Not long ago, I wrote a blog post about the original Nintendo DS game Scribblenauts, since I’d never covered it before on here. That got me thinking, given it had been roughly 20 years since I last played it, about whether I should pick up one of the later games. I figured something had to be available on either the Switch or Switch 2, and sure enough, Scribblenauts Unlimited was part of a two-game bundle on the Nintendo eShop. With its sequel, the whole package was only four bucks, which made this game just $2 for me, a pretty darn good steal.

I don’t remember the story of the DS original very well, but this one clearly does a much better job, with voice acting and whatnot. Turns out Maxwell has a sister named Lily, and they come from a humongous family. Their mommy and daddy definitely did not believe in birth control, and if they ain’t Catholic, they sure are actin’ like it. Maxwell and Lily get into some trouble when an evil magician puts a curse on her, one that can only be broken with Starite pieces, which Maxwell has to earn by completing good deeds. You start out on the family farm working toward that goal.

My first question about the Switch version was how on earth you type in the things you want to create, since that’s the entire hook of the series. On the DS, the stylus and touchscreen made it simple and easy. Here, they came up with a clever system where you tilt the analog stick and press some buttons to get what you need. It was a little cumbersome at first, and the DS stylus and keyboard are definitely way better, but it wasn’t as bad as I pictured. I remember how awful typing was in the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 days, and this is nothing like that, especially since it weeds out any options that couldn’t possibly exist once you’ve entered enough letters.

Just like the original, your imagination is what decides whether you complete the game or flounder. There’s not much true failure, though, you just won’t progress until you figure things out, and there’s plenty you can skip if you get stuck on a task or two. Scribblenauts Unlimited is just as genius as the original, letting you think of practically anything and watch it get drawn up for you. There are a few things it can’t produce, though, either because they’re too obscure, a little too naughty if you get my drift, or copyrighted characters they don’t have the rights to, which covers most of them.

The major missions award one Starite each, which is sometimes easier said than done. I was so out of practice with the series that it took me a while to get my bearings. For example, I completely missed the bar at the bottom telling you what to do, so for my first few missions and mini-missions I had to guess what they even wanted. Thankfully, they’re easy enough to figure out. Some of the missions were really fun, while others were not.

My favorites were the combat-based ones, which is a little ironic considering this isn’t a very combat-focused game. Maxwell does not control like Mario, Sonic, Solid Snake, Master Chief, or anybody else you know. It’s almost turn-based when you’re trying to destroy things coming after you, and you’re rarely in immediate danger anyway. My favorite mission of the whole game was building a zombie defense and coming up with ways to kill the zombies. They really should have given me more chances to do that, because I replayed it a few times and there was definitely room to improve.

To be perfectly honest, though, I was very happy with Scribblenauts Unlimited. I hear it launched at 50 or 60 bucks back in the day, which I think was way too steep, and I would have been more than a little annoyed to pay that much. As I mentioned up top, I paid two dollars, and for $2 this was an absolute steal. At $60, I would have passed. I think the DS original was $40, which is about fair for a brand-new game. I’m taking a little break from Scribblenauts for now, but I do have the other game in the bundle, Scribblenauts Unmasked, which features a bunch of DC superheroes and, I assume, supervillains. When I get the time, I’ll definitely dive into that. I also had a blast playing this with my kids. My son can’t type, so he can’t really play, but I made them laugh with some of the funniest things that happened or that we created.