Here it is. After a gruelling five weeks of blogging, reviewing, and thumb-bleeding gaming; Ready Up! finally let me loose off the leash and out into the world of my first ever gaming event. With Ready Up’s one and only Fran ‘The Queen of Cosplay’ Shergold, an iPhone with GPS, and a can of Red Bull by my side – it was time to head to the super secret location of the Scribblenauts launch party! (a night club named ‘Fluid’ in London’s Farringdon area, nearest tube station is Barbican. Just turn left out of the station’s exit and head down Charterhouse Street. If you can’t find the front door, you did the same thing we did and went around the back by accident).
Despite the rays of sunshine beaming down upon my gamer heart as Fran and I skipped (yes, we actually skipped) through London to what was to be a Scribble-tastic evening, it seemed British weather was once again on hand to dampen (pun very much intended) our spirits with a never ending rain shower throughout our journey. This wasn’t going to bring us down though! No chance. Sure I cowered like a girl attempting to cover my previously perfect gelled hair (Fran had brought an umbrella… smart girl that Fran, very smart), already pre-panicking that the wetness I was enduring would soon be mistaken at the event for a carelessly spilled drink or nervous sweat, but I didn’t care. Why? Because I was going to Scribble my naut off that night!
We eventually made it, and were greeted in style with a graciously generous goodie-bag containing: a free copy of Scribblenauts, a Scribblenauts rooster hat, a Scribblenauts branded notepad and entry form to become the Scribblenauts launch party Champion! It was a good thing it was all provided in an actual bag because I was close to hyper-ventilating with these (FREE!) tantalising gaming goodies from the gamer Gods! To put it lightly, I was extremely excited. On a slight tangent, the next thing I saw as we took our first steps in, was a Space Invaders upright arcade cabinet – the ten year old in me screamed so loud I near deafened myself from the inside out. This was my kind of place, and sooner rather than later I was going to touch that machine in ways it should never be touched (to the best of my knowledge, I still own the highscore on the Space Invaders machine in Clearwater Beach’s Hilton hotel, if any Florida readers could confirm this – please do!).
I finally tore my gaze away from one of the few pieces of technology I would consider proposing to when we were welcomed to the fold of other attendees by Harry from Warner Brothers, who broke the news that there were ten mysterious objects around the club and bar, and the more of them which we used in our Championship entry, the better chance we stood. Now, I am a British man, and it had been a very long and wet day of travelling to get to where we were. So naturally, the word that definitely stood out most for me in that sentence was the word “bar”. What a marvellous bar it was too. The staff were extraordinarily friendly, one even had a stab at me being a New Zealander, which may have been wrong, but did conclude rather nicely as I pegged her for a Californian and turned out to be spot on (Katie, I believe her name was). Though our eyes were not locked for long, as Fran and I were presented with stacks of multicoloured liquids of all languages stretching up to the rooftop, cheeky little Scribblenaut, Maxwell had even squeezed his way into the assortment of vodkas standing proudly at the back.
I would’ve have happily given the little guy a home if there had been a bigger bag than mine on hand and if I were to have some of Solid Snake’s sneaking moves mastered. I felt for that little Scribblenaut, and I wanted to free him from his alcohol ridden prison… however, as it turned out – all drinks were free (again, FREE!), so as it turns out, he was no prisoner – he was my equal! Free drinks for both human and Scribblenaut alike. “Of course (said Warner Brothers in a voice and quotation I just made up), you cannot have free booze and games without food! That would be a travesty. There is only one solution… let there be sushi!” That’s right, free sushi. I love the way Warner Brothers thinks! They sure do know how to throw one heck of a party, and it really did make this Ready Upper feel loved!
A chilled bottle of Kopparberg in my hand, Fran with a bright green melon tasting drink (I confess to being very ignorant when it comes to my alcohol, I’m a simple man), it was time for some exploration. In the near distance before us lay a brightly lit gaming wonderland, journalists from all over Britain were clambering over each other to reach the Holy Grail of the club, the exclusive launch party Scribblenauts levels. Not only was it an honour and privilege to try those babies out, but the DSs were hooked up to two whopping great HDTVs. That alone was reason enough to me to want to get tapping, how often do you get an opportunity to play your DS in huge vision? Nowhere near as often as you should (and considering the DS graphics capacity, it looked pretty snazzy on a large scale to boot).
