History Videogame / Scribblenauts

* VagueHitPoints: In the original game, Maxwell, enemy characters, and objects all lack any indicators of health, making it unclear just how much damage any of them can take before they're killed/destroyed. This is changed in later games, where everything has a four-dot health bar that appears when they're hurt, allowing the player to know their status and how quickly certain items can destroy other objects.

** Franchise/WonderWoman's origin level mentions her classic origin of being brought to life after her mother sculpted her from clay, but also mentions that her father is Zeus, which was an element from her reworked origin in The Comicbook/{{New 52}}.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Has 2000 characters from the DC Universe, some of which being obscure characters that only appeared a handful of times. Specific examples are the 100+ ''Franchise/GreenLantern'' mythos characters, [[Franchise/{{Batman}} Bat Family]], the ComicBook/{{Legion of Super-Heroes}}, Franchise/{{Superman}}, as well as their respective [[RoguesGallery Rogues Galleries]]. In fact, there's achievements for summoning alternate copies of the Justice League and 150 Green Lanterns.

* BigBoosHaunt: Grave Manor.

* BubblegloopSwamp: Bullet Point Bayou.
* BubblyClouds: The Storybook Keep.
* BuildLikeAnEgyptian: Tomb of Onomatopoeia.

* TheLostWoods: The Metaforest.
* MedievalEuropeanFantasy: Sir Guillemet's Castle.

** "Literature/{{Twilight}}" is a possible word (despite no other time of day being accepted), and it summons a black hole.]]

* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: Goofy mashup creatures either exist naturally in the games (such as robot zombies, hamsters, and dinosaurs, or ninja sharks) or via applying adjectives and clothing to create whatever combination you desire, including a Piratic Zombified Robotic Ninja]].

* OxymoronicBeing: You can make things like a diant wwarf. In ''Unlimited'' you can also make a dry puddle, which upon summoning comes with the adjective "Paradoxical".

* RageAgainstTheHeavens: Normally, atheists run away from God, but giving them a gun causes them to go hostile. In the sequel, an aestheist can cause God to die by just touching him.

** The game freezes when you try to access the 30 buyable levels that were DummiedOut.

* DummiedOut: There's an unused, unfinished stadium level that was also used by the developers as a test level. It can be briefly seen on the PC version by using the "--autoloader" command line parameter. If you want to actually play in it, however, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iatBzHL6C8 memory hacking]] is needed.

* VideoGameSettings: Averted at the beginning when the only locations accessable are buildings within the city. You later, however, gain access to [[TheLostWoods a forest]], [[JungleJapes jungle]], [[ShiftingSandLand desert]], [[SlippySlideyIceWorld tundra]], [[LethalLavaLand volcano]], and several other more "traditional" video game environments.

* PsychoPoodle: In Metropolis, you come across a feral poodle. It will attack you if you get close, though it states that [[ReluctantMonster it doesn't WANT to be feral]], and your mission is to make it nice.

* StarterVillain: Floyd Lawton/Deadshot is the very first villain faced in the game. He tries to ambush and kill Batman, and part of the game's tutorial involves helping Batman fight back.

* DummiedOut:
** The original game's manual mentioned you could buy 30 extra levels from the ollars store. The levels were never implemented, and instead of just removing the section where you're supposed to buy them, the button to get to it was made invisible. Trying to access it makes the game freeze.
** There's a number of items in ''Unlimited'' that can only be accessed by using a glitch that exploits the object editor, some of which imply this. Among the more interesting ones are two rays, one which switches the gender of whoever is shot and one that turns whoever is shot into a random "monster" out of a rather large list.

* PressXToDie: Adding the adjective "dead" to Maxwell, i.e. yourself, or becoming "exploding" and then interacting with yourself. And unlike [=NPCs=], being "reincarnating" won't help you.

* AppliedPhlebotinum: Whatever Potion
* {{BFG}} / {{BFS}}: Yes, you can literally summon a "big" "flaming" sword, gun, or anything else.
* BoringButPractical: The "immovable" adjective makes objects, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin impossible to move]] by any means, including gravity.
* CartoonCheese: Try making something "CHEESY."

* CensorBox: The "Birthday Suit" is a nude body costume with one of these.
* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: Among other things, you can create, say, Winged Wings, or Burning Fire, or a Lycanthropic Werewolf, or a Zombie Zombie, or a Giant Giant, or a Robot Robot. Some of these are visibly different from the normal: Winged Wings are wings wearing wings, for example, and a King King wears a crown... on top of his crown.
* DirtyCommunists: "Communist" is an adjective.

* FearlessFool: Giving a creature the adjective Brave will cause him / her / it to fight back anyone that harms him, [[strike:even]] especially if they don't stand a change of beating it. (ex. Brave Man vs Evil Dragon)
* FissionMailed: In the sequel's last level. [[spoiler: It says "Try again: The starite was destroyed." with the only button saying "No way".]]
* GameBreakingBug: A bug sometimes occurs, in which Maxwell randomly ascends to the skies and never comes down. This renders the sandbox mode (arguably [[SidetrackedByTheGoldenSaucer the best part of the game]]) unplayable.
* GayOption: In one of the levels, Maxwell has to buy presents for each of his parents and his girlfriend, based on the objects they have in their rooms. [[LesYay And if you switch to a female avatar...]]
* GRatedSex: Try summoning "Pregnant Potion".
** Also, try adding the adjective "Fertile" to someone and then summoning another living object of the same species.

* HighClassGlass: Try applying the adjectives "dapper" or "gentlemanly" to things.
* ILoveNuclearPower: Handle the "Nuclear" adjective with extreme care.
* LogicBomb: Averted, typing in contradicting adjectives such as "Blue Yellow Apple" will result in the game ignoring all contradicting adjectives apart from the last one.
** There is an exception that's probably a glitch. Typing "wingless wings" summons nothing and fills up the meter a little. You can't delete it since you didn't really summon anything.

* NostalgiaLevel: [[spoiler: The first level from the original game appears as an EasterEgg - very occasionally, the time machine, instead of taking you where you asked to go, will take you to said level. Maxwell from the past and the starite appear as well, and collecting said Starite is required for OneHundredPercentCompletion.]]
* OffToSeeTheWizard: Level 7-3, except ''you'' are the Wizard.
* OurMonstersAreDifferent: Among many other possibilities, you can add (and remove) wings to any creature or monster with the "winged" and "wingless" adjectives. (CueTheFlyingPigs?)
* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: The "Lycanthropic" adjective will add "shaggy" brown fur and "fangs" to ''any'' object exposed to the light of a "full moon".

* StoneWall: The cockroaches. They have a lot of health, but they don't fight back. Even if you gave them adjectives such as "brave" or "fearless" so they won't run away from their attackers, they aren't that strong.
* StuffBlowingUp: What you get from anything with the "exploding" adjective.

* TyopOnTheCover: On the WB Games logo screen before the main menu shows up, it reads "Copyright © 1007-2012".

* BookEnds: The first and last thing you create is a doctor. The first one is to heal Lily, the last is to heal [[spoiler: Doppleganger]].

** Doppleganger and Sinestro briefly ally with Maxwell and Hal Jordan to defeat Larfleeze.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: During the intro, the paper that Maxwell wrote 'Gotham City' on it has a D on the other side. [[spoiler: Say, doesn't "Doppleganger" start with a D?]]

* WorfHadTheFlu: Despite the fact that his powers [[spoiler:are exactly the same as your own, Doppleganger at best makes a token effort to stop you in each level. Once you reach Themyscira, he explains that he is limited to the single page of notebook Maxwell used to kickstart the plot, hence he has to conserve his summons lest he run out of room to write]].

A sequel, ''Super Scribblenauts'', released in 2010 on the DS. The dictionary now includes adjectives to modify objects (meaning you can create a ''literal'' NinjaPirateZombieRobot), new levels (there are fewer this time around, but they're longer and more puzzle-based), and a whole lot of improvements to the controls, camera, and physics engine.

%%* AuthorAvatar: Use the teleporter to see 5th Cell at their studio (and steal their car). Shortly after, Liz (a zombie dev team member) jumps from the second floor and kills everyone else (assuming you didn't kill them first). Also, type "5th Cell" for their logo.
%%** Also, [[spoiler:"Edison" the dinosaur (Edy in the sequel) (a tyrannosaurus with a headband)]] is one for game artist Edison Yan.
%%** Almost any name you see in the credits that has an associated character can be summoned. ''Unlimited'' shows you them in the credits and requires you to summon one for a Starite Shard (1/10 of a Starite).

