Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure is best described as a well-intentioned series of missed opportunities. It gets off to a promising start, at least. Maxwell and his sister Lily take a break from their usual Starite-collecting spend some time running around in the DC Comics universe. The two siblings bring along superpowers of their own – Maxwell with his notebook and Lily with her teleportation globe – but a mishap with the globe scatters Staritesacross the DC Comics landscape. It turns out that these shiny, smiling star-things are mighty dangerous in the wrong hands. So begins an epic journey through various familiar DC environments, from urban conclaves like Gotham City and Metropolis to the fantastical landscapes of Wonder Woman’s home, Themyscira, and Guardians of the Universe HQ, the planet Oa. Each 2D scrolling space is filled with a randomized assortment of puzzles for you to solve in typical Scribblenauts fashion. There’s also a proper story quest in each location, with yet another Starite to be recovered at the end of it. Head to Gotham City, for example, and you might find that Zsasz needs an escort to the helipad one floor up. You might crack open Maxwell’s notebook and conjure up a rope that you then tie to the supervillain like it’s a leash. Or you could apply an adjective to Zsasz, say to make him “tiny,” allowing you to pick him up and carry him. Starites are still the ultimate goal you’ve got to complete each story mission to get them and fully reassemble Lily’s globe.
They’re much fewer in number in Unmasked than they were in previous games, but there’s also a new currency that you earn as you complete the non-mission puzzles in each environment: Reputation. You spend these points to unlock new locations for Maxwell to visit as well as an assortment of super-suits, all of which can be worn to gain that hero or villain’s powers. There are some solid ideas at play here, but it doesn’t come together. Too often, you find yourself struggling to figure out exactly what sort of puzzle the game is putting in front of you. The text bubbles that are meant to communicate what a given person or persons need help with isn’t always clear. There’s also just the basic fact that action isn’t handled very well fighting is a messy affair, especially when there are big crowds.
You’ll often hit allies by accident and suddenly find yourself running away from everyone. Scribblenauts is always going to be a kids game at its heart, but there was some hope that 5th Cell’s commitment to diving deep into the DC Comics universe – there’s more than 2,000 characters, vehicles, gadgets, and suits that you can create – meant comic book fans could expect a more sophisticated approach to puzzle-solving. The content is certainly there, as evidenced by the 30+ variants apiece of Batman and Superman that you can summon into existence, but the deep well you can draw from fails to have much influence on how you play.
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