Hands on with Super Scribblenauts on DS

Scribblenauts was one of those titles that could only really work on the Nintendo DS - an ambitious if flawed title that combined the fantastic idea of writing creatures and objects into existence with solving puzzles.

It also split players into three camps – those who enjoyed it despite the controls; those who liked it but hated the controls; and those who went around saying ‘yeah, but if you write God you can basically win every level. Oh and the controls suck’.

For the sequel, 5th Cell is looking to address a lot of the major complaints by altering the controls and adding a lot more variety into the types of things that can be created. It still requires some imagination to get the most out of it, though.

We went hands on with the game at Nintendo’s recent London event to find out what’s been scribbled out and what’s been written in.

The headline feature on the back of the box may be the addition of 10,000 extra words to the already fairly dense dictionary, but for returning players the most welcome change isn’t one that can quite so happily sell the game.

At least, I’ve never seen ‘it no longer has a really annoying control system’ emblazoned on a box for a sequel.

Yes, the touch-to-move of the previous Scribblenauts is finally consigned to the great waste bin in the sky, meaning that those who found themselves wrestling with Maxwell as he tried to repeatedly jump off a cliff can breathe a sigh of relief.

Instead, 5th Cell has gone with both a D-pad and touch-and-drag methods, the latter still feeling slightly odd – especially when objects were close-by to Maxwell - but both were was far less random than the previous method.

The little blighter appears to have been slowed down a little as well, meaning that his sudden bursts of speed as he hurtled to his inevitable death have also been erased.

For those who fall into the first camp of Scribblenauts players (the ones I like to refer to as ‘very forgiving’), the addition of adjectives to the mix should get tongues wagging.

It didn’t appear to have that much effect in practical gameplay terms – unless it’s a something like ‘Large ladder’ – but the increased number of options should unleash a whole new legion of creative creations, and any occasion where writing ‘nervous badger’ creates a skittish mammal should be celebrated.

Super Scribblenauts is looking like the game Scribblenauts really should have been. With a number of the more serious kinks ironed out and more opportunities to write silly objects into existence, I can’t see fans of the first game not liking this new edition when it launches in October.