Super Scribblenauts Updated Hands-On

Giant baby. That was the first phrase we typed into Super Scribblenauts, the sequel to the game that introduced the concept of typing in a noun and having it appear instantly onscreen for the game's cute little hero to interact with. New for this second game--among other things detailed in our first look from E3--is the ability to add adjectives, meaning any object you pop in there can be modified to your heart's content. Furry igloo? Check. Fire-breathing hippopotamus? Dangerous, but check. Winged flying hobo? Kind of weird, but yeah, you can make that. It just so happens that we made a six-foot-tall baby that we then rode around like a horse. While wearing a suit of armor. And trying to slay a dragon.

Yes, Scribblenauts is an inherently silly, ridiculous game just like its predecessor. But developer 5th Cell hasn't spent all its time in development just goofing off. The studio is aiming to improve on the original with what we're told is a roughly 50/50 mixture of fixes to things that were criticized in Scribblenauts and brand-new elements the studio just didn't have the time to add the first time around. The big change is the addition of D pad controls for the hero Maxwell (as well as less fidgety movement that made him susceptible to flinging himself from the game's two-dimensional ledges). Ideally, this will help you solve the game's 120 levels much more painlessly. Of these 120, roughly 100 of them are puzzle scenarios, while 20 are of the more action-platforming variety. You can expect a large number of puzzle scenarios to take advantage of the new adjective system by requiring an object that has been modified in a clever enough way to solve a given scenario.

At the end of the day, it's hard to not have a good time goofing around for a bit in Super Scribblenauts, spawning things like the aforementioned monstrosities. Whether or not the game will be able to improve upon its predecessor--a fun game that still fell shy of grandiose expectations--is going to depend a lot on how well those 120 levels will keep your attention. You can expect to find that out when the game arrives in stores on October 12.