I intend to do a review of Scribblenauts later this week, but before that, I’m going to give some lists of notable items you can create in Scribblenauts. Of course, not all of these items are notable for being useful, but they’re all worth mentioning.

Unexpectedly Useful Items:

• RAMP: In Scribblenauts, there are these annoying buttons that are on the side of a wall. The level can only be passed if the button is continually held down. Ramp solves that problem… just roll a ball down the ramp, it will press the button and stay there.
• AIR VENT: Blow things in any direction you want. Useful for avoiding certain enemies or blowing a starite towards you. Similar objects: LARGE AIR VENT, FAN
• BLACK HOLE: At first I expected that a black hole would destroy absolutely everything, making it useless, but instead, a black hole only works in a localized area, which can be very good for clearing out enemies. As an extra bonus, if you create a LHC – which stands for “large Hadron Collider”, the world’s largest particle accelerator – and interact with it, it creates a black hole. Synonyms: NOTHING, ANYTHING
• HAIR DRYER: This is really quite useful, but not for the obvious reason of being able to blow air (it’s actually not particularly good at that at all). No, hair dryer’s are great because they kill sea creatures. You know how you’re not supposed to drop a hair dryer in the bathtub because it will electrocute you? It works in Scribblenauts… you can get rid of sharks, pirahna, and barracudas quite easily this way. TOASTER also works for this, and as a bonus, if you use a toaster, you can kill sharks and get a loaf of bread at the same time! Other similar objects: BLENDER, WAFFLEMAKER
• WINGS: I went into this game fully expecting that I would make a lot of use out of the JETPACK. It is indeed useful, but I hadn’t considered that there are situations (such as falling into water) when a jetpack will break down. Giving your character wings to fly takes away that problem. Of course, if you don’t need to fly into a small space, it’s a lot cooler to ride a PTERODACTYL, SPACE SHUTTLE, or PEGASUS.
• ICEBERG: If you need a flat surface to reliably float on in an open expanse of water, I’ve found none better than putting in an iceberg.
• CHERRY PICKER: Got a place that’s too high to jump to, but you don’t feel like flying? This may be just the thing for you. It’s a little difficult to use sometimes, though, so you may want to try other things that will lift you, like ESCALATOR or ELEVATOR.
• FISHING ROD: Are you close to the starite, but can’t quite reach? Do you need to get a small object from far away? Fishing rod may just be your best friend. It’s quite useful for much more than just fish.
• CARROT: If an enemy is standing on the edge of a precipice, the easiest way to get him out of your way isn’t to shoot him… it’s luring him with food. I chose “carrot” to represent this, but really, most foods will work just fine.

Unexpectedly Disappointing Items:

• GENIE: He doesn’t give you three wishes. He doesn’t spawn random items to help you. He certainly doesn’t sound like Robin Williams. Nope, he just stands there, and if he dies, IVORY appears. Seriously? Ivory? Not that I’m a genie expert, but that’s kind of random.
• DUCT TAPE: In the real world, many problems can be fixed with duct tape. In Scribblenauts, not so much. It’s just a small strip of tape that works the same as GLUE, and while it’s still kind of useful, you’re not going to be fixing a broken space shuttle with it or anything.
• TORNADO: Not particularly destructive, just annoying. It only pushes things without destroying them (and yes, I’ve even tried putting it on a TRAILER PARK).
• STARITE: It makes perfect sense, but in case you thought you’d cheat on this one, making a starite only creates a toy, without finishing the level.
• BRIDGE: I was pretty disappointed the first time I tried the word “bridge”. Not only is it small, but it’s pretty unstable and almost unusable for crossing large gaps. (Fortunately, I found BRIDGE LADDER fairly early into the game, which was much better).
• LIQUID NITROGEN: Oh, I had such high hopes for this item. I was hoping for a big tank of it with which to freeze things. No such luck. It’s the exact same item as a fire extinguisher.
• ELECTRIC EEL: The electric eel is not a particularly bad item to use. The problem is the fact that it naturally moves so much it’s a real pain to try and pick up and place anywhere in the game. It takes at least 5 times before I can get it with the DS stylus.
• FOLDING CHAIR: Completely useless. If anything touches it, it tips over.

Unexpectedly Funny items:

• DOOHICKEY: It spawns a Swiss Army Knife, which is brilliant, because if anything embodies the spirit of “doohickey”, it’s a Swiss Army Knife.
• CAVE: There are many items that have other items inside them. AMBULANCE has a PATIENT inside, MOLEHILL has a MOLE inside, and CAVE, I was surprised to discover, has a BEAR inside, which promptly attacked and killed me after I found him. Oops!
• LAWYER + AMBULANCE: The lawyer will chase a moving ambulance. I kid you not.
• TRAMPOLINE: The trampoline, by itself, is not that funny. However, choosing pretty much any small animal and putting that on the trampoline? Priceless.
• MONORAIL CAT: If you’re at all familiar with the humor of “lolcats”, you’ll be happy to know that Monorail Cat is there, as well as CEILING CAT, LONGCAT, and PIANO CAT.
• LOL WUT: Found this by accident. Typing it in creates… well, we’ll just let you find out for yourself!