Scribblenauts

Perhaps one of the most entertaining video games you can play right now is Scribblenauts. It's so entertaining that sometimes I steal Albert's iPad during AP Lang just to play it. (Sorry, Mrs. Smith.) The premise is extremely simple: the player is presented with a puzzle and can summon a wide variety of objects in order to solve it. And when I say "wide variety," I mean, "99% of whatever you come up with can be summoned in this game." Would you like to bring in a dinosaur? Type in dinosaur, and you'll get one. Maybe you want a specific dinosaur. Want a stego? Type it in, and you're done. Say you want to be more specific about what the object you want. Later versions of the game allow you to add adjectives for extra amusement.

When I first played a version of the game, I was extremely caught up in seeing what sort of ridiculous things I could make up. Zombie robots. Violent rocks. Cthulhu. I rode on a giant docile dragon wielding a mind control device and fought God. (No offense, Christians.) Then I realized that I hadn't even started the actual game yet. I had already spent tons of time on what turned out to be the start screen.

The puzzles themselves are just fun to play through again and again due to the fact that there are multiple solutions to a problem. For example, one early puzzle instructs the player to summon objects to give to people of varying careers and give them an object that fit into their jobs. For example, a policeman could be give a pair of handcuffs or a gun, while a chef could be given dough or a rolling pin. The sheer flexibility of the game's puzzles makes it very satisfying to play, and recommended for anyone who's interested.