WB Games Announces Party Game Scribblenauts Showdown

Scribblenauts grew to fame with its original release in 2009 thanks to its unique take on problem-solving. Now it's back with Scribblenauts Showdown. This will be the first new game in over four years, and it's coming to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on March 6.

This iteration takes the familiar Maxwell, the protagonist of past Scribblenauts games, and drops him into a multiplayer party environment with 25 different mini-games to play.

The titular Showdown Mode takes the largest spotlight. In this mode, up to four players can get together to participate in a variety of mini-games. Players can work together, using words to summon people and objects, to solve the puzzles presented to them. After that is Versus Mode. This time it's limited to up to two players who are now using their words competitively. Lastly is Sandbox Mode, which holds the truest classic Scribblenauts experience, using word summoning to solve puzzles however you can.

Scribblenauts Showdown is being developed by Shiver Entertainment instead of the game's original developer, 5th Cell. After experiencing major layoffs, 5th Cell was forced to cancel a Scribblenauts iOS game (Scribblenauts: Fighting Words) that was in development. That reason alone is presumably why they aren't handling this project.

Scribblenauts started life strong, but after nine years (and five games), it's faded from the mainstream. The success of Scribblenauts Showdown will very likely determine the future of the series.