%%* BlindIdiotTranslation: The Portuguese pause menu, for example, looks like this: Continue, ''Try to Quit'' and Quit.
%%** The French translation is so bad it deserves mention. Oh, the menus are perfectly fine, but they managed to make the whole game unplayable.
%%*** Some simple words don't give any results : try typing “meat" ("viande"), nope, never heard of that.
%%*** Pretty much all words give you 2 or 3 possibilities, either all so similar they're impossible to distinguish, or completely unrelated to what you typed. And the disambiguation hints don't help a single bit.
%%*** Type "cow" ("vache"), you get "cow (human)", "cow (mammal)" => the first one is a cop, it's apparently old slang nobody's heard of.
%%*** Type "rock" ("pierre"), you get "rock (stone)", "rock (nature)", “rock (environment)" => the first one is some unidentified U-shaped object, the second one is a big rock and the third one is a small rock.
%%*** Type "wall" ("mur"), you get "wall (contruction)" and "wall (construction)".... => The second one is a wall, but the first one is some sort of safety barrier.
%%*** The list could go on and on as virtually every word is a problem. Thanks for ruining the game.
%%*** Inverted with the Spanish translation: The Spanish translation is OK, but the dictionary is from the European Spanish dialect, NOT the Latin American ones. Justified, because due to the fact there's many Spanish-speaking countries, using a Latin American dictionary along the European one would be impossible to implement in the game, but if you don't know the European Spanish versions of some words, you're screwed.
%%** Type in anything (well, almost) it a different language, and go to a different language, the translation is extremely different. (For example, typing chat with french, changing to english and coming back, viewing its name will give you "button front.")
%%** In the Italian version of ''Unlimited'', many sidequests are impossible to do because many items are impossible to summon (for example, typing "rubber duck" gives you a living red bouncing duck rather than a regular rubber ducky). A particular case is the quest that asks you to summon a sunburnt zebra: "Zebra ustionata" and "Zebra abbronzata" are not recognized, so you have to quit the game, change the language into English, summon it, exit the game again, get the language back to Italian and discovering that the correct answer was "Zebra larvivora" ("''Larvae-eating'' zebra")

* CompilationRerelease: The ''Mega Pack'', released in 2018, features ports of ''Unlimited'' and ''Unmasked'' in one package, plus new levels and features.

%%* FantasyKitchenSink

%%* MalevolentArchitecture

%%* MasterOfDisguise: Maxwell seems to be one of these, judging how ''Super Scribblenauts'' contains a merit called "Maxwell In Disguise" for using an avatar.
%%* MemeticMutation: There are several silly Internet memes included InUniverse as Easter eggs, including:[[invoked]]
%%** The aforementioned WebOriginal/LOLCats
%%** LOLWUT (spawns a big head for any human being to wear, which is also edible)
%%** AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs (summons a base with a cyborg on the main screen)
%%** FTW ("For The Win"; gives you a fake Starite)
%%** JustForFun/{{Rickroll}} (summons a regular "man"... who dances and goes "poof" not long after)
%%** A [=ROFLcopter=] (summons a white helicopter)
%%** Lollerskates (summons rollerskates)
%%** [[WebAnimation/WeeblAndBob Badgers will dance when placed near mushrooms, and are afraid of snakes.]]
%%** LeeroyJenkins (synonymous with "knight")
%%** [[Manga/{{Bleach}} Loituma]] [[Music/{{Vocaloid}} Girl]] (summons an {{animesque}} girl spinning a leek)
%%** [[ImageMacros ORLY, YARLY, and NOWAI]] (synonymous with "owl")
%%** [[Manga/DragonBall Over Nine Thousand]] (summons the "scouter" Vegeta wore)
%%** GiantEnemyCrab ([[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Go ahead, guess]]).
%%** [[VideoGame/MarioIsMissing Weegee]] (synonymous with "plumber")
%%** OM NOM NOM NOM ([[http://media.ebaumsworld.com/picture/lilsht/OmNomNomNom.jpg This picture]], without the cars.)
%%** Philosoraptor (summons a slow moving velociraptor wearing a monocle)
%%** INVISIBLE BIKE (Summons [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin exactly what you think it summons.]] It's not all invisible, though; the handlebars are still visible, so you can interact with it.)
%%** I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE (Summons a shifty-eyed boy)
%%** [[YourMom Yo Mama]] (Summons a zombie)
%%*** Also, [[WebOriginal/LOLCats a walrus will defend any bucket in sight.]]
%%*** And the game's gotten its own mutation: [[http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=16184727&postcount=217 a guy called "Feep" posted his experience with the game]] on [=NeoGAF=] (post #217 in their Scribblenauts thread), which has been [[http://www.britishgaming.co.uk/2009/06/scribblenauts_e3/ passed around]] the web a bit.
%%*** The ESRB rating summary, which says that a player could [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential theoretically]] "[[BlackComedy attach steaks to babies to attract a lion]]," has also gained a small following.
%%** Even Anonymous is in this game. Why do I think the developers spend time on 4chan?
%%*** Spawn a girl next to Anonymous, and she runs away screaming. Sounds about right.
%%** Spawn a pirate next to a ninja [[PiratesVersusNinjas and they instantly attack each other]].
%%*** The [[spoiler: pirate]] wins. [[BigNo NOOOOO!]]
%%*** [[spoiler: Unless you give the Ninja a Sword instead of the Throwing Star it is naturally summoned with. Then the Ninja usually wins.]]
%%** On the steam version, spawn a VideoGame/{{portal}}, and after a while, a cake appears.
%%** "two four one five four three nine zero three" (241543903) spawns a freezer with the aformentioned LOLWUT inside, frozen.
%%** Unfortunately, [[ScrewedByTheLawyers this got the devs into a bit of trouble]], as they included NyanCat and KeyboardCat in ''Unlimited'' without realizing that both were trademarked, and owned by people willing to go to court to defend said trademarks. Oops. As a result, ''all'' memes (except Invisible Bike, and {{InJoke}}s like Post 217) were removed from ''Unmasked''.

%%* MoralGuardians: Despite their desire to include ''everything'', the devs decided that alcoholic beverages and vulgar things would have to be left out. So if your first action upon opening up any text input/creation tool in any game is to input the word "ass", you'll get a donkey. Same thing also goes with stuff that's technically under copyright as well as a few other words that do have a non-vulgar alternative, like "dick" for a detective, "cock" for a chicken and "skeet" for a disk.

%%* PotHole: The programmers had a little fun assigning words as synonyms. For example, inputting "Science" will produce a Large Hadron Collider.

%%* SelfImposedChallenge: "Stump the Dictionary" was popular when the game was being demonstrated at E3. Some gamers have also sworn to complete the game with specific-item runs (like beating every level with a dinosaur, or stuff like that).
%%** In addition, PacifistRun, NoCasualtiesRun, SoloCharacterRun.

* VideoGameCaringPotential: Unlimited. Also the 'pet' button in every game.
%%* VideogameCrueltyPotential: As suggested by the devs themselves: "Make an elephant, make a pool, drop the elephant in the pool, make a shark..." And watch the fun begin!
%%** You can put a baby into an oven.
%%** To quote the ESRB's justification for the E10+ rating: "a club can be used to hit an animal; steak can be attached to a baby to attract lions; rockets can be lobbed at a man".
%%** Please, please [[AnimalJingoism don't put any kind of cat and dog together.]]
%%*** Unless it's Super Scribblenauts and it's a "peaceful dog."
%%*** Or the dog is ticklish and you glue a feather to the cat. The dog will alternate between aggression and fear. That could be considered cruelty of a different variety, though.
%%** You can have a dingo eat a baby.
%%** An early level in World 2 has a few trick or treaters visiting you on Halloween. You can give them candy, or you can give them [[HilarityEnsues something very dangerous to their health]]. Either works.
%%*** Or you can just throw a rock or shoot at them. You can even beat it with no items by throwing a pre-spawned jack o' lantern at the kids.
%%** You can make something simultaneously pregnant and cannibalistic. No points for guessing what happens next.
%%** In one level, the goal is to reunite a little girl and her cat that is stuck on top of a roof. [[PlayingWithFire Setting the house on fire works quite well.]]
%%** Try gluing a switch to a character's head and [[ElectricTorture turning it on.]]

A third sequel, ''Scribblenauts Unmasked'', was released in 2013, and was a crossover with Creator/DCComics. It even has a [[ComicBook/ScribblenautsUnmasked comic book series based on it]]. Plans for another game titled ''Scribblenauts: Fighting Words'' were scrapped in 2016 after a major layoff at 5th Cell.

In 2018, a spinoff titled ''Scribblenauts Showdown'' was released on UsefulNotes/XboxOne, UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 and UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, and was not developed by 5th Cell. It is a multiplayer-centric party game, with over 25 minigames based on the players outdoing each other's efforts to find the best word or object to fit a given task.

* CoolVersusAwesome: You can set up fights to the death between any powerful creatures, such as God versus Cthulu.
%%* CreativeClosingCredits

* CementShoes: In the "Capital City Runoff" stage, you'll find Maxwell's brother [[BlackSheep Tempo]] in this predicament. Freeing him is one of the tasks to beat the stage.

* LethalLavaLand: The Vowelcano.

