Hands on With 'Super Scribblenauts': Now, With More Words

The original 'Scribblenauts' game for the Nintendo DS was somewhat revolutionary. In some ways, it was a group game, as people argued over suggestions and solutions. For others, it was the first time they were really, truly mentally engaged by a handheld game. Lastly, it proved what we already suspected: wordsmiths with diverse cultural knowledge (like us!) could play games too!

With a brilliantly simple premise, 'Scribblenauts' asks the players to solve simple puzzles by writing objects into life. That was it; just write. The game's knowledge base was impressive, riddled with Easter Eggs like "Cthulhu," "Keyboard Cat" or just, "Win." Initially, it got rave reviews and is generally cited as being a creative little game with infinite replay value. However, the mechanics were just awful. 'Scribblenauts' played as if all of the R&D went into the dictionary and the avatar and his movements were an afterthought. Hours were spent trying to release objects, or stop Maxwell (the protagonist) from making horribly dumb moves. We forgave the game for its missteps because this wasn't about agility or smoothness, but puzzle-solving.

So today at E3, we got some face time with Max again, eager to see the new possibilities that the wizards at 5th Cell have in store for their hyped-up return. We got on, poked around and saw that 'Super Scribblenauts' is actually, well, really aptly named, as it's a suped-up version of the original. The loose, wobbly controls of the first one are still there (imperceptibly tightened), the same characters and a similar system map appear, and there's quite a bit of words. So many words. Big, fat, leaping and colorful words. (See what we did there? We gave you adjectives, and so does 'Super Scribblenauts.')

Yes, adjectives are what put the 'Super' (literally!) into 'Scribblenauts' this time around, and it's pretty darn adorable. We made a big fat cat. We put William Shakespeare on said cat, and donned a pair of striped pants for the occasion. Though we haven't gotten deep enough into the game to claim that the descriptors do anything to increase game play, it certainly made things funny.

So 'Super Scribblenauts' is just that: 'Scribblenauts,' but bigger, funnier and more linguistic. We would have loved to see an analog input, allowing the player to write instead of hunting and pecking those tiny letters, but no dice. The game still has all the pitfalls of its predecessor, but it also maintains its addictive adorableness too. So we guess 5th Cell used the old trick -- find something that works, stick with it, and if it ever gets old, give it a pair of striped pants and a giant cat to make it fresh again.

Tags: 5th cell, 5th-Cell, 5thCell, e3, E3 2010, E32010, hands-on, handson, nintendo ds, NintendoDs, scribblenauts, super scribblenauts, SuperScribblenauts, top, videogames