Conceptualizing Scribblenauts is tough. Well, okay, it's an easy enough game to explain to someone as the premise is downright simple. Players take control of Maxwell in a highly stylized, seemingly hand drawn world. Maxwell wants Starites, these white stars that sit as the goal of every level. Players are presented with a puzzle or a set of accomplishments needed in order to earn their Starite. There are ten worlds with 11 "action" games and 11 "puzzle" games; those add up to 220 challenges.

The puzzle mode is straightforward. There's a Starite in the room, use your objects to get it. The action mode is based on satisfying the needs of other characters on screen. You'll help a kitten off of a rooftop in order to please her owner. Do this and you'll get a Starite.

It's how you summon these objects and achieve these goals that makes Scribblenauts exceptionally interesting. Say there's a Starite hanging from the ceiling. It's ten feet above you and you can't jump or climb your way up to it. So, how does Maxwell do it? The control for the game works like this: type in the name of an object and that object is summoned. In this scenario I typed the word "wings"; sure enough, a set of wings appeared. I attached them to Maxwell and flew to the Starite. I reset the level and tried again. This time I wrote "jet pack"; a jet pack popped up.



In case you're wondering about the screenshot above and to the right... yes, that's Maxwell riding a panda with a crown that's riding a motorcycle while approaching a ramp to bridge over a gap of fire. Scribblenauts is awesome.

There's the premise. Like I said, it's an easy title to explain. People hear about the concept and they think, "Okay, that sounds simple enough, but I'm sure it's hampered by the amount of objects within the game". I thought that too, and so I made it my mission to try and come up with an object that didn't fall within reach of Scribblenauts. Warner Bros., the title's publisher, had a PR rep ready to talk us through the game. As I played, we chatted about how she tried the title with her daughter. Not only was it instantly understandable, but she and her daughter were unable to think of something not in the title.

I was told that there are well over 10,000 objects in the game. Just type or write it as you need it, and there you go. Some of the odds and ends that I tried out were a pogo stick, top hat, beard, lemonade and big foot. "Big foot" produced a lurking, hulking Sasquatch that sort of walks around the environment.

A quick word about the controls: Scribblenauts makes things easy by using the touchscreen for everything. I don't think I even thought about touching the buttons on the DS once during my preview. The controls are rather intuitive, touch and move/interact. But I will say that certain inputs lack labels. If you touch an item once Maxwell has summoned it, you can drag that item and drop it onto someone (let's say Maxwell here). You'll then touch another object for Maxwell to interact with using his new item and a menu of choices will pop up. In the build here at E3, the menu was not labeled. What's more, when I held the stylus down on one selection, no label appeared. Of course, once I figured out what something was, I didn't need to know again, but it would have been nice to lessen the learning curve.

The game's progression is based on a reward system. Players will complete levels and challenges in order to earn "Ollars," the game's currency. Ollars will let you buys costumes and levels in order for Maxwell to advance.

I was presented with a problem while I was goofing off and trying to solve puzzles. The big empty rooms with only a Starite and no directives… they became more and more difficult the longer I played the demo. It was like I didn't want to reuse the same tool over again. Instead of a ladder I wanted a trampoline. Instead of a trampoline I wanted a catapult. Instead of a catapult I wanted a… and that's when it hit me. The endless possibilities that this game brings to the table can also be a major source of its difficulty. Imaginative players may find it easy to produce a constant stream of unique tools, but the pressure of limitless availability took its toll on me in about 20 minutes. Can the massive amount of opportunities actually be considered a bad thing?

No, that's not what I'm saying here at all. Scribblenauts is a blast. You'll find yourself going from just trying to solve the puzzles all the way to trying to think of the zaniest solution out there. But the difficulty comes from maintaining originality. The puzzles, sure, they've got their own learning curve. They'll be challenging too, but this game is about more than solving puzzles with objects. It's about imagination. I know that sounds horrifically corny, but I had a blast with this one.

It's scary to think that the possibilities for endless gameplay are staring us all right in the face with this cute, little title that's flying a little low. I know for a fact that some of the folks here at Kombo (readers and staff) are extremely excited about this, and I'll say it's for a damn good reason. Scribblenauts may have the aesthetics and light premise of a game that's perfectly suited for the younger crowd, but this is one that will challenge folks of all ages to think outside the box. That, to me, is incredible.