%%* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: While not every DC Comics character made it into the game, the characters that DID make it are rather shocking, considering that the Scribblenauts games are mainly targeted towards children. The game's available characters include violent sociopaths such as Mr. Zsasz and Professor Pyg as well as characters with very dark backstories such as [[Characters/GLRedLanternCorps Red Lantern Corps]] member Bleez.

* SmallTaxonomyPools: Any animals who bear a superficial resemblance to each other are treated as the same species by the game. Examples include (but are not limited to) earthworm and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caecilian caecilian]], mouse and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pika pika]], and ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursTrueDinosaurs Velociraptor]]'' and ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifePrimitiveSaurischians Herrerasaurus]]''

* TakenForGranite: Medusa's stare turns things to stone, as do several other things. ''Unlimited's'' plot involves trying to rescue Lily from a curse that is slowly turning her to stone.
* TakeThat: "Virgin" maps to "gamer". Also, "scientist", "astronomer", "nerd" and "dork" are all represented by the same character.
** Also, an IndyEscape level has the hint, "The fourth one is bad." (Pay note to said trope's name.)
** "Day" is not in the game. Neither is "Night." Nor "Afternoon," or "Dawn," or "Dusk," or "Sunset," or any other time of day (since they're immaterial, after all)... but "Literature/{{Twilight}}" is. [[spoiler: It summons a black hole.]]
* {{Teleportation}}: You can summon them, and they take you to a variety of places such as outer space or [[DevelopersRoom 5th Cell's office]].
* TheTetrisEffect: After playing ''Scribblenauts'', you'll find yourself coming up with ludicrous ways to solve problems in real life, even if you can't actually do that. Like thinking "I wish I could call Einstein to beat that stupid physics teacher up..." or "I wish I could go home riding a ''Velociraptor''…". Possibilities are endless.
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: Need to knock down bottles? [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uh65m-3o1co SUMMON A BATTLESHIP!!!]]
* ThreateningShark: All sharks in the game, regardless of their real life behaviour, are very aggressive, including the filter-feeding [[GentleGiant whale sharks and basking sharks]].

* TooDumbToLive: A good deal of summoned human characters tend to chow down on any can of arsenic they see.
** You can cure them, however, with "dimercaptosuccinic acid". Just like in real life. And Ruby Quest.
* TotalPartyKill: Try typing in "atom bomb" or "tsunami". Or drop a meteor from high up.
** Or type in "[[spoiler:[[YouCanPanicNow Large Hadron Collider]]]]".
** Oh, and another name for [[spoiler:Large Hadron Collider]] is [[spoiler:SCIENCE]].
* TryEverything: This is where the fun comes from.
* UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny: This is possibly the only game where you will ever have George Washington fight Cthulhu. Or God fight Leeroy Jenkins. Or Satan fight Bigfoot. Or...

* UnexpectedGameplayChange: [[spoiler:Level 10-5 (the final normal level) of Super Scribblenauts. Also, try writing "arcade machine."]]
* UniversalDriversLicense: Maxwell. In addition to "mundane" vehicles like cars, pogo sticks, and boats, Maxwell can also drive tanks, helicopters, and ride dragons, unicorns...
** In the sequel, the "rideable" adjective takes this to its LogicalExtreme.
* {{Unobtainium}}: Easily obtained, in your choice of Adamantium or [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Mythril]]. Both are pretty much indestructible.
** Even better? In the sequel, ''Adamantium is an adjective''.
** In ''Unlimited'', you can actually summon unobtanium.
* UnwinnableByDesign: DoubleSubverted: While the [[spoiler:last Action level]] was ''designed'' to be {{Unwinnable}} if attempted [[spoiler:the hard way]], it's still possible to flip every switch and press every button through the clever use of glue, anvils and shrink rays. However, neither the switches nor the buttons actually work.
* VagueAge: Maxwell.

* VideogameCrueltyPotential: As suggested by the devs themselves: "Make an elephant, make a pool, drop the elephant in the pool, make a shark..." And watch the fun begin!
** You can put a baby into an oven.
** To quote the ESRB's justification for the E10+ rating: "a club can be used to hit an animal; steak can be attached to a baby to attract lions; rockets can be lobbed at a man".
** Please, please [[AnimalJingoism don't put any kind of cat and dog together.]]
*** Unless it's Super Scribblenauts and it's a "peaceful dog."
*** Or the dog is ticklish and you glue a feather to the cat. The dog will alternate between aggression and fear. That could be considered cruelty of a different variety, though.
** You can have a dingo eat a baby.
** An early level in World 2 has a few trick or treaters visiting you on Halloween. You can give them candy, or you can give them [[HilarityEnsues something very dangerous to their health]]. Either works.
*** Or you can just throw a rock or shoot at them. You can even beat it with no items by throwing a pre-spawned jack o' lantern at the kids.
** You can make something simultaneously pregnant and cannibalistic. No points for guessing what happens next.
** In one level, the goal is to reunite a little girl and her cat that is stuck on top of a roof. [[PlayingWithFire Setting the house on fire works quite well.]]
** Try gluing a switch to a character's head and [[ElectricTorture turning it on.]]
* TheVirus: Zombies, Vampires, and Werewolves are all infectious. However, vampirism is the only one that can create a proper apocalypse. The A.I. on zombies is bugged so that they will continue fighting each other to the death even after being turned, so you'll usually only end up with only 1 active zombie at any given time. People infected by werewolves only turn hostile if exposed to a full moon.
* WeaksauceWeakness: Part of the CombinatorialExplosion: Dracula runs from Garlic (or Garlic Bread), {{Bigfoot|SasquatchAndYeti}} runs from Cameras, and atheists run from {{God}} unless those atheists have a shotgun. In the sequel, it's atheist that's God's weakness.
* WesternTerrorists: What you summon when you type in "Terrorist," "[[BombThrowingAnarchists Anarchist]]," "Arsonist," or "Madman."
* WideOpenSandbox: While it's technically a puzzle-platformer, ''Scribblenauts''' central conceit is going to make it hard to resist playing it like one of these. To that end, the dev team has thoughtfully designed the start screen to be sort of a "sandbox mode", so you can have hours of fun without even loading your save file!
** In ''Unmasked'', the Bat Cave serves this purpose, and after completing the missions there, the Watch Tower and [[spoiler:Brainiacs ship]] become these as well.
* WithThisHerring: Completely and utterly avoided. There's no such thing as "low-level equipment" when you've got ''everything'', after all.[[labelnote:*]]It is unlikely that you have the capability to [[Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail cut down a tree]] WithThisHerring, but then again, see [[DevelopersForesight all the]] [[ShoutOut Shout-Outs]] [[DevelopersForesight above]]...[[spoiler:For the record, you can't.]][[/labelnote]] [[labelnote:*]]Unless, that is, you use a long, deadly fish in the sequel...[[/labelnote]]
* WholesomeCrossdresser: Maxwell isn't shy about wearing women's clothing. Or babies' clothing. Or... anyone's clothing, really.

* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: You're going to kill him with a ninja riding a dinosaur and wielding a rocket launcher? [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim Why don't ya just suck him into a black hole?]] (Answer: [[RuleOfFun because it's more fun that way]].)
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: The 'clone' will not become infected by a zombie.
* WorldOfPun: All of the locations in ''Unlimited'' are either writing puns or [[{{Tuckerization}} named after the developers.]] Examples include Capital City, Payper N. Penitentiary, the Exclamation Point (a mountain), etc.

* {{Yandere}}: Summon a "girlfriend" or "[[AllGuysWantCheerleaders cheerleader]]". Then summon a "psycho" or "stalker". Notice the similarities, yet ''notice [[KnifeNut the difference]]''.
** In ''Super Scribblenauts'', "Girlfriend" will try to kill another Girlfriend on sight...even if they were born using the pregnant adjective.
* YouCantGetYeFlask: Inverted. A lot of people spend time trying to guess something the game ''doesn't'' have.
** Sort of played straight in Super Scribblenauts which had a lot more guessing games and sometimes didn't accept reasonable answers.
* YourMom: Note that just "Mom" summons a normal woman whereas "'''Your''' Mom" summons [[spoiler:a zombie]]. Hmmmm...

