Game of the Show

Scribblenauts

• Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
• Developer: 5TH Cell
• Platforms: DS
• Release Date: Sep 15, 2009

E3 2009 Editors' Choice Winner for Game of the Show

Let's not beat around the bush: the last two E3s were monumentally disappointing, offering few surprises and even less excitement. However, the show returned this year with a bang and included a lineup of spectacular games that easily bested the selections from years past. Just in terms of the exciting games on hand, this year's E3 was one of the best yet, with sequels to heavy hitters such as Forza Motorsport 2, Assassin's Creed, God of War, and Modern Warfare on display. But it wasn't a sequel that impressed us most. It was a little-known Nintendo DS game called Scribblenauts.

Find out what games made the list for GameSpot's E3 '09 Editors' Choice Awards!

When people first hear of Scribblenauts, they often think, "That's impossible. There's no way that's going to work." But somehow, it does. Scribblenauts transported us back to our childhood, when the world was our playground and anything and everything seemed possible. The basis of Scribblenauts is this: You type in the name of an object, any object (so long as it's not copyrighted), via the touch-screen keyboard, and the object immediately appears inside the game's world. Words such as "cat," "soccer ball," and "police car" all spawn the object you would expect. But the game goes much further than that, recognizing words such as "unicorn," "rocket launcher," and even "Ebola." Whatever we threw at it instantly appeared, seemingly magically. Once you've summoned your objects of choice, you can then interact with them. You can take the police car for a joy ride, catch a ride on a unicorn, or use a rocket launcher to fend off the army of zombies you've created. The possibilities seem endless, as our battle between God and a manticore clearly demonstrated, though neither was a match for the black hole we spawned soon after.

Everything we've just described can be performed on the game's title screen: a virtual sandbox that doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of what Scribblenauts offers. The core of the game is wrapped around its 200-plus levels, each challenging you to use whatever objects you can imagine to complete the stated objectives. For instance, many of the missions require you to collect a star positioned somewhere out of reach. One level we saw had the star at the top of a tree; most players instinctively spawn a ladder to gain unfettered access to the star. But more-creative players may summon, say, a slingshot, to shoot the star out of the tree instead. We can't even imagine how many ways there must be to reach that star, but judging from what we saw at E3, we'll have a blast finding out.

The game apparently even has a robo-rex!

Scribblenauts is simply one of the most original games we've ever seen. Whereas most games offer a limited number of options at any given time, the only restriction in Scribblenauts seems to be the limits of your imagination. That's not to take away from any of our other finalists, all of which look fantastic. But the fact that 5TH Cell was able to competently pull together a seemingly impossible concept and execute it in a manner that is captivating, exhilarating, and ground-breaking is precisely why it's our Game of the Show.