Maybe Randal Graves works on their development team...

The idiots I am referring to are the ones who brought up this whole issue. The word actually means exactly what they show in the game. Since the word means exactly what they show in the game there is no reason to bring it up except to create a story out of thin air and report on it. Just because the word apparently has this extremely obscure racial connotation doesn't mean there is even a story to report here.

Anyone try the teleporter yet? It sends you to

pretty cool.

Wait, did you actually know that sambo meant a figleaf gourd? Would most people, without grabbing the dictionary? If I wrote the word sambo and up popped a watermelon that would certainly have seemed odd to me. Is it a story? Well, considering the kinds of topics are considered story worthy, then I guess so.

Anyhoo, I'm really looking forward to picking this up tomorrow!

Try time machine as well and teleporter will also send you somewhere else on the title screen.

Yeah, that's what it means in Spanish. Here is the English definition. I'd wager that before this whole thing went down, if you were to take a poll on what people thought "sambo" meant, the Spanish definition would come in dead last. Just because you aren't familiar with the English meaning (and were apparently already aware of what it meant in Spanish), doesn't erase the English word's ugly history.

Your indignation that this is even being reported is a little puzzling. Someone found it on the word list, tried it out, and it brought up what looked like a watermelon. Figuring this to be newsworthy but wanting to report it fairly, Kotaku got a statement from the developer that seemed honest enough that everyone was happy...no recall, no boycotts, end of story. Pretty normal bit of reporting, if you ask me. This whole thing kind of reminds me of another recent game that sparked a discussion regarding race and it too had countless people up in arms over the fact that a discussion was even being had. It boggles the mind.

For the record, I went through the first 20 pages of the google search results for "sambo" and there was nothing about fig leaf gourds anywhere in those pages, but plenty of results for blackface and the fighting style (again, another definition I wasn't familiar with). So if this were left unreported and someone tried the word but didn't know what it meant and tried to look it up, they would be much more likely to stumble upon a page about blackface than what the developer intended it to mean.

Ummm...being named Sam...being African American...and growing up in rural VA...I can assure you that this is NOT an extremely obscure racial connotation. I was called it all through my elementary and Jr high schopl years until I kicked a kids a$$ and was never called it again. Even recently (I'm 41 now) a person in my office was called to the carpet not by me but by a co-worker, for calling me Sambo Rambo. Not opening another can of worms but I'm also gay. Do you think it would be ok for the game to allow the word "***" because everyone knows it's a cigarette in England? I think not.

Anywho...how the hell do you get past level 1:5??? I can move the box but can't get to the star! You can just spoiler the words you used and I'll figure it out. LOL

^ 1-5 Action or 1-5 Challenge?

Racial words aside, I just wish we could liquor up some of these animated people. I mean how can you have a pirate without a bottle of whiskey?

Hmmm...I tried that but it just kept getting stuck. I'll try again. did you use to move the box? Just curious to see how other folks got through levels. :-)

EDIT:

And in typing the above, I thought of another solution:



EDIT:

Ok, now I've figured out the easiest way to do it of all, using just one single item:

A leash. I never thought to try that. I used a black hole to kill the fox, created a suspension bridge so the sheep could cross and created a shepherd to lead the lamb back to the other side.

Just solved a puzzle by dropping a baby on a land mine. That's just wrong!

Sorry to get back into this whole racial issue but I just want to clarify something. There are two issues here, the different definitions of the word in two different languages and the use of a certain image in the game.

The game uses words from other languages including Spanish. For this reason alone the fact that the Spanish definition is a figleaf gourd is not racist. Now if the image displayed when you input sambo was of a black man or a pair of oversized lips or something like that, that would be racist based on the English definition. However, given it's Spanish definition and image use it was clearly not racist.

I did not know the Spanish definition myself nor did I know the English definition. The reason this is not real news is that basically there was no racist intention, no racist content and the only thing to really complain about is that a word was included that could be misconstrued in a different language. This is too damned PC and shows some people are just looking for racism where there is none. As for the comment on the cigarette, I do believe that if they allowed any tobacco products in the game that word would have to be included also since I believe they used a lot of the British English words in the game. Lets be honest here, it's just a word and if not for someone pointing it out almost nobody would have even noticed.

On a side note, I love this game as do my kids. If there is ever a sequel I hope we can control the character with the arrow keys and that they let loose with the terms we can type in. I so badly want to be able to give my character a beer and a cigar and then drop a poker table in the yard and summon friends. Not sure why I wanna do that in this game, but I really do. Guess it's because the game is so open in many ways.

The more I play the more I think they should have locked down some of the more powerful items. They could have had an in game library where you could purchase words like jetpack, black hole, t-Rex or invisible cloak. This way there would be more incentive to replay levels for maximum Ollars. Another idea would be to have a library card and let you "check out" certain words for a certain number of levels.

I'm using simple tools and replaying levels but merely for my own benefit.

You know, you're probably right. If only someone could have seen this problem coming ahead of time....

But the "problem" is only a problem if someone thinks it makes the game too easy, and that goes back to the fact that the game is what you make of it. I know I can go for the easy win on some of the challenges, but what fun is the game for me then? On the other side, if the easy go-to works for someone else and they have fun doing it, who's to say they're playing it wrong?

And the more creative is rewarded more right? (In terms of extra bonus Ollars.)

I love hitting on the real easy solution when I'm sitting there coming up with these super complicated plans. There was one where I had to get up a high wall to get the star. I was planning all this elaborate stuff to scale the wall when I hit on just trying a fan to blow the star down to me.

Really loving this game though the controls make me go crazy from time to time.

Same here. I was on 3-5(?) the one with the T-rex and egg and the caveman wanted Dino omelettes and heat. I'm giving him a lighter to start a fire, a skillet, some eggs. I'm also killing the mama T-rex trying to figure out how to get the giant egg to the fire on the opposite side of the screen and what works? Conjuring up an omlette and a fire, boom. Star.

I find i'm able to get through a lot of levels just by summoning "lasso" and "pegasus"

I'm glad I discovered Pegasus. Trying to get through levels using the wings and jetpack was frustrating as hell due to the controls being so bad. A bit easier when you can use Pegasus to fly around. I'm on the 5th world now and still having fun though I'm getting to the point I use a lot of go to items frequently. The blob kills any enemy, the tranquilizer gun knocks out people you can't kill, pegasus flies me where I need to go, the jackhammer does all my breaking through and so on.

At Target today I saw the saddest sight I've seen in a while : A 208 page $19.99 Scribblenauts game guide.

If you feel the need to cheat in this game, you probably shouldn't be playing it.

Here's the only strategy guide you'll ever need for Scribblenauts:

I love this game because it pretty much is what you make of it. You'll finish a level with something easy and obvious like a black hole, then go back to see what would be more interesting. Yeah, the controls really suck at times, but the concept is so good that I can forgive them.