* MemeticMutation: There are several silly Internet memes included InUniverse as Easter eggs, including:[[invoked]]
** The aforementioned WebOriginal/LOLCats
** LOLWUT (spawns a big head for any human being to wear, which is also edible)
** AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs (summons a base with a cyborg on the main screen)
** FTW ("For The Win"; gives you a fake Starite)
** JustForFun/{{Rickroll}} (summons a regular "man"... who dances and goes "poof" not long after)
** A [=ROFLcopter=] (summons a white helicopter)
** Lollerskates (summons rollerskates)
** [[WebAnimation/WeeblAndBob Badgers will dance when placed near mushrooms, and are afraid of snakes.]]
** LeeroyJenkins (synonymous with "knight")
** [[Manga/{{Bleach}} Loituma]] [[Music/{{Vocaloid}} Girl]] (summons an {{animesque}} girl spinning a leek)
** [[ImageMacros ORLY, YARLY, and NOWAI]] (synonymous with "owl")
** [[Manga/DragonBall Over Nine Thousand]] (summons the "scouter" Vegeta wore)
** GiantEnemyCrab ([[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Go ahead, guess]]).
** [[VideoGame/MarioIsMissing Weegee]] (synonymous with "plumber")
** OM NOM NOM NOM ([[http://media.ebaumsworld.com/picture/lilsht/OmNomNomNom.jpg This picture]], without the cars.)
** Philosoraptor (summons a slow moving velociraptor wearing a monocle)
** INVISIBLE BIKE (Summons [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin exactly what you think it summons.]] It's not all invisible, though; the handlebars are still visible, so you can interact with it.)
** I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE (Summons a shifty-eyed boy)
** [[YourMom Yo Mama]] (Summons a zombie)
*** Also, [[WebOriginal/LOLCats a walrus will defend any bucket in sight.]]
*** And the game's gotten its own mutation: [[http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=16184727&postcount=217 a guy called "Feep" posted his experience with the game]] on [=NeoGAF=] (post #217 in their Scribblenauts thread), which has been [[http://www.britishgaming.co.uk/2009/06/scribblenauts_e3/ passed around]] the web a bit.
*** The ESRB rating summary, which says that a player could [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential theoretically]] "[[BlackComedy attach steaks to babies to attract a lion]]," has also gained a small following.
** Even Anonymous is in this game. Why do I think the developers spend time on 4chan?
*** Spawn a girl next to Anonymous, and she runs away screaming. Sounds about right.
** Spawn a pirate next to a ninja [[PiratesVersusNinjas and they instantly attack each other]].
*** The [[spoiler: pirate]] wins. [[BigNo NOOOOO!]]
*** [[spoiler: Unless you give the Ninja a Sword instead of the Throwing Star it is naturally summoned with. Then the Ninja usually wins.]]
** On the steam version, spawn a VideoGame/{{portal}}, and after a while, a cake appears.
** "two four one five four three nine zero three" (241543903) spawns a freezer with the aformentioned LOLWUT inside, frozen.
** Unfortunately, [[ScrewedByTheLawyers this got the devs into a bit of trouble]], as they included NyanCat and KeyboardCat in ''Unlimited'' without realizing that both were trademarked, and owned by people willing to go to court to defend said trademarks. Oops. As a result, ''all'' memes (except Invisible Bike, and {{InJoke}}s like Post 217) were removed from ''Unmasked''.
* MercurysWings: One of the many ways you can make Maxwell fly is to write winged sandals. You could also write winged helmet but it doesn't fly.
* MisterSeahorse: The adjective "Pregnant" makes the unit spawn a baby version of itself. It works with literally ''anything''.
* MonsterMash: One mission in Dark Hollow has Maxwell trying to enter a party attended by Jenny Greenteeth, a [[DemBones Skeleton Warrior]], [[Film/TheInvisibleMan1933 The Invisible Man]], a {{Tanuki}} and a [[EvilTwin Doppelganger]]. Another one puts him against [[OurGargoylesRock two gargoyles]], two Flatwoods Monsters, TheJerseyDevil and a chimera.

* MoralGuardians: Despite their desire to include ''everything'', the devs decided that alcoholic beverages and vulgar things would have to be left out. So if your first action upon opening up any text input/creation tool in any game is to input the word "ass", you'll get a donkey. Same thing also goes with stuff that's technically under copyright as well as a few other words that do have a non-vulgar alternative, like "dick" for a detective, "cock" for a chicken and "skeet" for a disk.
* MoreDakka: In ''Super Scribblenauts,'' it's entirely possible to make guns that wield other guns, which wield ''other'' guns.
* MotivationOnAStick: You can set this up using a "plank", "glue", and something the character wants.
* NerdsAreVirgins: A TakeThat. "Virgin" and "Gamer" make the same effect in the first game. "Otaku", too.
* NiceHat: Maxwell's helmet is race car red and has not one, not two, but ''three'' horns. That's pretty awesome. It's [[{{Fanon}} been dubbed]] the Rooster Hat by the fan-base.
** Even nicer hats are possible. A wizard sitting on a saddle strapped to a bear riding a unicycle glued to a top hat? Now ''that'' is a fine piece of headgear.
* NighInvulnerability: Priests, vampires and longcats are almost completely invincible; the only known ways to eliminate them are [[JustEatHim Edison]], UsefulNotes/BlackHoles, [[NukeEm nuclear weapons]], and other sources of {{one hit kill}}s.
** In fact, vampires can be easily killed with some [[AchillesHeel creative thinking]]. Stakes, holy water, crosses and even garlic are one-hit kills. Alternatively, you can summon a sun and watch the vampire die on his own.
** Longcat can be [[OneHitKill eaten]] quite easily by a dragon or a large carnivorous dinosaur.
** Anything you want in the sequel. The weakness? [[spoiler: Dead potion. Or stun gun.]]
** After the original ''Scribblenauts'', any person that might represent a religious sect is indestructible to anything that doesn't wipe the screen or destroy absolutely anything. This includes priests, rabbi, imam, nuns, and atheists. Apparently 5th Cell thought that being able to kill these would be more controversial than averting InfantImmortality. In Scribblenauts Unlimited, Priests and the like can be killed with the [[LethalJokeWeapon Cap Gun]].
* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: Post 217 is a fantastic example of this: there are ''robot zombies''. Which are defeated by ''riding a dinosaur through time''. There's also robot hamsters and robosaurs, ninja sharks, and a ''Philosoraptor''.
** ''Super Scribblenauts'' adds an entire dictionary for ''adjectives''. Since ''Scribblenauts Unlimited'' you can actually type "NinjaPirateZombieRobot", but in ''Super Scribblenauts'' you have to settle for a [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Piratic Zombified Robotic Ninja]], and before ''Super Scribblenauts'' you could have given a robot zombie a pirate hat and shuriken.

* NostalgiaLevel: Using the Time Machine in ''Super Scribblenauts'' will occasionally send you back to the first stage of the original game. There's another Maxwell (the normal one, not the doppelgänger. You can not identify him.) running around there, and you can even collect the Starite, and you need it for HundredPercentCompletion. You can use potions on the normal Maxwell.
** You can even [[spoiler:kill your past self.]]
** The sequel's last level [[spoiler: ends with writing the answer again, only now you're on [[RecycledInSpace the moon!]]]]

* OhCrap: The moment in Action level 4-6 when [[spoiler: the giant crab shows up ''out of nowhere'']].
* OneHitKill: "[[spoiler:Edison]]" will eat anything alive in one bite, including you.
** Sadly, this doesn't work on the Kraken, robosaur or longcat.
** The adjective "Deadly" seems to turn anything into this in the sequel.
** [[spoiler: Dead potion.]]
* OneMillionBC: Reachable via TimeMachine.
* OneWordTitle: Because the main way to play the game is by writing things.

* OverlyLongGag: The hint of action level 10-9 goes on for about 20 hint boxes and, rather then giving any actual hint to the straightforward level, contains a somewhat amusing rant. Something about coffee, steak, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking rules to live your life on]].
* OxymoronicBeing: You can make things like a Giant Dwarf. In ''Unlimited'' you can also make a Dry Puddle, which upon summoning comes with the adjective "Paradoxical".
* {{Panacea}}: In the sequel, using this on a dead or sick being revives them. Using it on a healthy being makes them invincible.
* PaperThinDisguise:
** Witches won't attack you if you [[spoiler:wear a witch hat]].
** Cops will attack anyone [[spoiler:wearing a pirate hat]].

* PersonOfMassConstruction: The point of the game is to solve puzzles by creating things with your notebook, including castles, planets, dragons, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking cheese.]]
* {{Planimal}}: You can add "wooden" to anything in the sequel.
* PotHole: The programmers had a little fun assigning words as synonyms. For example, inputting "Science" will produce [[spoiler:a Large Hadron Collidor]].
* ThePowerOfCreation: Maxwell's notebook, with its power to create anything.
* PoweredByAForsakenChild: The Neogaf vehicle is powered by a gamer. If you interact with the Neogaf logo instead of riding it, a gamer will pop out and the logo will no longer fly.
* PsychoElectricEel: In the game, eels, elvers, lampreys, hagfish and quillfish all have electric powers and are extremely aggressive, attacking everything else including their own kind. In real life, their only similarities are that they are fish with elongated bodies and fused fins.
* PuffOfLogic: In the sequel an atheist can kill God. By ''thinking.''
* RageAgainstTheHeavens: Summon an atheist, then summon God, the atheist runs away. However if you summon a gun for the atheist, this trope happens.
** Subverted in the sequel: if an atheist so much as TOUCHES God, God goes *POOF!*
* RaisingTheSteaks: In the sequel you can make anything undead. Literally anything. Even things that were never alive to begin with. Can add a little {{Narm}} in the fact that you can summon a colossal undead banana, which will then jump around attacking the living.
* RuleOfCool: There's a plot, but who cares when you've just turned into Gordon Freeman and are using a crowbar to beat the tar out of zombie robots with {{God}} fighting alongside you?

