Scribblenauts was the darling of E3, rounding up a hojillion awards—including a Golden Ars—and impressing everyone who stopped by for a demo. It was a game that showed very well, especially with a developer on hand to point out any number of interesting situations. The premise is simple, although it hides an abyssal depth: you are asked to either reach a star, or to fulfill the requirements to earn one. The tools at your disposal? The world.

Title Scribblenauts Developer 5th Cell Publisher Warner Bros. Price $29.99 Platform Nintendo DS

You can type in or write any word you can think of, and get that item or person to help you in your quest. No dirty words, and no proper nouns, nothing copyrighted—but even without those limitations, you're looking at tens of thousands of items. Type in "pirate" to fight a ninja. Type in "bridge" to cross an expanse, or type in "motorcycle" and "ramp" and jump it. You gain currency by using fewer items, and also by using creative solutions, and you use that currency to unlock new worlds.

There are two types of levels: action levels where you simply have to get to the starite item, using your reflexes as well as your wits; and puzzle, where you are given a one-sentence instruction about what to do. It may say "get rid of the rats," and in that sentence are dozens of possibilities. In fact, you only completely clear out a level by finishing it three times, without using any item more than once. Much harder than it sounds.

The controls are way more twitchy than they need to be, and will often lead to frustrating deaths. You can attach items to each other, but the physics are weird. If you miss the connection points—say, between a jet and a chain—things can get odd as the jet does a few flips for no reason. If you try to hold a chain that's jumping for some reason and miss it? Your character thinks you're telling him to move, which is bad news when you're surrounded by lava.

You'll often find yourself calling shenanigans on some of the interactions. At one point I had to fight a dragon. A knight and a superhero were both offed by the beast. A bazooka round? No effect. A sniper rife? Nothing. A bomb? Didn't faze him. If you put a wall in front of a moving character they'll often just knock it over instead of being stopped by it. When I tried to fish a piranha out of a moat, it simply jumped over to where I was standing and ate me. Why would my spawned superhero kill a knight that was apparently guarding a castle, and cause me to fail the level?

I know the gunshots will scare the sheep, but "silencer" isn't an item in the game? Bah!

This is a frustrating, often maddening game. When you find the answer to a puzzle that has been giving you trouble it's a great feeling, but it's often overshadowed by attempts that make perfect sense, but simply don't work. The difficulty level is often wildly uneven, although that will probably differ depending on each individual. I found some puzzles way too easy; others nearly impossible. One level simply placed a tornado in your path and asked you to get past it. Sounds simple, but the weatherman didn't know what to do, it threw my truck like it was nothing, God didn't seem to want to help, but I'll be damned if a (SPOILER) didn't take care of it right quick.

The good news is that with the in-game currency system (called "ollars") you earn money by solving each puzzle well, and you don't need to finish every puzzle in every world to move forward. If you're stuck on a level or puzzle, move on to another one, and let your brain work on it while you're away from the game. I often thought of new solutions or ideas while I was supposed to be thinking of something else. This is a game that will monopolize your brain cycles.

My advice? Find a child to play with. While adults can easily get stuck in the same ruts while thinking about solutions to puzzles—I usually used a jet pack or wings to get where I was going—children seem to have no problem throwing solution after solution at problems. When a game actively rewards the thinking of children over that of adults, we're on to something special.

Conclusions

The game also gives you the ability to create your own levels, and this process is just as intuitive as the main gameplay. You create an item, place it, attach it to others, use the game's simple scripting language to set up relationships, write your own hints, and pick music. In seconds I was able to make Death scared of both Priests and Doctors, and after that my mind started to really go.

Make a cop protect the donuts. Make a hippy scared of soap. Give Jack Thompson a shout out by making gamers attracted to guns. You won't be able to stir every hornet's nest, however—I couldn't find "Bible" as an object in the game.

If you'll excuse a quick lecture: There is a leaked copy of the game out there now, and I'm sure everyone here knows where to look. Our own forum has more than a few people offering up impressions from the pirated copy of the game. I hope those who decided to treat themselves to a sneak preview decide to buy now that the game is available. For the few issues the game has, this is something undeniably new and impressive. We need to support developers and publishers who go out on a limb and create something fresh with our money. Do the industry a favor and buy if you liked it.

Verdict: Buy