I’ve recently picked up a copy of Scribblenauts for the DS, needless to say, it’s awesome! Although I’ve managed to make it freeze and the controls need a little bit of work, check out the review by Matt for the full details because this isn’t to talk about the review. This is because Scribblenauts made me think: education and gaming have a turbulent relationship. Rarely does anyone do a great job at making learning even slightly entertaining. Sometimes it’s so bad you can’t even mock the educational attempt. Learning games typically only teach you that most learning games suck. The last great education game to stay with me is Oregon Trail. Since then nothing else has stuck with me, until now of course.

5th Cell has created a game that is fun, entertaining, and pushes problem solving & vocabulary. While it is fun to drop all sorts of creatures, people, and weapons in the mix to see who wins this isn’t the main show of game play, it’s just the start screen. Players are primarily self motivated to solve puzzles in different ways, creating new objects every time, but the game helps to keep you engaged by giving out Merits (achievements) and offering a huge amount of puzzles. It makes you slowly realize you are learning, using your brain, and having fun. Scary, I know.

Tell me in the comments who else has dropped a title so entertaining and education in recent history? Like I said, Oregon Trail is my last quality educational gaming experiencing, since then everything has pretty much sucked or just not been memorable. 5th Cell has shown learning and gaming can go together well so I would like to see some more games in this area. To get the ball rolling I’m offering up this million dollar idea: create a cross language version of Scribblenauts, English/German, English/French, or English/Spanish. I would totally buy that in a minute.  Rosetta Stone eat your heart out.