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Mr. Slaczka will help us ring in the holidays with discussion on 5th Cell's line of creative and innovative Nintendo DS titles, from the wordy Scribblenauts to the tower defense flavored Lock's Quest. 5th Cell's pedigree extends to mobile phone games like Full Spectrum Warrior: Mobile as well, so I'm sure he wouldn't mind bringing that up as well.

Slaczka is the latest in a distinguished line of Kotaku Talk Radio guests, including Randy Pitchford, Amy Hennig, Ken Levine, Tim Schafer, and Clifford the big red Bleszinski.

Tune in Wednesday at 11am Kotaku Time (that's 1pm ET, 10am PT) to call in and ask Jeremiah anything you want about 5th Cell, his games, and what's coming next from this innovative developer.

Look for a reminder post about the podcast at 10:55 AM mountain time (12:55 ET) on Wednesday. The post will include call-in info so you can ask your questions. The show will be live at 11am MT, 1pm ET. We'll expect to hear you calling our switchboard then.

But despite the seemingly obvious educational bent of Slaczka's game, Scribblenauts' potential to teach through fun didn't dawn on the game makers until well into development.

Slaczka said the team at studio 5th Cell didn't discuss the educational possibilities of the mainstream Warner Bros.-published game until they realized the "impact it had on increasing vocabulary, helping with spelling, teaching words in a new language and also creative and critical thinking."

"The game sort of became education through an organic process all on its own."

In Scribblenauts players solve lateral thinking puzzles by writing or typing a word into the DS. If the word is part of the game's more than 22,800-word dictionary, it appears as an interactive objective, creature or person in the game.

If a player spells the word incorrectly, the game suggests possible proper spellings. But knowing what object to summon through typing to make a fireman happy, or break into a safe or distract a zombie is key to solving the puzzles.

A player's vocabulary and imagination deeply impact their experience, Slaczka says: "The more words you know the more crazy stuff you can do."

Game creator Slaczka isn't comfortable calling the game an educational title.

"It has inherent educational potential, but it was never designed with an educational slant in mind," he said. "It was a positive byproduct more than anything else. "

There are also good business reasons to not call Scribblenauts an outright educational game. Traditionally, educational games don't attract mainstream gamers and don't do big mainstream sales.

But Scribblenauts sold 194,000 copies in North America alone in September, the first month it was available and was well-received by reviewers.

While the game isn't marketed as educational, that hasn't stopped some parents and teachers from using the title to help educate.

Slaczka says he's heard anecdotally from parents and teachers who have been using the game to positive effect.

One mother emailed the developer to tell how she bought the game for her son who was having difficulty in school learning to read and write. The woman gave the child a game along with a cheat sheet of ten words for him to try out in the game.

"He learned how to spell those words," he said, "and now she said he's up to two full pages of words that he can spell and understand which I thought was a really awesome story. "

Junior high history teacher Kevin Roughton was most interested in the game's potential to increase a student's ability to think critically. Roughton writes that in the future he hopes to use the game to study different periods in history by limiting the objects they can summon to historically accurate ones.

Writing in his blog, Roughton described how he used the game in his classroom, having the students break into groups to come up with creative ways to solve the problems presented by the game.

"We do not do enough... encouragement of creativity and critical thinking in schools today," he writes. "This forces it!"

Well Played is a weekly news and opinion column about the big stories of the week in the gaming industry and its bigger impact on things to come. Feel free to join in the discussion.

As in the first Nintendo DS title, Drawn To Life: The Next Chapter asks the player to tap into their artistic touchscreen skills to draw platforms, vehicles, weapons and even the game's hero itself—my ninja Musashi, armed with a giant corndog, is just one of almost limitless possibilities—who must return color to the desaturated world and rescue a missing Raposa named Heather. In both the top-down adventure portions and side-scrolling platforming sections, players will flex their creativity to make this Drawn To Life adventure their own.

Should you apply your brush to Drawn To Life: The Next Chapter?

Loved
Presentation & Animation: Everything that I didn't contribute to Drawn To Life: The Next Chapter via touchscreen and stylus looks spectacular. Artist Paul Robertson's amazing sprites animate beautifully, adding charm and character to the game's non-playable Raposa and enemies. Beautifully hand-drawn backgrounds have lush, well-animated detail, ensuring a welcome level of visual variety across the game's five worlds. Save for the clumsy characters and items I drew—I often let the game's suggested template sprites take the place of my own creations—the game is a treat to look at.

Surprisingly Engrossing Story: It may not be wholly original, but the relatively simple tale of The Next Chapter has a few twists and a tender moment or two, made the better thanks to well directed, well scored cut scenes. The game's script is sharp and witty at times, dialogue I did my best not to miss.