* SelfImposedChallenge: "Stump the Dictionary" was popular when the game was being demonstrated at E3. Some gamers have also sworn to complete the game with specific-item runs (like beating every level with a dinosaur, or stuff like that).
** In addition, PacifistRun, NoCasualtiesRun, SoloCharacterRun.

* ShoutOut: So many that they have [[ShoutOut/{{Scribblenauts}} their own page]].
* ShownTheirWork: A kappa will eat [[TrademarkFavoriteFood cucumber]]. In the sequel, they also get the friendly adjective.
* SmallTaxonomyPools: Any animals who bear a superficial resemblance to each other are treated as the same species by the game. Examples include (but are not limited to) earthworm and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caecilian caecilian]]; mouse and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pika pika]]; ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursTrueDinosaurs Velociraptor]]'' and ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifePrimitiveSaurischians Herrerasaurus]]'',… The list is nearly endless.

* SomethingNauts: A peculiarity in the title that seems to have no bearing on the actual game. But it sounds cool.
* SoundtrackDissonance: See comments regarding GrotesqueCute and SugarApocalypse. The music remains cheerful throughout.
* StarShapedCoupon: Starites.
* StartScreen: It acts like a sandbox mode, allowing you to just play around and summon whatever you want. In the sequel, you can ''customize it.''
* StepfordSmiler: Maxwell won't stop smiling. Even if he's burning to death.
** Averted in ''Unmasked''; he still smiles a lot but also has different expressions for when he's attacking, being hurt, etc.
* StrawNihilist: The game includes both "passive" and "hostile" nihilists.
* StuffBlowingUp: Dynamite, C4, nukes -- you've got plenty of options.
* StuffedIntoTheFridge: Literally; with a shrink ray, it's possible to stuff a fridge into a fridge.

* SuperNotDrowningSkills: Maxwell can easily swim in all games, and from "Scribblenauts Unlimited" onwards can even dive under water without tools (like "scuba") or adjectives (like "immortal").
* SwissArmyWeapon: The DS's stylus obviously is one for the player, but in ''Super Scribblenauts'', that distinction falls on potions: when you create one, any adjective you decide to adjunct to it is the potion's effect. Go nuts.

* GameBreakingBug: The developers described a bug which they thankfully caught at the E3 release: A pair of rabbits would multiply [[ExplosiveBreeder so quickly]], baby bunnies would keep appearing until the game crashed. This was fixed for the final version with the rabbits breeding until your object meter fills up.
** In most iterations of Scribblenauts, trying to use a fishing pole or grappling hook on a tornado crashes or freezes the game.
** Also according to [[http://blog.videogamepricecharts.com/2009/06/scribblenauts-review-e3-2009.html this]] blog ''"We also tried to attach wings to a motorcycle with some glue and then ride it off a jump. We jumped on the motorcycle the game froze. The developer actually thanked us for breaking it though."''

** The game freezes when you try to access the 30 buyable levels.

* GasMaskMooks: What you get when you type in "Enemy", and the standard form of foe for many levels.
* GenderBender: In the sequel, a female or male potion.
** You can also make a Female Male and a Male Female.
%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.
* GhostShip: A summonaboe item.
* GiantEnemyCrab: Typing "Giant Crab" gets you a normal crab in the first game. Typing "Enemy Crab" will get you a normal crab. Typing "Giant Enemy Crab" gets you this trope. It even appears in a level with three samurai with the hint "For massive damage!"
** "Ancient Japanese History" will also spawn a giant enemy crab. Obviously, 5th Cell forgot to input some object data, as in the sequel it ''isn't even hostile''. That, or they [[DevelopersForesight figured that people would want one they can ride by default.]] Besides, the Hostile adjective fixes that.
** [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Doubling the "giant" adjective]] yields a [[UpToEleven ridiculously]] [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever oversized]] variant.
* GlassCannon: Edison. Very powerful (he can one-hit kill Maxwell in sandbox mode), but takes only one hit before dying.
* GrandpaGod: Writing "God" causes a manifestation like this.
* GreenHillZone: The first world, set in a forest.
* TheGreys: The standard alien. Typing in "Xenomorph" also results in one of these.
* GrotesqueCute: What happens when a [[ForTheEvulz certain kind of player]] plays Scribblenauts. That, and HilarityEnsues.
* GunsAreWorthless: In a combat-heavy stage, don't get an ordinary gun (or most ranged weapons for that matter). Not because of low firepower, but because of limited ammunition. ([[TheComputerIsAcheatingBastard NPCs don't suffer from this problem, though]]).
** That said, laser guns provide a useful OneHitKill, though they only have one shot, and Freeze Rays [[HumanPopsicle freeze the target in a block of ice]], rendering it harmless [[HarmlessFreezing without harming or killing it]], useful to circumvent enemies [[ThouShaltNotKill you aren't allowed to simply murder]].
** Averted in the sequel, since Maxwell has infinite ammo too.
* HandCannon: While typing in "Hand Cannon" provides [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_cannon an early firearm]], typing in "Gyrojet" yields, well, a Gyrojet. (In case you're wondering, a gyrojet is like a pistol but it fires rockets.)
** Try typing in "barrel gun". The resulting pistol's barrel is as big as Maxwell's head.
* HandOfGlory: One of the things that you can summon.
* HarmlessFreezing: You can freeze anything using a Freeze Ray, and it doesn't harm it.
** A kid in one level of the sequel is frozen solid.

* HighClassGlass: The Philosiraptor's defining characteristic, aside from its lack of speed.
** In Super Scribblenauts, a "Gentlemanly" anything will be wearing a monocle. Even a ''monocle''.
* HijackingCthulhu: The Mind Control Ray can be used to control powerful beings like Vampires, Cthulhu, Dragons, and the like. Instantly adds the "loyal" adjective to the target. Hypnotic items are even better, since they affect inanimate objects as well. So, you can hijack Cthulhu, a volcano and basically anything you please.

* HornyDevils: Natch. Only "Succubus" summons a unique monster, however; "Incubus" and "Devil" are synonymous.

** Not only are there human cannibals, but cows and pigs will also and happily munch on beef and pork. [[{{Squick}} Ew.]] Though at least cows will attack you afterwards. That's because the cow gets ''[[DevelopersForesight mad cow disease]]''.
** You can make any object eat humans by giving it adjectives such as "man-eating". Even objects that wouldn't make sense to be capable of eating things, let alone large enough to digest an entire human, such as snails, chairs, and rocks.
* ImCryingButIDontKnowWhy: In Super Scribblenauts and the other games, adding the adjective "crying" will make the object cry for no reason.
* ImprobableWeaponUser: Inevitably, Maxwell. When you've got just about ''every noun in the English language'' at your disposal, this sort of thing is bound to happen.
** In the sequel, it's even more inevitable with adjectives. Beware the man riding a rainbow of pandas going in a full circle wielding a [[{{BFS}} colossal zanbato]]!
* ImprovisedPlatform: you can write the name of any object you want, such as "dock" or even "floating platform".
* IncestIsRelative: "Wife" and "Mom" produce the same woman. But so does "Woman"--some Fridge {{Squick}} is a little inevitable when there's one "generic female NPC." And one "generic male NPC."
** Averted in ''Unlimited'', where vague words like "woman" or "person" will choose any NPC that the word fits, often resulting in many different outfits for the same word.
** Played straight if you use the "fertile" adjective on one of Maxwell's brothers and either walk past them or spawn another brother to get them pregnant.
* IncredibleShrinkingMan: Try using the shrink ray... Or Shrink Magic.
** Small potion in the sequel.
** Mere object editing in ''Unlimited'' can create this.

** The wizard staff can kill anything with relative ease.
** The sequel's InfinityPlusOneSword? [[spoiler: Dead potion, with the stun gun being the 2nd best.]]
** Even better is a quick deadly sword. It'll one-hit-kill EVERYTHING. Not just everyone, EVERYTHING.
** Hell, just add the adjective Deadly to ANYTHING and it's a InfinityPlusOneSword.
** In ''Scribblenauts Unlimited'', the Cap Gun is capable of killing and destroying anything, including priests, and ''black holes'', which are normally completely invincible. Though considering how the object editor reveals that it shoots "nothing," this could be a [[GoodBadBugs glitch]].

