20 Comic Book Video Games You Must Play Before You Die

By Scott Tailford /

14. Scribblenauts Unmasked

One of the ultimate packages for fan service, the Scribblenauts games previously made their name by letting you think of any word (or combination of a few) before spawning such a creation in to help complete a string of levels. Think a "Giant angry chicken" would work best to demolish a building? Type it out and it'll arrive, snorting as it goes. Apply this design to the world of DC, and you can conjure everything from a Batman-themed jetpack, to scores of individual heroes, weapons, items, apparel and the standard Scribblenauts dictionary of words to tag on either end. Gameplay is a solid side-scrolling affair that retains the other games' predisposition for puzzle-solving, albeit this time round with a comic book twist. You'll occasionally delve into slightly more action-focussed scenarios where enemies need to be taken care of (and summoning Green Lantern or Superman to swoop in and do the job works a treat), but just plumbing the depths of such an encyclopaedic database of all things DC always yields some of the most obscure and fun results.