Da Blob: The platforming portions start to wear thin quickly, but the addition of two additional forms—the amorphous Blob and wall-crawling Spider—help break up the monotony of playing as a sword or yo-yo wielding Humanoid. There are some clever level designs, some not-too-difficult puzzles that require dexterous use of all three forms.

Improved Creative Tools: Just about everything I crafted with Drawn To Life: The Chapter's graphics editor was an eyesore. But the tools have depth to them I've just begun to explore. A larger color palette and a wealth of interesting templates—plus the ability to add extra limbs!—offer the opportunity for a wide variety of cool or kooky creations. The "Action Draw" sections, which lets the player draw simple platforms using a limited supply, aren't particularly challenging, but they're fun.

Hated
Extended Downtime: Conversations in The Next Chapter can drag on, leading to long stretches of watching, not playing. For the most part, the game is careful not to throw unnecessary monologues and long-winded explanations, but there are a few moments where the narrative starts to wear out its welcome.

Mundane Platforming: The game's platforming sections are easy to blow through, offering little in the way of impressive level design or captivating challenge. There are, however, some well-hidden collectibles scattered throughout the game's 45 levels, but the drive to revisit some of these rather dull levels, especially with Drawn To Life's loose controls and sometimes spotty hit detection, is low.

Drawn To Life: The Next Chapter's biggest strength is its creative tool set. It's a wonderful little artistic outlet, a gorgeously crafted game that plays like it would appeal to a much younger, more patient and passionate player. It doesn't offer much in the way of depth for the more experienced action-adventure fan, but makes up for some of its shortcomings with its copious charm.

There's enough to do, see and collect over the course of the game's storyline to make the journey worth the while. It's just a shame that Drawn To Life: The Next Chapter's gameplay is its weakest link.

Drawn To Life: The Next Chapter was developed by 5th Cell and published by THQ for the Nintendo DS on October 27. (A Wii version developed by Planet Moon Studios is also available, but was not reviewed.) Retails for $29.99 USD on DS. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Played game to completion.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

According to NPD data released today, the Warner Bros. Interactive-published DS game sold nearly 194,000 copies in its first month on the market. That puts it behind Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days as the third bestselling DS game for the month.

Scribblenauts was one of only two third party games to make it into the top ten bestselling games for Nintendo's portable platform, a list dominated by Nintendo-published fare. While 5th Cell may already be hard at work on a new Xbox Live Arcade game, surely they won't leaving money on the table by not producing a sequel, right? Right!

5th Cell co-founder Jeremiah Slaczka teases his studio's XBLA game in a new interview with Gamasutra, one that goes way beyond the promise of unannounced potential greatness.

"We're doing an Xbox Live Arcade title next, and it's going to be pretty big," Slaczka says. Oh, and don't hold your breath for an impending announcement. "It's going to be really cool. We're very excited about it... it's totally not ready to be announced. It's far away."

5th Cell's final (for now) Nintendo DS game, Drawn To Life: the Next Chapter, ships next week.

Interview: 5th Cell Wants To Grow With 'Pretty Big' XBLA Title [Gamasutra]

"Wordplay" was the first title, according to the 5th Cell creative director Jeremiah Slaczka. Yeesh. Slazcka himself called it "really lame and not fun and very generic … We've always gone through a lot of names before we kinda settle on a final name.

He continued:

Scribblenauts was also actually a temp name, which is kind of funny that it actually stuck. Because in the beginning, we were just like, well we need something, we always need something for a pitch and what's the project name. So we were like, "Well, this is quirky and interesting, but maybe not completely what we want to go for." But it just stuck. It made sense. And it wasn't generic at all."

Well here's a toast to temp names. Don't think there's much argument that "Scribblenauts" serves this game far more than something like "Wordplay."

Scribblenauts Wasn't Always Called Scribblenauts [Nintendo Everything via VG247]

Also, this seems like as good a place as any to mention this. Reader Soniking points out that if you write "teleporter" in the game, you're taken to a Scribblenauts version of the 5th Cell development studio. Maybe there you can find out what this announcement's about!

Facebook: Scribblenauts [Facebook, via Joystiq]

Before their most recent game became the talk of E3 and the most buzzed about release of the past week, Washington-based 5th Cell was best known for making Drawn To Life. The 2007 DS adventure let players draw their own hero and items while embarking on a mostly platforming-based quest. Players could illustrate every pixel of their protagonist and draw, among other things, his gun, his wings and the rocket ship he could use in space.

The precursor to Scribblenauts' exhortation for players to write anything was Drawn To Life's invitation for gamers to draw anything.

Sequels to Drawn To Life will be released next month on the Wii and DS. The DS version comes from 5th Cell and, while it is less ballyhooed than Scribblenauts, it may reveal more about 5th Cell's craft and potential as a studio of significance than the game's more hyped younger brother.