* InteractiveStartUp: The player is taken to a sandbox area before officially starting the game; in this area, they can play around with item creation, and can't be killed by things that would kill them in the game proper.
* InterfaceScrew: Summoning "Game" in ''Scribblenauts Unlimited'' then playing it will turn your screen into monochrome 8-bit. Play it again and the reverts to normal.
* ItemGet: Starite get!
* {{Jerkass}}: Though much of his behavior is up to the player, Maxwell's canon jerkassery is established in ''Scribblenauts Unlimited'', where he feeds a rotten apple to an old man because he thought it was funny. The old man curses his sister with TakenForGranite, though, so Maxwell has to learn his lesson.
** By ''Unmasked'', he's [[CharacterDevelopment largely shed this trait.]]
* JokeCharacter: Boars and Yetis were very weak in the first game; it would take [[CherryTapping 50 attacks]] from them just to kill [[MadeOfPlasticine a generic NPC]], and twice that amount to kill Maxwell. They didn't even have any solid defenses or agility to make up for this flaw, meaning that they wouldn't survive most fights they got into. Later games fixed this problem by giving them a boost in power, however.
* JokeItem: There are a lot of goofy items in the game, but the most obviously jokey ones are the ones based on MemeticMutation.
* KatanasAreJustBetter: Katanas do more damage than regular swords; oddly, the A.I. prefers swords over katanas (even characters that spawn with a katana, like samurai, will swap for a sword if one is lying around).
* TheKidWithTheRemoteControl: Maxwell may as well be the king of this trope. Death? {{God}}? Cthulhu?
* KillItWithFire: Some enemies (like zombies and mummies) are flammable.
* KitchenSinkIncluded: Yes, you can spawn one.
* LawOfDisproportionateResponse: Throw a pillow at God and ''he'll try to kill you''.
* LawyerFriendlyCameo: "Lightsaber" is not a word, but "laser sword" is. "Frisbee" doesn't work, either, but "Flying Disc" will.
** Averted. You can create a [[VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes Beam Katana.]]
* WebOriginal/LOLCats: Ceiling Cat, Spaghetti Cat, Longcat, [[EvilTwin Tacgnol]] and Monorail Cat are all present in this game.
** In fact there are 19, 20 or 21 different kinds of cat, both in breed and in coat colour, in the game. 19 proper, 20 and 21 if you count an Egyptian Mau/Lynx that looks like a grey Persian that growls like a larger cat, or a tiger cub that meows like a cat.
** In ''Unlimited'' you can summon Nyancat.
* LethalJokeCharacter: Blob will destroy any creature, provided said creature is not on fire.
* LethalJokeItem: "Post 217." Looks like a billboard based on the "ROBOT ZOMBIES" story, [[spoiler: acts like a nuke]].

** The Cap Gun in ''Unlimited'' destroys ''everything'' with one shot. Yes, that includes black holes and "invincible" objects.
* LightningCanDoAnything: It can jumpstart cars and revive corpses, just to name two uses.
* LiteralMinded: Puzzle level 10-11. Hint: "Write the answer". Answer? "[[spoiler:Answer]]"
** Though other words will work too. [[spoiler:You can use anything that normally summons a false starite.]]
* MadeOfExplodium: Summon a Gas Tank and see what happens if you so much as look at it the wrong way.

* MadeOfPlasticine: Maxwell can take the same number of hits as a ''baby''. Except in the sandbox, in which case Maxwell has no hitpoints and can only be killed by Edison, or a screen-wipe.

* MarketBasedTitle: The Japanese title for the first game is "Hirameki[[note]]Could mean "insight" or "flash"[[/note]] Puzzle: Maxwell's Peculiar Notebook."
** The Japanese release of its sequel averts this, strangely enough, simply sticking with the original title.
* MassiveNumberedSiblings: According to the intro of Scribblenauts Unlimited, Maxwell has ''41'' siblings including Lily.
* MasterOfDisguise: Maxwell seems to be one of these, judging how Super Scribblenauts contains a merit called "Maxwell In Disguise" for using an avatar.

* TheCameo: The crew of ''WebVideo/{{Mega64}}'' can be summoned in ''Super Scribblenauts''. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wHO4wgA99k See here.]]
** The Japanese version of the first game (which was published by {{Creator/Konami}} on 5th Cell's behalf) allows you to summon Alucard from ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'', as seen [[http://www.vgmuseum.com/mrp/cameo7.htm#scribble here]]. You can also create characters from ''Franchise/MetalGear'', ''[[VideoGame/GanbareGoemon Goemon]]'', and ''VideoGame/LovePlus'', some of which can be seen in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIUiQD3RUvY this video.]]
** The UsefulNotes/WiiU version of Scribblenauts Unlimited has [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Bowser,]] [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Link, Zelda, Ganon, Epona, and a Goron]] as summonable characters, among others from both the Mario and Zelda franchises.

* ChainsawGood: The chainsaw is one of the most powerful weapons in the game, capable of killing dragons, Cthulhu and even God.
* ClothesMakeTheLegend: Maxwell's rooster helmet is part of his IconicOutfit. So much so that [[DeFictionalization a real one]] was available a PreOrderBonus. Preordering Scribblenauts Unlimited on Steam also gets you the rooster hat in VideoGame/TeamFortress2.
* CombinatorialExplosion: Even ignoring other examples on this page, we know that the Moon turns Villains into Werewolves, Water shorts out anything electric, people dance to Keyboard Cat, and you can create a Zombie by using a Battery to jump-start a corpse. In fact, it is ''literally impossible to do every single combination possible in the game '''in a human lifetime.''''' DevelopersForesight.
* ConsoleCameo: If you type in "Scribblenauts" you get a DS cartridge of the original game, even in the PC version of Unlimited.
* CollisionDamage: "Nail", "spear" and "spike" all destroy everything they touch. With the proper application of glue, anything can turn into a weapon.
* CoolVersusAwesome: God vs. Cthulhu, for one.

* CutscenePowerToTheMax: While not a cutscene, the official artwork for Post 217 defines the gameplay completely.
** You can ride any large creature by placing a "Saddle" on it, then hopping on. This doesn't necessarily make them [[FluffyTamer tame]] enough to use like a vehicle, but it sure looks cool.
** Use a "Cupid Bow" to [[FluffyTamer tame]] them to that point. It's fun to ride a Hydra, Sea Serpent, or a T-Rex like a horse. The Sea serpent is especially fun!
** "Poison" also works, for that matter. Although, they will look like they died at first.
** Using a tranquilizer will cause the monster to fall asleep and wake up non-hostile.
* DarkSkinnedRedhead: The DJ, which is both a summonable item and one of the avatars.
* DeathOfAThousandCuts: Given enough time, it's possible to kill a dinosaur with a spoon. (Provided he doesn't eat you first.)
* DeliveryStork: One level tasks you with getting a baby to a king and queen, with a stork asleep nearby. The assumption being, the stork is shirking its job. Hurting it makes the level end. Storks will also protect any babies that happen to be nearby.
* DevelopersRoom: Spawning and using the Teleporter item may take you to 5th Cell headquarters.
* DevelopersForesight: Three months of the game's development were devoted to just making lists of ''things.'' They wanted to make sure that you really have ''everything.'' There's a [[{{DevelopersForesight/Scribblenauts}} Whole separate page for this trope for this game]]
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: You can summon Cthulhu himself, but he has a relativity low damage threshold. So, just punch him. Alternatively, [[SummonBiggerFish summon a bigger fish]].
** In the level editor, you can actually make something ''eat Cthulhu''.
** One mission has you kill a Shoggoth.
* DinosaursAreDragons: Summoning a ''Mosasaurus'', ''Tylosaurus'' or ''Platecarpus'' produces a decided un-mosasaur-like sea serpent.
* DivineIntervention: There are a few situations in which summoning God is a viable solution.
* DoubleStandard: Atheist runs from God, but not Goddess (who will try to protect him) in the first game.

** A rather poor attempt at it in the first game. The original's manual mentioned you could buy 30 extra levels from the ollars store.. They never added the levels, and instead of just removing the section where you're supposed to buy them, they made the buttons to get to it invisible.. What happens when you access this section? Your game freezes.
** There's a number of items in ''Unlimited'' that can only be accessed by using a glitch that exploits the object editor, some of which imply this. Among the more interesting ones are two rays, one which switches the gender of whoever's shot and one that turns whoever's shot into a random "monster" out of a rather large list.

* EasterEgg: Including a literal egg.
** In one puzzle, your objective is to get a group of bad guys into heaven. This can be easily accomplished by [[spoiler: placing a [[StairwayToHeaven stairway]] near them]].
** It's a bit ruined now thanks to all the 'HOLY CRAP GOD VS CTHULHU!' stuff at E3, but at Puzzle Stage 5-1, try scrolling allllll the way down.
** Also, summon any type of bread that takes the "loaf" form. "Bread" and "Toast" work. Then summon a cat. "Use" the bread on said cat.
** The [[EverybodyKnewAlready kinda-sorta but not really]] hidden ARCADE MACHINE mini-game.
* EatsBabies: Summon some kind of human and a "Delicious Baby" in ''Super Scribblenauts'' Also, if you summon a dingo and a baby, [[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=A%20dingo%20ate%20my%20baby guess what happens.]]
* EldritchAbomination: Several, including [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos "Cthulhu," "Shambler," and "Shoggoth"]].
* ElectrifiedBathtub: Throwing any electrical device into water (even something as small as a battery) will OneHitKill anything nearby, not to mention short-circuiting (activating) switches.
* ElvesVsDwarves: While an ordinary "[[ChristmasElves Elf]]" is no trouble, try putting a "Wood Elf" and a "Dwarf" next to each other. [[spoiler:If both unarmed, the dwarf panics and is slain by the elf. If both equally armed, the dwarf will defeat the wood elf.]]
* EpicFail: Go ahead. Type it in. See what happens.
** [[spoiler: You get a nuke, which blows up everything. Including you.]]
* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: The game will certainly reward any player who had a childhood obsession with dinosaurs. Tyrannosaurus, Stegosaurus, Apatosaurus, Spinosaurus, and ARCHAEOPTERYX, of all things.

