Editor's note: Here it is, definitive proof that Scribblenauts is probably good enough to earn you a C- on any bird identification-related tests you might take. - Demian

Scribblenauts is amazingly entertaining, and also the most frustrating thing you have ever laid your hands on. But that's all been written before, so I won't go on about how incredible it is to solve a puzzle using a UFO to lift a cow out of the way of traffic, or the amount of times I cursed trying to get that to work.

Instead, I am putting Scribblenauts to the test. Specifically, the bird test.

Here's what happened: My plan was to hit random letters and see what kind of words I had never heard of came up as possible suggestions for my jibberish, then write a story about that. But I quickly realized that most of my results turned out to be some strange pastry or bird.

Not knowing any pastry experts, I decided to consult my brother Aaron, and his environmental science degree. He has been participating in bird-related activities the last few years. Counting them, or something, I'm not clear on specifics. But the point is, the man knows his birds, so he should be able to put Scribblenauts to the test. The bird test.

Crested Caracara

Scribblenauts' internal spelling gnomes took out the 'Crested' part of the name, but according to Aaron the appearance was accurate. I'm not exactly sure how accurate, as "sure, yeah" wasn't very quantitative, but accurate enough I suppose. If you are in the market for a not-necessarily-crested caracara, Scribblenauts may fulfill your needs.

Bird of Paradise

I told him to pick something more unique this time. Something that wouldn't have a generic version that Scribblenauts could fall back on and caracara us with again. He then informed me that the Crested Caracara is pretty unique, as are the other members of the caracara family (Striated, Red-throated, Carunculated, etc.). What a bird nerd. He came up with Bird of Paradise -- I expected the game might just remove 'of Paradise' and give us a generic bird. Surprisingly, it gave us a Bird of Paradise that looked "sure, yeah" accurate.

Golden Cheeked Warbler

Aaron was still clearly ignorant of the game's internal logic. I knew it was going to give us a generic warbler instead of the specific one that he desired. Sure enough, generic warbler we got. "The colors are all wrong," he said, ornithological-sense no doubt tingling in a bad way. "Well, it just gave us a generic warbler. It took out Golden Cheeked," I explained. I could see him starting to get into this little game I had created for him.

American Redstart

An American Redstart is apparently a kind of warbler, but it doesn't have warbler in the name. I'm not sure if he thought the game would still give us a warbler, or if he was hoping to stump it entirely, but neither of those scenarios came to pass. It did indeed have an American Redstart, and the colors and appearance were sufficiently accurate. "That right there is a Redstart, of the American persuasion," he might have said, but did not.

Blue-Footed Booby

At this point, he was really trying to think of unique and obscure birds that would make it impossible for the devious Scribblenauts to cheat. There was no way to simplify this name without exploding the ESRB's caracara-sized brain. It would either have it or not. It had it. Look at the feet on that Booby. What a pair.

Hoatzin

This was it, our self-imposed final chance to beat the game. He was really thinking. I could just imagine different bird names running through his head, just like I might think of my favorite Pokemon. He mentioned something like Quezacotl, which I recognized as that mythical bird from the Final Fantasy games. I looked up the correct way to spell it, but apparently he wasn't looking for that particular mythical bird. Either way, the game didn't have it, which he wasn't surprised by, but for a game that has Cuthulhu, not having Quezacotl is a fail in my book. Anyway, turns out the bird he was thinking of was a Hoatzin, which the game did have. So I guess I'll count this as we kind of beat the game, but not really. And now I'll know what a Hoatzin looks like next time I'm in the Amazon.

So there you have it. I like to think we won against Scribblenauts in this odd game I've thought up. Sure, it had every single bird that my bird expert could think of, but it cheated several times. And not having Quezacotl is failing in some sort of way, I just can't think of what.

Go to Cerebral Pop for my writings on music, movies, and more, as well as articles from other contributors.