I've played through The Next Chapter's first world using a pre-release DS cartridge of the game that I picked up, in person, at 5th Cell's offices a couple of weeks ago. Earlier this week, I wrote about the one time a developer brought a complete build of his game to my office; my 5th Cell visit was the first time I showed up at a studio and walked out with a full build of a new game. What stands out to me about my visit, aside from meeting the 5th Cell team was the company's whiteboard. 5th Cell creative director Jeremiah Slaczka brought me to a board nearly covered in marker drawing and scribble — little wonder what kinds of games this studio makes — and asked me to draw something. This board doesn't get erased. My drawing would stay. I was intimidated by the art on board, but saying "no" wasn't an appropriate answer. I stalled. I almost wimped out. Then, I drew an amoeba. So... maybe I did wimp out?

Playing the new Drawn To Life is a less intimidating version of being asked to draw on that 5th Cell whiteboard. More so than its predecessor, the new game frequently asks its player to illustrate its world. Amid lushly developer-drawn houses and bridges I've had to draw a lighthouse and birds that flap their wings. I've had to draw a beachball for my hero to balance on and a surfboard that lets him ride a wave. I've drawn the health power-ups to be ice-cream cones and the in-game boat to look like a car. The altar from which the player's hero can activate the game's new Action Drawing mechanic looks like a rising stock chart — don't ask me why — and the yo-yo-ish weapon my hero can sling at enemies looks like the ball of fire that a kindergartner or deputy editor might draw.

I've found that, the more the stuff in a game world looks like your own handiwork, the more attached you become to it. But the charm a gamer derives from seeing their creations on screen can be short-lived if the gameplay through which you can animate those creations is lacking. The first game felt shallow to me. I walked my hero around the plagued village of Raposa, which was viewed in the overhead style of most 2D Zelda games and then saw action in simple side-scrolling levels that involved rudimentary jumping and punching. The elements were no different than those in many other 2D games, but their combination, as I experienced in the first game's first few worlds, produced few interesting level designs. 5th Cell's new Drawn To Life appears to surmount this fundamental problem. What was once boring is now fun and varied enough that I didn't want to put it down to write this preview.

This sequel is set after the events of the first game. The seemingly nefarious Wilfre, an inkblot of a possible arch-villain, begins to drain the world of color and warps the citizens of Raposa Village to distant lands. The gamer, assuming the role of god-like creator, is asked by some of the remaining villagers to draw a hero — one who can now have four arms and one leg if you want, by the way. The hero, who I named "M=4," and his friends wind up fleeing their village to the refuge of a small town built on the back of giant sea turtle. Their new mobile home swims them to the game's main worlds. These worlds are rendered as if they are drawings in a book laid open on the DS's bottom screen. At the worlds' edges you can see a book's binding and the pages beneath. In these worlds are structures for the player to color in, characters to talk to, and doorways to the game's side-scrolling action sequences. I played through the game's first main world, the town of Watersong, fighting through some undersea swimming levels, leaping across rooftops and boarding a ghostly pirate ship.

It's hard to articulate how the platforming in the new game is better, but it is, incorporating, to name a few nice features, a simple combo-chaining score mechanic, visually interesting enemies on gondolas and warp-funnels that reminded me of Donkey Kong Country's barrels. What helps the levels is the more frequent need to draw. I was given access only to the most simple of the Action Drawing areas. These mid-level zones are confined rooms that give the player access to a limited amount of ink with which to draw the floating platforms needed to reach an exit. A trailer for the game indicates that other colors of ink that make these platforms springy or movable will become available.

The bullet-point improvements of the new game include a more advanced drawing tool that offers more colors, the ability to swap drawn creations with friends who also have the game nearby and a feature I didn't reach that lets the player transform their hero into a blob or spider with distinct abilities.

When I sat down to talk about the game with Slaczka, though, it wasn't the gameplay features that he said he was the most proud of. It was an aspect seldom promoted for a DS game: The story. 5th Cell games may have cheerful graphics that are associated with simple kids' stuff, but Slaczka, an experienced screenwriter, told me he thinks this story's special. It's hard to grasp its quality having just played a couple of hours of a longer adventure, but there are promising signs. The adventure opens in unusual fashion for a game, putting the player in a very unfamiliar situation, asking them to recall — and draw — a moment they know nothing about. The characters, frankly, don't whine or over-emote the way a lot of kid-game characters do. Early on, the simplicity of a good vs. bad fight is shaded in gray. And apparently there's something up with the game's ending, which the opening credits reveal was drawn by David Hellman, the artist who did Braid. It's clear there's care in this production — how else to explain that when a mid-level moment calls for a song the game suddenly playis a full-length, fully-vocalized song, another DS rarity. How this comes together as a narrative remains to be seen.