* EvilTwin: Spawn [[spoiler:anything relating to Maxwell himself ("Maxwell", "Me", "Clone", "Protagonist", etc.)[[note]]Except for "[[SdrawkcabName Llewxam]]", that'll just create a DS cartridge.[[/note]]]] and you get a opposite colored clothed Maxwell named Doppelganger who steals things right from the hands of the innocent and whose presence scares most people. Typing in [[spoiler: "Clone"]] actually spawns a slightly different Doppelganger than "Maxwell, "Me", "Protagonist", etc. He has a few different animations (including a weird floating limb and head thing) and doesn't scare people, but he still steals things.
** In the sequel, evil Maxwell has ''his own notebook'' and will summon random objects from out of thin air, just like you. [[spoiler:[[UnexpectedGameplayChange He's also the final boss.]]]]
** He appears as a MirrorMonster in Grave Manor in ''Unlimited''.
** He comes back as one of the main antagonists in ''Unmasked''.
* ExplosiveBreeder: Place two rabbits next to each other, and they will multiply until the object meter fills up. In the sequel, they will merely spawn two "baby bunnies".
** This used to be a bug (before release). The rabbits would spawn so many other rabbits that the game would crash.
** Anything with the adjective "fertile" will spawn kids until the object meter is full. Even objects that are normally inanimate.

* ExtremeOmnivore: Adding the "omnivorous" adjective to an object. The object will then attempt to hunt down and eat any life forms nearby. In the case of Maxwell as a victim, it's a OneHitKill. You can likewise apply the "Edible" adjective to every object you summon, making them, well Edible and thus a food source for any hungry character that happens to be nearby.
* EyesDoNotBelongThere: The Shoggoth.
* FaceHeelTurn: Using "[[spoiler:earth magic]]" will turn anyone evil. [[GodIsEvil Even God]] and [[BadSanta Santa Claus]]. Using "[[spoiler:mind control device]]" or "[[spoiler:Cupid bow]]" will [[HeelFaceTurn turn some (but not all) evil characters good]].
* FantasyKitchenSink
* FireBreathingWeapon: Because most of the games let you apply adjectives to anything, you can make a firebreathing flamethrower.
* FirehouseDalmatian: Dalmatians are often seen, sometimes accompanying firefighters. One level in the first game even involves a mix-up where a firefighter has a Maine Coon cat and a boutique owner has a Dalmatian, and the player has to send the animals back to their correct owners.
* ForcedTutorial: Any time that you want to start a new game, you must waste 3 minutes trying to skip through levels 0-X. If you try to summon any items in level 0-6 (the only time that you can summon something on these levels), it will immediately disappear, no matter its properties.
* FreezeRay: Like everything else in the game, this is summonable.

* AirAidedAcrobatics: The Air Vent, an item which creates gusts of winds, can be used to cross gaps.

* AmoralAttorney:
** There's a level in the first game where your objective is to get three "bad guys" into heaven. The bad guys are a prisoner, a bully...and a lawyer.
** In ''Unlimited'', there's a scientist that needs a DNA sample to clone a dinosaur and needs a blood-sucking creature in the amber. Some of the solutions are mosquito, leech, vampire and lawyer.
* AnachronismStew: This can be invoked by the player, but a few levels do this on their own. This is especially prevalent in the overworld levels of ''Unlimited''. For example, a pirate ship level that features {{pirate}}s from UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfPiracy, [[PiratesVersusNinjas ninjas]], and an [[DigitalPiracyIsEvil internet pirate]].

* ArtAttacker: The player's modus operandi.
* ArtEvolution: Auditory example. In ''Remix'', if you use the "play" command on any musical instrument from a bagpipe to a theremin, you get a sound that resembles a high note on a hammond organ regardless of which instrument you're playing (Well, either that or no sound at all). Fast-forward to ''Unlimited'', and each instrument does have their own individual sound.
** Setting off a nuke in any of the previous games resulted in a puff of smoke, then everything dying after the screen goes briefly white. While the effects are different in ''Unlimited'', the real occurrence of this trope for the nuke is that setting it off actually forms a mushroom cloud.

** ''Plateosaurus'' is NOT a hadrosaur, so why does its name summon a hadrosaur? Also:
** The words ''Dunkleosteus'', Bull Shark, Cow Shark and Sixgill Shark, of all things, summon a ''[[{{Megalodon}} Carcharocles megalodon]]''.
** In the first game, the word ''Microraptor'' summoned a pterosaur, in ''Super Scribblenauts'' it correctly summons a feathered dinosaur, however, it's a little big for a ''Microraptor''. Luckily, the adjective "tiny" fixes that.

* AscendedMeme: After seeing [[http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=16184727=217 the [=NeoGAF=] post]], the devs added "Feep" and "Post Two-One-Seven" to the in-game dictionary. And made Feep's experience into [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/banner_scribblenauts_9463095_1920_1080.jpg a desktop wallpaper]].
** Typing "Post Two-One-Seven" (or some spelling variation of that) summons a billboard version of the wallpaper... [[spoiler:which then acts as a nuke.]]

* AttackAttackAttack: Give Maxwell any non-projectile weapon (swords, baseball bats, crowbars, ''Death's scythes''... you get the idea) and then send him to attack any target (living or not, hostile or not). He'll keep hitting it until one of them dies.
* AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever: Where do we start? In the sequel, ''anything'' can be this, due to your ability to make anything colossal.
* AuthorAvatar: Use the teleporter to see 5th Cell at their studio (and steal their car). Shortly after, Liz (a zombie dev team member) jumps from the second floor and kills everyone else (assuming you didn't kill them first). Also, type "5th Cell" for their logo.
** Also, [[spoiler:"Edison" the dinosaur (Edy in the sequel) (a tyrannosaurus with a headband)]] is one for game artist Edison Yan.
** Almost any name you see in the credits that has an associated character can be summoned. ''Unlimited'' shows you them in the credits and requires you to summon one for a Starite Shard (1/10 of a Starite).
* AwesomeButImpractical: Nukes, Meteors, and Tsunamis kill everything on-screen. [[PressXToDie Including you]].

** For that [[{{Pun}} "matter"]], "antimatter" and "dark matter" also work quite handily.
** And summoning and interacting with the Large Hadron Collider creates a black hole too.
** Anything with "ballistic spectacular" adjectives in ''Unlimited'', and yes, it has to have both. When it "hits" an object (notably the normal option for attack is replaced by "hit"), it gives the object the ballistic adjective, which makes it count down to an explosion. Except instead of normally exploding, the object flies up at a diagonal angle first. This is hinted at in-game, with a sword being made during one of the shard quest in Vowelcano showing these adjectives when examined.
* BadFuture: In the sequel. Levels in the first game also imply this.
* BatterUp
* BewitchedAmphibians: The magic wand, and any being that spawns with it, such as wizards and witches.
* {{BFG}}: Nuclear Recoil-less Rifle qualifies. There's also the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Exploding Barrel Launcher]].
** You can make literally ''any'' gun colossal in the second game.
* {{BFS}}: The historical Zweihander is a valid weapon for Maxwell. It's also slightly taller than he is.
** Let's not forget about the legendary Excalibur falling in the same category...
** As with guns, you can make literally ''any'' sword colossal in the second game.
** Of course, if you want a sword that is massive ''without'' the aid of adjectives, try a zanbato. Or go all the way and summon a colossal zanbato.
* BlatantLies: The game manual packaged with the game says there are 30 extra levels available from the Ollar store, but the only other thing you can get from the Ollar store is your game crashing.
* BlindIdiotTranslation: The Portuguese pause menu, for example, looks like this: Continue, ''Try to Quit'' and Quit.
** The French translation is so bad it deserves mention. Oh, the menus are perfectly fine, but they managed to make the whole game unplayable.
*** Some simple words don't give any results : try typing “meat" ("viande"), nope, never heard of that.
*** Pretty much all words give you 2 or 3 possibilities, either all so similar they're impossible to distinguish, or completely unrelated to what you typed. And the disambiguation hints don't help a single bit.
*** Type "cow" ("vache"), you get "cow (human)", "cow (mammal)" => the first one is a cop, it's apparently old slang nobody's heard of.
*** Type "rock" ("pierre"), you get "rock (stone)", "rock (nature)", “rock (environment)" => the first one is some unidentified U-shaped object, the second one is a big rock and the third one is a small rock.
*** Type "wall" ("mur"), you get "wall (contruction)" and "wall (construction)".... => The second one is a wall, but the first one is some sort of safety barrier.
*** The list could go on and on as virtually every word is a problem. Thanks for ruining the game.
*** Inverted with the Spanish translation: The Spanish translation is OK, but the dictionary is from the European Spanish dialect, NOT the Latin American ones. Justified, because due to the fact there's many Spanish-speaking countries, using a Latin American dictionary along the European one would be impossible to implement in the game, but if you don't know the European Spanish versions of some words, you're screwed.
** Type in anything (well, almost) it a different language, and go to a different language, the translation is extremely different. (For example, typing chat with french, changing to english and coming back, viewing its name will give you "button front.")
** In the Italian version of ''Unlimited'', many sidequests are impossible to do because many items are impossible to summon (for example, typing "rubber duck" gives you a living red bouncing duck rather than a regular rubber ducky). A particular case is the quest that asks you to summon a sunburnt zebra: "Zebra ustionata" and "Zebra abbronzata" are not recognized, so you have to quit the game, change the language into English, summon it, exit the game again, get the language back to Italian and discovering that the correct answer was "Zebra larvivora" ("''Larvae-eating'' zebra")
* BlobMonster: Summoned by typing in "blob".

