Handheld wonder Scribblenauts, with its vocabulary of tens of thousands of words and fantastic flexibility to solve puzzles in multiple creative ways, is shaping up to be the game of the year.
Scribblenauts was Gamesmaster's favourite game at the 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo, and many other critics agreed, with the title winning best handheld game and most innovative game in the prestigious Game Critics Awards.
The game features over 200 puzzles that can be solved in countless different ways. Your main weapon is your own vocabulary - you can summon a huge variety of objects just by writing the object's name on the DS console's touch screen.
Much of the joy of Scribblenauts is the surprise that the game will recognise almost anything you throw at it, and what effect your objects can have when conjured into one of the 220 levels. For example, you can write "ladder" and a ladder will appear that might help you climb a tree to reach a star, or you could try writing axe to chop down the tree instead.
Items you can conjure include animals, weapons, vehicles, household objects, famous people and forces of nature. Items can even be used together, such as chaining a piece of meat to a pole and holding it while riding on a raptor.
The game is due in September from Warner Bros Interactive.