There is something to be said about Scribblenauts in all of this. One skeptical reaction vocalized by some players of that game is that 5th Cell may not be able to surround a novel gameplay mechanic with level design and controls that are of equal quality and ingenuity. That criticism could have been levied at the first Drawn To LIfe, but 5th Cell is showing signs with The Next Chapter that, given the chance to iterate with a sequel, they can improve where improvement is needed.

Drawn To Life: The Next Chapter will be available on the DS and the Wii on October 27. The Wii version is developed by Planet Moon (preview here).

We've been enthralled by the concept of Scribblenauts since we first received word of the game in December of last year. Your goal is simple: help Maxwell collect the Starite in each level to proceed to the next. The way you accomplish this goal, however, is where the fun kicks in. By writing words in the lower portion of the DS screen, the associated object appears, allowing you to use it to overcome obstacles standing between Max and his star.

We've put the game's vocabulary to the test on countless occasions. Now it's the video game critics' turn.

Games Radar
If you're like us, you had high hopes for Scribblenauts. This little DS game represents something revolutionary not just for the DS's library, but also (we're being serious) for videogames as a whole. Forgive us if we sound hyperbolic here, but Scribblenauts is one of the most important games to come out this year. Which makes it all the more disappointing that it doesn't quite live up to its potential.

GameSpot
The best part of Scribblenauts is using the massive dictionary to come up with all sorts of wacky ideas. Sure, you could ride a horse from one side of the screen to the other, but why settle for something so mundane? If you have a saddle and a mind-control device handy, you can summon Cthulhu to be your noble steed. When a herd of dinosaurs are bumming you out, you can call forth a superhero to put them in their place, infantilize them with a shrink ray, or just drop a meteor from the sky to trigger a convenient extinction-level event. This creativity is present in the many puzzles as well. In one level, you must transport three deceased criminals from the purgatory in which they currently reside to the pearly gates of heaven. You could construct a bridge between the two eternal planes, but why go through that trouble when an all-forgiving god will absolve them of their sins and transport them to the promised land?

Game Informer
When Scribblenauts is working the way it should, it is an undeniable blast. But unfortunately, this game's skies are not always sunny. The touch-based character controls are touchy to the point that one miniscule tap on the screen can lead to a stage being restarted or a carefully planned strategy falling apart. Moreover, some of the objects I summoned into the world didn't function the way I thought they would. NPCs also get in the way, blocking your ability to pick up an object. These irksome moments pop up more than I care to see. But in the end, I learned to work around them. It's a bit of a crutch, but if you learn to play it through trial and error, you can manipulate the system to work in your favor.

Hardcore Gamer
There are well over two-hundred challenges to complete throughout the campaign of Scribblenauts. Half of these are relatively simple and easy to understand, whereas the other half caters to hardcore and determined players. As you progress through the game, your objectives will become increasingly more difficult, some of which will press you hard for time and quick thinking. This is where the game shines the most as each puzzle is incredibly creative and offers tens, if not hundreds, of ways to complete. There are obvious paths to take, but there are also alternate ways that you may have never considered before.

Play Magazine
Sure, there are frustrations here. Control is the first and most glaring problem in the game. Getting Maxwell from one place to another, using the items we provide him with, is an obvious shortcoming of the game. The physics of the game are unstable; sometimes, we can cheat our way through a room just by jumping at something until we slip past it. Scribblenauts isn't perfect; it's just audacious and unique. I wish I could manipulate Maxwell with the D-Pad. But then again, we're not really controlling the child; we're maestros, conducting the orchestra his reality.

Kotaku
While Scribblenauts is a well crafted puzzle game, its real power is its ability to tap into the soul of the Internet. Finally, someone has created something that puts our vast knowledge of the inane and arcane to use. I can proudly say that I know how to vanquish a griffin, what to summon when I'm confronted by Cthulhu, and why a river is handy when facing Nuckelavee, all without looking it up. Embrace your inner geek, pick up this game.
The writing is on the wall...

You get what appears to be a watermelon.

The word "sambo" is in the 22,802 wordlist we posted previously, between "sambhar" and "samboussa". Other racial terms (not just for African-Americans, but all ethnic groups) turned up nothing. The word "slave" produced an old white man in a tuxedo. "WASP" produces a "wasp". It's worth noting that the characters in the game are a diverse bunch, with African-American models used to depict a variety of jobs including ballerina, firefighter and life guard.

"We are not a racist company and we don't make racist games," Scribblenauts creative director Jeremiah Slaczka told Kotaku when reached by phone tonight. He said that there was no racial intent involving the inclusion of the word "sambo," a term he was not immediately familiar with.

