and the game contains tens of thousands of words that can be used to solve puzzles.

Ryan Kuo has written an excellent review of the game which gives you all the good and bad of this interesting little game from Warner Interactive Entertainment.

Scribblenauts in September

Scribblenauts fans will be happy to note that Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has revealed the official North American launch date of 5th Cell’s game as Sept. 15, 2009. In the game players use the Nintendo DS touch-screen to help their character Maxwell acquire the Starite in each level by solving a series of puzzles armed with a stylus, notepad and a bit of imagination. The game offers more than 200 puzzle and action-themed challenges, the ability to combine unlimited objects, create completely new situations and create their own interactive experience.

Check out Crispy Gamer’s Scribblenauts Preview to learn more about the game.

Scribblenauts, Uncharted 2 win Best of E3 honors

Scribblenauts, the surprise hit of E3 2009, and Uncharted 2 were the big winners of this year’s Best of E3 2009 Awards. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves won Best of Show, Best Action/Adventure Game and Best console game while the DS game from 5TH Cell won Best Original Game and Best Handheld Game. BioWare and LucasArts’ promising MMO game, Star Wars: The Old Republic, rounded out the platform specific awards, taking home Best PC Game. A full list of winners chosen by the panel of game journalists that made up this year’s Game Critics judging panel, can be found after the break.

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Scribblenauts Announced

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has signed an agreement to acquire, publish and distribute Scribblenauts, a revolutionary original IP for Nintendo DS created by 5TH Cell. Scribblenauts is a sandbox game with two styles of play and more than 200 levels.

In Scribblenauts, the player uses the Nintendo DS touch-screen to help Maxwell acquire the starite in each level by solving a series of puzzles. The player uses the stylus and notepad to write down the word for any object that comes to mind in order to reach the goal. Every object behaves as it would in the real world, and the player can combine objects together to create completely new behaviors. Every level has more than one written object to use as a solution.

The game is set for release this fall. Some visual aids can be found below: