You would have had to be marooned on a desert island to not have heard about the critically acclaimed Nintendo DS game called Scribblenauts from developer 5th Cell. I had the pleasure of spending some quality time with Production Director, Brett Caird during gamescom 2010. Even given its outstanding success and blazing innovation there is seemingly always room for improvement and further innovation!

Some of the key criticisms of the first Scribblenauts were the user interface and the repetition. These aspects were identified through scouring the reviews, forum feedback and through the developers own interaction with the game. All these aspects were ranked high on the design list for resolution in Super Scribblenauts. You now get a clear progress indication bar to let you know visually how far you are to completing a level. Whenever you accomplish a goal you get immediate feedback instead of wondering if you got it right thanks to a shiny green tick icon. Almost as important is the updated camera mechanic which now no longer auto resets so you can relax, leaving the view how you want it. The new interface works and I am sure it will be well received.

The new feature this edition is the inclusion of adjectives to use for your creations. So now you can really get those creative juices flowing and spawn those “giant pink anacondas” you have been holding out for. The adjectives unlock a whole new dimension to the game, which has been put to good use in the 120 levels that ship with it. There are 100 puzzle based levels and 20 action levels.

Once you have whipped the campaign and are feeling all creative why not open up the level creator. It too featured high on the design list and with the updates to it you can now really create a fantastic level with very little effort at all. Once you are done you can even send your level to your friends and see what they can make of your brilliance. You can also save up to 8 custom created levels on the DS. For those Scribblenauts fans out there you can rejoice at the persistence added to the playground mode. It now keeps everything as you left it so you can jump right back into the action without having to set up from scratch.

The scoring system has been completely overhauled as it rewarded constraint instead of promoting creativity. Where you scored for economical use of words you now earn rewards for using new words. This just makes so much sense you look back and think why wasn’t it like this from the start, it is so obvious.

Super Scribblenauts comes out this October and given the overhauled user interface and inclusion of adjectives along with 800 hundred new words it will surely be a hit. For first time buyers it is a must and even if you already own the first one this is a worthwhile investment. It will be available in 10 languages so there is absolutely no excuse to not get involved in this innovative experience.

The game was also crowned the best mobile/handheld title at this year’s gamescom event, quite a high achievement given the caliber of the contenders, God of War: Ghost of Sparta, Professor Layton & the Unwound Future and The Sims 3.