Further discounting any impression that there was an racial intent, Slaczka also told Kotaku that one of the people responsible for finding and adding words to the game was black — to be clear, Slaczka, however, is not saying that an African-American put the word "Sambo" in.

Warner Bros. Interactive, the game's publisher, responded to Kotaku's request for comment Thursday:

"We deeply regret the unfortunate oversight that led to the word being included in the game," a company spokesman said. "The word was included as a reference to a Spanish based term for a fig leafed gourd but clearly upon review the word should have been excluded entirely."

Washington State-based developer 5th Cell said in the game the word sambo refers not to the racial term but to the Spanish term for a fig leaf gourd that resembles a watermelon.

Slaczka said that the word was included in Scribblenauts because it is an ingredient of the Ecuadorian dish Fanesca, which is listed, on Wikipedia, as including a "figleaf gourd," or "sambo." A Google image search of the term "figleaf gourd" produces an image that looks like a watermelon. Slaczka said that it is common to use the same image for multiple words in Scribblenauts and that that is the reason a word meant to depict a figleaf gourd appears to be a watermelon.

In the U.S. though, the word "sambo" has been used to demean and degrade Africans and African-Americans alike. "Sambo" was a common slave name in the U.S., and the late 19th century children's book The Story of Little Black Sambo is cited as furthering the word as a slur. While the book was set in southern Indian, it did play on the blackface iconography and African-American intellectuals have been critical of the pickaninny motifs.

Here is the Online Etymology Dictionary's entry for "Sambo":

Sambo (2)
stereotypical name for male black person (now only derogatory), 1818, Amer.Eng., probably a different word from sambo (1); like many such words (Cuffy, Rastus, etc.) a common personal name among U.S. blacks in the slavery days (first attested 1704 in Boston), probably from an African source, cf. Foulah sambo "uncle," or a similar Hausa word meaning "second son." Used without conscious racism or contempt until circa World War II. When the word fell from polite usage, collateral casualties included the enormously popular children's book "The Story of Little Black Sambo" (by Helen Bannerman), which actually is about an East Indian child, and the Sambo's Restaurant chain, a U.S. pancake-specialty joint originally opened in Santa Barbara, Calif., in 1957 (the name supposedly from a merging of the names of the founders, Sam Battistone and Newell "Bo" Bohnett, but the chain's decor and advertising leaned heavily on the book), which once counted 1,200 units coast-to-coast. Civil rights agitation against it began in 1970s and the chain collapsed, though the original restaurant still is open. Many of the defunct restaurants were taken over by rival Denny's.
sambo (1)
"person of mixed blood in America and Asia," 1748, perhaps from Sp. zambo "bandy-legged," probably from L. scambus "bow-legged," from Gk. skambos. Used variously in different regions to indicate some mixture of African, European, and Indian blood; common senses were "child of black and Indian parentage" and "offspring of a black and a mulatto."

However, included in the loaded "Sambo" term are things like blackface and other tropes like unkempt hair and watermelons — tropes used to degrade and oppress African-Americans into simple, comical characters. In short, to dehumanize and objectify. From the post-Civil War era, food items like fried chicken and watermelon were used to stereotype "darky" African-Americans. The popular culture depiction of African-Americans during the late 19th and early 20th century was stuffing their faces with watermelons and gnawing on fried chicken.

There was even a New Jersey brand of watermelon called "Sambo brand".

The watermelon images and "sambo" slurs reduced African-Americans to two-diminsional characters. Similar sambo and watermelon imagery have been used by those unhappy with President Obama. As The Chicago Sun-Times' Mary Mitchell writes, "The smiling "darkey" eating watermelon was a popular image during America's racist past, and was the one of the stereotypes used by Obama-haters during the presidential campaign."

Both "sambo" and the image of a watermelon carry the baggage of the American experience regarding racism. There is a connection between them. A long, painful and oppressive one.

Thanks Zachery for the tip! [Pic]

Stephen Totilo and Brian Crecente contributed to this report.

Scribblenauts is out to prove that it's more than just a clever, a really clever, game mechanic and that the "Write Anything, Solve Everything" puzzle game from 5th Cell is worth your money and a permanent spot in your Nintendo DS or DSi.

But does the game do more than provide gamers with a glorified visual, animated dictionary? Is it a game worthy of its own unique mechanic? Let see.

Loved
The Write Stuff: While Scribblenauts is a classic puzzle game at its heart, the thing that separates it from like titles is the ability to type or write just about anything they can think of (minus trademarks and profanity) and have it appear in the game. This staggering new mechanic, writing a word and seeing it pop onto the DS screen in cartoon form, is alone worth the price. The fact that you can then use these inventions to try and solve riddles or make your way to the game's Starites is all bonus.