Needless to say, while Fran and myself were crammed into the heaving crowd patiently waiting our turn, we naturally decided to think of the greatest pun we could come up with (which you may have guessed already from reading some of my terrible ones so far). Eventually, we both admitted defeat and unanimously agreed that we were both equally stumped to come up with even a half passable one. With the stench of failure now creating a distinctive musk around us, the only remaining course of action was to take advantage of the situation with a Ready Up serious pose photo op.
After several exhausting attempts to get the above picture just right (my hair had a life of its own!), we conceded that the inevitable battle to reach the Holy Grail was an unreachable treasure, at least it was for the time being. After some slight protest from Fran, I dragged her downstairs where I had been sure there had been a mention of some kind of dance-floor. As it turned out, I was right, there was a dance floor! With a retro disco ball style lighting effect ricocheting off the floor, Scribblenaut graphics and images projected onto every wall, and plenty of inhumanly comfortable leather sofas to the side. Yet the best thing about this basement turn boogie-room? It was empty. No don’t start pointing the anti-social finger at me, I love people, but when I want to get my DS on and play the brand new unreleased game I was just handed free of charge, I want somewhere comfy to stretch out and relax with it.
Regardless of the brand new spanking levels upstairs, it would seem that my first ever game of Scribblenauts would be right there. Tragically, Fran had forgotten her Nintendo DS (possible karma for remembering her umbrella?), so we had to share my little black beauty. Not to go into too much detail, you’re not here for a full on review, but the game is addictive. Imagine if they were somehow able to combine the “must have just one more” power of Pringles, coffee, and chocolate buttons into a DS game form, and you’d more than likely have yourself a crystal clear understanding of how unputdownable (if that’s not a word, it is now) this game is. If it hadn’t been for some more friendly Warner Brother representatives wandering down the stairs with a DJ and taking a seat next to us, I may have been unable to pull away at all!
As it turned out, we were just early for the rave, they hadn’t expected anybody to explore down the stairs until later in the night (the Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune fan inside me swelled a little with pride). As I exchanged some overly nerdy pleasantries with Mark from Warner Brothers (it turned out he had also spent a large portion of the evening eyeing up the Space Invaders cabinet, which really reduced my guilt of being tempted away from the Scribblenauts bonanza), Fran was busy trying to sum up the courage to request some Space Channel 5 remix material from her iPod. In this rather nervous process, she befriended our resident DJs for the night, which somehow lead us down a road to us trading our hats with them so we could get a snapshot of the two of us rocking some robot moves while they remixed rampantly wearing our rooster robes.
We soon drained ourselves of all energy, as any person would have with the quantity of roboting, partying, and gaming we had achieved over the course of the night. Like a kid at Christmas, I had a hard time accepting it was over, I was hungering for more, but it was not to be. So this may be where our tale of Scribble madness comes to an end, we said our polite goodbyes (and I snuck in a quick game of Space Invaders upon exit!), and we were left to make our own merry way home successfully plumped with Scribblenaut goodness (and a fair share of sushi and Kopparberg).
The end result, it really was an unbelievable night. The people were all kinds of friendly, the drink, food, and merchandise were welcomed with open arms from both of us and very much appreciated. Leaving only one thing left to say (and I’m sorry Fran, but I was just too proud of this)… We’re now going ScribbleNUTS!
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October 19th, 2009 at 11:06 pm
Superb write up Dunk, loving the pictures too.
Sounds like it was a blast of a time, free booze, food and goodies, and of course lots of naut’ing around. Have to admit it’s one of the games that sorely makes me want a DS.
I’ve not been part of the hand held generation since my lime green Game Boy Colour which saw more Pokemon action than CITV on a Saturday morning during half term. There’s just something about the simplicity behind it all that gets me wanting more.
I’m putting the black DS with Professor Layton bundle on my Xmas list and this is definitely going to be pencilled in along side it.
October 20th, 2009 at 2:43 am
Free Scribblenauts rooster hat AND free Kopparberg? There’s a combination for a fun night!
October 20th, 2009 at 9:28 am
Ha Ha! This Scribble-r’port is LEGEN – wait for it – DARY.
It was great being your Wing-Fran too, great job young Skynauter! *runs off before getting a slap…*
October 20th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Scribblenauts is awesome, but for someone like me who lacks the creativity, incredibly frustrating.
Totally jealous of your rooster hats ><
October 21st, 2009 at 11:20 pm
That looked fun! *jealous too*
This is the first time I wish I hadn’t sold my DS.