Puzzle games have always existed within a predefined set of rules. Scribblenauts kicks those rules in the face, instead defining its own path towards the future of gaming. Despite being the first game that I got to try at E3 2009, it was the one that I thought about the most throughout the rest of the expo. A 2D puzzle game by design, Scribblenauts is only limited by what your imagination can come up with, offering thousands of unique possibilities which guarantees that no two people’s experiences will be remotely similar. So what exactly is it?

Scribblenauts is a stylus-controlled puzzle-platformer that has you guiding a boy named Maxwell to collect objects called Starites in each of the 220 included levels. There is nothing in the environment to help Maxwell reach these Starites, and many levels include hazards that the hero must overcome. To achieve his goals, the player must pull down a text menu, which allows you to type any word that you can think of. That word--if it can be manifested as a physical object--will then spawn in front of your character. For example, if there is a Starite located on a platform that is just out of your reach, you can create a ladder, stairs, a boulder, a ramp, a trampoline, a grappling hook, or just about anything else imaginable that would help you get onto that ledge. I asked the developer for a rough count of how many objects are being included in the game, and he said that he has no clue. The team literally went through the dictionary and created in-game representations for everything that they could find, allowing you to solve the puzzles using any method that you can come up with.