Broad: Developer 5th Cell isn't saying just how many words are available for you to summon in Scribblenauts. All we do know is that there are more than 22,800 of them available in the game. And we're not just talking about words found in your typical dictionary. There are plenty of fun little surprises including Internet memes, urban legends, chemical compounds and even the intangible. This incredible, expansive word list, essentially all new toys that can be used to play and replay levels, is one of the keys to the game's success.

Deep: It's one thing to include tens of thousands of words and their animated counterparts in a game. But to define them, that's a whole other Herculean task. And the game does just as good a job defining, categorizing and animating all of these bits of pop culture, history, science, existence as it does in creating the list. Each summoned word has specific potential, likes, dislikes, history, weaknesses and strengths. It's staggering how deep the game can go.

Interactions: Finally, pulling everything together neatly is the game's ability to look at varying objects and decide how they might interact. The game knows that when the sun comes out a vampire turns to dust. It knows you can shoot a human to kill him or her, but not a zombie. But that's the easy stuff. The things that have been covered in countless books. But what about the bizarre, the unthinkable. What happens when you hand this world of possibilities, of limitless interactions over to a gamer? Hilarity, in my experience.

Take for instance a problem I ran into in the 150th or so puzzle I was working on. Confronted by an area teeming with West Virginia's legendary Flatwoods Monster, my initial thought was to take out one urban legend with another. So I quickly typed in Chupacabre. Only I mistyped it and accidentally summoned not the panther-like, blood-sucking lizard of Mexican lore, but the delicious Mexican snack, a chalupa.

Flummoxed, I dropped the chalupa in the hand of one of the monsters and summoned a vampire instead. The vampire quickly attacked the Flatwoods Monster who, seemingly confused by the treat she was just handed, began to swat at the creature with the chalupa. The vampire made quick work of her while I watched on belly laughing.

These are the moments that make this game sing. And they are plentiful.

Lateral Thinking: Because the game offers gamers an almost unlimited supply of objects, tools and creatures with which to tackle the game's riddles and puzzles, the way to solve any given problem is incredibly varied. To deal with this, on some level I believe, many of the game's levels feel like lateral thinking puzzles. Lateral thinking puzzles are the sort of brain twisters that challenge your preconceived notions and force you to approach problems in unique ways. I've long been a fan of these sort of puzzles, so it wasn't long into the game that I started to recognize their presence in many of the challenges I faced and the solutions I found.

Not only do these sorts of puzzles provide a more engaging experience, and certainly one better fitted to the nearly omnipotent powers of the gamer in Scribblenauts, they are also the sort of puzzles that children tend to be quite good at, expanding the game's potential audience.

Pop Culture: I've already touched on the breadth and depth of the game, but it's worth circling back to point out just how amazing it is that a game that includes the likes of worm holes, hydrochloric acid and Einstein, also includes the Keyboard Cat and Flatwood Monsters. This integration of pop culture makes the game feel that much more approachable and gives the developers countless opportunities to sneak inside jokes and funny asides into the title. That's the sort of thing that can win over a fan for life.

Charming Art: The cleverly crafted puzzles and amazing mechanic is backed by a delightful art style that makes everything, no mater how deadly, dangerous or disgusting, really cute. Tapping into this, the game even allows you to unlock different creatures to use as your avatar as you play through Scribblenauts. I went with a pirate.

Create Your Own: I was surprised to find that Scribblenauts also allows gamers to create their own challenges. The method of creation is startlingly easy. You essentially drop objects into a room and place the end-goal Starite. You can even assign moods or actions to creatures and people with a simple interface. The end result is a tool set that is easy to use and allows for fairly deep custom level creation. That's certain to greatly extend the game's life.

Hated
Touchy Avatar: The one major problem I ran into with Scribblenauts is a doozie: The controls. Unfortunately, the detailed, tiny animations and the need to control everything with the touchscreen don't combine very well. To move your main character around, Maxwell, you tap on the screen and he moves to that point. The d-pad, meanwhile, is used to move the camera around the screen. The problem is that if you're trying to interact with an object, like attaching a recently summoned rope to a boulder, and you accidentally miss that very tiny rope, you may send Maxwell running toward you... often with fatal results.

I can't tell you how many times I lost a level simply because an object moved as I went to tap it or I mistapped and Maxwell ran off a cliff. It's incredibly frustrating. It's so frustrating that it proves just how amazing the rest of the game is, because despite the annoyance I played through nearly all of it.

Word Confusion: This isn't nearly as bad as the control issue, but I was annoyed that my use of phrases sometimes resulted in what I wanted and sometimes didn't. Typing shark and robot shark, for instance, result in the same thing: A shark. But sometimes, that isn't the case. For instance there are both zombies and robot zombies. This issue is most annoying when you're trying to apply size or length to something like a rope or a rock and it works with certain words and not others.