** Rope or any equivalent is indispensable (if somewhat touchy) for moving things, dragging things, connecting things...
** For that matter, since many puzzles involve moving things that don't want to move or are outright hostile, glue and baskets are equally helpful.
** Most puzzles are based around you trying to get Maxwell to the Starite, but it's a lot easier to just move the Starite to Maxwell. Cue the fan, a simple object that generates wind to blow the Starite around, completely bypassing challenges. In the original, you could even get them to hang in midair (without adjectives) by summoning a cloud then gluing things to it.
** The humble jetpack is at the top of any player's list of "things to summon immediately". It's small, unobtrusive, and allows you to move in all directions at about the same speed as normal walking. Wings are a somewhat inferior substitute, but they look cool.
*** Few in their right mind would call a jetpack "boring", but after the first game, adding the "superfast" adjective will severely improve its speed.
** If you don't add "Fast Flying" adjectives to your character the first chance you get, you are doing something wrong.
** If you're trying to get rid of a troublesome individual but aren't allowed to kill them, shrink ray + bag is your best friend.
* BottomlessMagazines: Averted for Maxwell, but played straight for everyone else, in the first one. Played straight for Maxwell, too, in the sequel.
** Averted in ''Unmasked''. Weapons have durability, and will disappear when used enough times.
* BrownNote: The [[UsefulNotes/FIFAWorldCup vuvu]][[MemeticMutation zela]] in ''Unlimited''. Playing it enough times is so annoying that everyone nearby gets an Angry adjective and starts attacking each other - even ''[[WhenTreesAttack trees]]'' can be angered by it.
** If you play the vuvuzela near [[spoiler: Maxwell's father]] he petrifies you.

* EvilLawyerJoke: The first mission in Dark Hollow (9-1) includes the clue "Get the bad guys to heaven!" Upon further inspection, the "bad guys" are a prisoner, a bully, and a lawyer.
** In ''Unlimited'', spawning two liars next to each other will create a pair of flaming pants. Spawning two lawyers next to each other creates the same effect.
** One of the starite shards in The Saurus Park requires you to place something that sucks blood in a chunk of amber. A lawyer works perfectly fine.

->''"The only limit is your imagination… and your [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential twisted sense of humor.]]"''

''Scribblenauts'' is a series of physics-based puzzle games, developed by 5th Cell Interactive and published by Creator/WarnerBrosInteractiveEntertainment.

You are Maxwell. You want to get the [[MacGuffin Starite]]. What's a Starite? Well, a shiny [[StarShapedCoupon star-shaped]] thing, of course. You have to figure out how to get the Starite. In order to get the Starite, you need to use the tools at your disposal to reach it.

What are your tools? ''Everything.''

Ok, not really. But there are a mind-boggling number of things you can use. Nearly ''23,000''.

A trampoline? But of course.

A football? Sure thing.

A teapot? Why not?

A bazooka? Might as well.

A ''Velociraptor''? Could come in handy.

A dialysis machine? Pancake mix? Large hadron collider? [[WebOriginal/LOLCats Longcat? Tacgnol?]] A windmill? A [[DoNotTouchTheFunnelCloud tornado]]? A [[CoolBoat yacht]]? [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos A Shoggoth]]? A certified public accountant? Silly [[AnimalEaredHeadband bunny ears]]? A [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs Certified Public Accountant]] ''[[BreadEggsBreadedEggs wearing]]'' silly {{bunny ears|Lawyer}}? A [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot pink striped robot ninja]] wielding a [[{{BFS}} huge]] [[PowerGlows glowing]] [[FlamingSword flame sword]] on top of a holy purple winged ''Giganotosaurus''?

What part of ''everything'' didn't you understand?

While ''Scribblenauts'' has a simple premise, there's more to it than is immediately obvious. Using [[ThePowerOfCreation a magical notepad]], you can write--and summon--almost ''anything'' to the game world to solve puzzles. Call elephants. Call thunder clouds. Call [[EverythingsDeaderWithZombies all the zombies you can handle.]] By moving and manipulating objects, solve the puzzles. Of course, there's more ways than just one to solve a puzzle. Got a Starite stuck in a tree? Chop it down. Climb it with a ladder. Get a Lumberjack to help you. Make termites eat it. KillItWithFire. In fact, the game prevents you from solving a puzzle the same way more than once until you've beaten it three times. Not like that's a problem. You have ''everything.''

Prior to the game's September 2009 release, the game received some mild hype from various outlets from its extremely ambitious premise. Mild until [[UsefulNotes/ElectronicEntertainmentExpo E3]], that is, when game journalists finally got to play it for themselves--and kicked off one of the most ''massive'' hype trains for any portable game ''ever.'' In an entirely unprecedented occurrence, not one but ''three'' major game reporting outlets declared the hand-held ''Scribblenauts'' to be the game of the show--even more remarkable considering that ''none'' of them had ever made such a claim about ''any'' portable game. In a relatively short amount of time, the game went from being known primarily to portable gamers and those who followed portable games to the entire game blogosphere, catapaulting it into the spotlight. Reviews of the full game were still generally positive, but not as enthusiastic as at E3; the controls for Maxwell's movement in particular were almost universally criticized.

See the [[http://scribblenauts.wikia.com/ Scribblenauts Wiki.]] Also, has its very own (well deserved) [[{{DevelopersForesight/Scribblenauts}} Developer's Foresight page.]]

It also got a sequel in 2010, ''Super Scribblenauts''.[[note]]Which is a pun on the addition of adjectives to the game.[[/note]] Included are adjectives (meaning you can create a ''literal'' NinjaPirateZombieRobot), new levels (there are fewer this time around, but they're longer and more puzzle-based), and a whole lot of improvements to the controls, camera, and physics engine. Considering it fixed the problems the first game had, the hype for this game was mostly optimistic (not as much, though, considering [[FirstInstallmentWins we've seen the concept before]]). The major attraction for the second game in early reviews wasn't the new adjective system, but the fixes to the control system that nearly sank the first game.

The third game of the series, ''Scribblenauts Unlimited'' (2012) brings the series to the Wii U, 3DS and PC, and is available on Steam. The Wii U and PC versions include an object editor allowing players to create new objects using pieces of other ones. This game again alters the formula from the previous ones by having each level be a more open world with several small quests and one or two big ones to solve, and also includes a plot explaining why Maxwell has his notebook (he got it from his adventurer parents) and why he goes around collecting Starites (he abused the notebook's power and had a curse cast on his sister Lily that turned her to stone, and it could only be reversed by collecting Starites which appear by doing good deeds). A mobile version was released in 2015 and a Nintendo Switch version in 2019.

There is also a game called ''Scribblenauts Remix'', which was released for iOS in 2011 and Android in 2012. It contains the adjectives system of ''Super Scribblenauts'', and contains favorite levels from the first two games, as well as levels exclusive to it.

A third sequel, ''Scribblenauts Unmasked'', was released in 2013, based entirely around Creator/DCComics. It even has a [[ComicBook/ScribblenautsUnmasked comic book series based on it]]. Plans for another game titled ''Scribblenauts: Fighting Words'' were scrapped in 2016 after a major layoff at 5th Cell.

In 2018, a new game titled ''Scribblenauts Showdown'' was confirmed for release on UsefulNotes/XboxOne, UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 and UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch in March. The trailer mentions that the game is taking more of a multiplayer-centric party game sensibility, with over 25 minigames based on the players outdoing each other's efforts to find the best word or object to fit a given task.

!![[SelfDemonstratingArticle T-R-O-P-E-S *poof*]]