In Scribblenauts you truly get as much out of it as you put into it. I found that many of the puzzles can be solved with pretty routine ideas. You can simply summon up a dragon and clear the room of monsters, or you could arm one of your monster foes with a Mexican snack and have a vampire attack. The fun is up to you.

While Scribblenauts is a well crafted puzzle game, its real power is its ability to tap into the soul of the Internet. Finally, someone has created something that puts our vast knowledge of the inane and arcane to use. I can proudly say that I know how to vanquish a griffin, what to summon when I'm confronted by Cthulhu, and why a river is handy when facing Nuckelavee, all without looking it up.

Embrace your inner geek, pick up this game.

Scribblenauts was developed by 5th Cell and published by Warner Bros. Interactive for the Nintendo DS on September 15. Retails for $29.99 USD. Solved 159 of the 231 levels included in the game's action and puzzle modes, including the last levels. Created a level.

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An online article quotes Jeremiah Slaczka, creative director at game development studio 5th Cell, told the outlet that the the weekend word count report missed some words:

"That was leaked by a hacker who does not know anything. It's more than that," Slaczka said.

Scribblenauts, which will be out tomorrow on the Nintendo DS, offers players a couple of hundred 2D platforming and puzzle challenges, all of which can be solved using objects, people and creatures that the player writes into the game. The game was programmed to recognize and render as many kid-safe, non-trademarked names as possible. Most proper names were excluded as well. No Batman. No Brian Crecente. And no naughty words. But it does have everything from dog to gun to god.

Slaczka confirmed to me at a Scirbblenauts event at the Nintendo World Store on Sunday that the game doesn't have the word dromedary in it, so there is room for improvement. But as to what the real word count is, he didn't reveal it to Fast Company and won't spill the beans yet. I've asked.

[In Scribblenauts, Your Vocabulary Controls the Game - Fast Company.com.]
[PIC via NeoGAF's ShinoguTakeruKoeru]

I've been wondering how well Scribblenauts would work over in the UK, as over there taking off your pants has far stronger connotations than it does on the U.S. side of the pond. Well now we know, thanks to a press release assuring UK customers that they can safely draw water from a tap, stroll down the pavement, and partake of an ice lolly without having to mess about with our butchery of the language.

"Fear not mistaken pants-over-trouser-wearers, as Scribblenauts developer, 5th Cell, has gone out of its way to localise the UK release of Scribblenauts to include words specifically for the UK market. Faucets, popsicles, sidewalks, diapers and, of course, the meaning mess that is football and soccer, will confuse British DS owners no more..."

Scribblenauts for the Nintendo DS will be out on October 9th...sorry, 9th October in the UK.

Fortunately, 5th Cell creative director Jeremiah Slackza is here to do the hard sale, explaining how the game came about and why it is for everyone.

Scribblenauts Exclusive Developer Video Diary [Game Videos]

To set this up you need to know that Scribblenauts is a Nintendo DS game developed by 5th Cell and published by Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment, slated for release in the U.S. on September 15.

The 2D game's hook is that it allows players to type in just about any kid-safe concrete noun (no proper names), and the game will render it. Objects rendered can be used by the game's hero, Maxwell. Living things that are created have rudimentary intelligence, so a vampire might attack, say, a police man.

The game has puzzle levels and action levels, both of which involve collecting a star piece called a Starite. In the action levels, the Starite is shown in the level and the player has to figure out how to get it for Maxwell.

In the puzzle levels, which this post is about, the Starite will appear only when each level's condition is met. I uploaded a video to show you a fly-through of Scribblenauts' 11th level in its first world. The goal was to collect three flowers without dying, destroying the flowers or letting a girl who is holding a basket and awaiting the flowers die.

Attempt 1: Created bear to attack bee buzzing over first flower, so I could safely grab the flower. Bear killed bee. Bear then killed Maxwell. Level failed.

Attempt 2: Made bear; bear killed bee. Laid down bear trap. Died. Level failed.

Attempt 3: Made bear; bear killed bee. Laid down bear trap, ran away. Bear didn't chase. Ran back over. Caught self in bear trap. Mauled by bear. Level failed.

Attempt 4: Made bear; bear killed bee; laid trap. Bear caught in trap. Bear broke free. Killed Maxwell. Level failed.

Attempt 5: Made exterminator. Exterminator fumigated bee. Exterminator did not maul Maxwell. Has Maxwell grab first flower and placed it in basket. Approached lake containing piranha and second flower. Fell in. Jumped out. Made fishing pole. Fished piranha out. On land, piranha flopped, attacked, killed Maxwell. Level failed.

Attempt 6: Made exterminator. Exterminator fumigated bee. Did not grab first flower. Approached piranha lake. Made fishing boat. Dropped big boat into lake. Boat must have crushed flower. Level failed.

Attempt 7: Made exterminator. In a twist, exterminator failed to fumigate bee. Bee attacked fleeing exterminator. Bee stung exterminator to death. Bee killed flower basket girl. Level failed.

Attempt 8: Made gun. Shot bee dead. Gun disappeared. Made gun again. Approached piranha lake. Attempted to shoot piranha dead. Bad shooting angle and touchy controls prevented this. Either was too far away and shooting into ground (game was connecting Maxwell's gun to fish in straight line; allowing me to select a "shoot" prompt when tapping on piranha, even though trajectory was blocked. New idea: Made corpse. Threw corpse into piranha lake. Piranha attacked corpse. Dove for flower. Piranha finished corpse and ate Maxwell. Level failed.

Attempt 9: Made gun. Shot bee dead. Made hand grenade. Tossed it into piranha lake. Greande killed fish. Grenade killed flower. Level failed.

Attempt 10: Made gun. Tried to shoot bee dead. Bullet ricocheted and destroyed first flower. Level failed.

Attempt 11: Made beekeeper. Beekeeper fled from bee (?). Made exterminator. Exterminator killed bee. Made fisherman. Fisherman cowered near piranha lake (??). Made fishing pole and gave to fisherman. Fisherman looked like he was about to fish but instead fell into lake and was eaten. (Some of the characters are kind of dumb.) Made another fisherman. Gave him pole. Couldn't figure out how to make fisherman fish. Accidentally made Maxwell fall in lake. Piranha latched on. Death. Level failed.

Attempt 12: Made hot air balloon. Put Maxwell in it. Flew over piranha lake. Made gun. Shot at fish. Gun destroyed hot air balloon instead. Fell into lake. Jumped out of lake. Made corpse. Threw it into lake to draw fish away. Made gun to shoot fish while it ate corpse. Shots didn't hit. Made new corpse and tried with sniper rifle. Didn't work. Dove in and just grabbed flower. Success. Bee was gone. Put lake flower in basket. Put bee flower in basket. Made helicopter to get to high ridge for final flower. Was afraid to land helicopter on ledge, out of fear of destroying flower. Tried to jump out of helicopter. Fell into piranha lake. Died. Level failed.

Attempt 13: Made gun. Shot bee dead. Got first flower. Made two corpses. Tossed them into piranha lake for distraction. Dove and recovered second flower. Made truck and dumped it into lake. Did same with a boat. Tried climbing over those vehicles to get to ledge and final flower. Vehicles shifted; Maxwell thrown into ridge wall. Died. Level failed.

Attempt 14: Made gun. Shot bee dead. Made hot air balloon. Flew to ridge. Got out, grabbed flower. Parked balloon plummeted to lake and killed lake flower. Level failed.

Attempt 15. Same as attempt 14, except replace "gun" with "machete;" and "shot" with "chopped after accidentally destroying nearby house." Level failed.

Attempt 16. Made gun. Shot bee dead. Made hot air balloon. Flew to ridge. Got out, grabbed flower. Got back in balloon. Safely put cliff flower in basket. Put bee flower in basket. Threw corpses into piranha lake to distract fish. Dove in and grabbed lake flower. Jumped out. Put lake flower in basket. Starite found! Success!

I had fun figuring this one out. It was ranked as being of mid-level difficulty. The interface impressively recognized whatever I typed into it. Maxwell's touch-based movement controls took some getting used to... better to touch the part of the ground where you want him to stop then just touching the general direction you want him to move. And item-wielding sometimes turned into accidental item-tossing, since both using and tossing are based on tapping the screen. Small frustrations. The level was a delight.

I just wish beekeepers were braver people.

I will ignore bad words, so don't waste my time.

Look for a preview of Scribblenauts' gameplay next week. For now, let's mess around with turning words into virtual objects in the game's menu screen.

I'll start: I typed "boy," and a boy appeared. I typed "blob" and a blob appeared and attacked the boy.

I typed "president" and got a white guy in a suit. I typed "Republican and got the same guy." I typed Democrat and again got that guy.

Suggestions?

(The game's out on September 15, from development studio 5th Cell and publisher Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment.)

The 5th Cell developed game has players scribble the names of items that they can then use to help solve the more than 200 puzzle and action-themed challenges.

To celebrate the looming date, and perhaps rub in the fact that they still haven't sent us that promised early build of the game, WB released a two sparkly new screens from the innovative puzzler.

So, woohoo, even though this game depends on a zillion-word vocabulary and there is tons of localization to be performed - you see, "spotted dick" draws something completely different on this side of the pond - it's only gonna be a 10 day wait before Brits can pit hyenas vs. Keyboard Cat with steak stuck to his face.

Scribblenauts UK Release Date [Eurogamer via RipTen]