As it turns out, I didn't manage my E3 schedule too well. When Warner Bros. announced in early May that they would be publishing Scribblenauts, I should have known to schedule my appointment with them for early in the day. Instead, my time at the Warner Bros. booth was set for the last hour the show floor was open. Needless to say, the entire day felt like it took forever, as the clock slowly crept toward the moment in which I would finally be able to get my hands on the game.

When we finally strolled up to the kiosk, I could feel my heart racing. Let's be serious, a video game should not be able to do this to me, especially a third-party Nintendo DS title. But as it stood, my adrenaline was rushing more than I had expected. There was a gentleman from Warner Bros. chatting with me about the basic principles of the game, but I couldn't focus on a word he said. My eyes were squared directly on the system in front of me. I imagined this was probably what the rapture would feel like.

Now then, in the obscure chance you've been in the dark about Scribblenauts, allow me to give you a quick overview. Essentially, it's a puzzle game in which the main character, Maxwell, must get to a star located somewhere on the screen. There are two types of levels in the game. On one hand, there are levels in which the star can be plainly seen in the environment, and the goal is to simply get Maxwell's hands on it. On the other hand, there are more scenario-driven levels, in which you must fulfill a certain set of circumstances (like getting a beached whale back into the water) for the star to appear in the world.

The real fun, though, comes with how you accomplish these tasks. You open a text editor on the touch screen and type in any noun you can imagine. No seriously, you can type anything. The only real limitations are proper names, copyrighted words, and vulgar words. Once you type in your item of choice, it will appear in the game world. In the beached whale level, for example, you could type in "shovel" and dig a hole in the sand underneath the whale, allowing it to fall back into the ocean. Or, you could type "bulldozer" and push the whale off the beach and into the water. There are literally limitless possibilities as to how you can approach each level in the game.

My demo began at the title screen. Normally, this wouldn't be a very eventful portion of my time with the game. But with Scribblenauts, this is not the case. The actual title screen is displayed on the top screen of the DS, while the bottom screen contains a game environment with no star to find. Instead, this is an open playground, and a place to challenge the vast database of words contained in the game. And more importantly, it allows you an opportunity to see how objects interact with one another in the environment.

You see, the items in Scribblenauts aren't just objects to plop into the game world. Instead, items that should interact with one another (like a mouse and some cheese) will do so just as you would expect them to in the real world. In the title screen's playground, you can send Maxwell running toward the water, type in "Sperm Whale," plop the creature in the water, and have the main character ride on the mammal's back. Then, you can write "plankton," and the whale will swim over and consume its natural food source.

Of course, if you're not interested in seeing how objects interact with one another, you can always use the title screen as an opportunity to stump the text editor. But trust me when I say that this is much easier said than done. While normal things like firemen and skateboards are obviously included in the game, so are the Kraken, Cthulhu, and even God (and yes, God can ride the skateboard). We tried to come up with a noun the game couldn't utilize, but we're just not creative enough to confuse such a robust system.

Once I had had my fill of the title screen, I was given a very basic level to toy around with. Here, there was a tree situated on the right side of the screen, while Maxwell was standing on the left. The star in this level was positioned high in the tree, too high for Maxwell to reach on his own. So, I typed in "ladder," and placed it next to the tree. Now, Maxwell could climb the ladder and reach the star.

Simple enough, right? Well, I was told that this solution was rather boring. So, I typed in "beaver," and the tiny critter came along and chewed through the bottom of the tree, which promptly toppled over and tossed the star on the ground. Still not satisfied, I typed in "jetpack," and easily flew to the top of the tree to retrieve my coveted star.

The real thing that impressed me here was the barrage of suggestions being shouted at me from the folks looking over my shoulder. At least four people were watching me play, and every one of them was coming up with unique ideas to solve this particular puzzle. It quickly became apparent that this unbelievably simple level could be solved in hundreds of different ways. If this isn't the type of game that allows players to mold their own experience, then I don't know what is.

Next on the itinerary was one of the more scenario-driven levels. Here, I was shown a row of four police officers, and I was told that one of them was an imposter. I was then told that I had to find a way to locate said imposter. That's it, that's all the direction I received. And in all honesty, I was somewhat dumbfounded at first. How the heck was I supposed to figure out which character wasn't actually a cop?

So, naturally, I started talking to myself. I said, "OK, Larry. Let's think for a moment. What would a police officer like that an imposter wouldn't?" So I typed in "donut," and placed the delicious treat on the opposite side of the level. Unfortunately, only one of the police officers ran to the donut, so I really didn't accomplish much with this choice.

So, yet again, I was at a loss for words (get it?). Of course, the game had already trained me so well to think of obscure words that I had failed to come up with the most obvious solution. What would a real cop chase after that a fake cop wouldn't? So "criminal" was the next word I entered into the editor, and the policemen chased the law-breaker around the level, leaving the imposter standing by himself, motionless. Hooray! I had solved the scenario! But now what?

So apparently, in this particular level, you have to "eliminate" the imposter once you've identified him. I don't know about you, but when I'm told to "eliminate" someone, I shoot them in the head. Luckily, this was the correct choice. As soon as the gun fired, the star jumped out of the imposter's dead body. But don't worry, there was no blood, so we shouldn't have to be concerned with ESRB-related heart attacks.

There were a few other levels that we got to try out, but I don't want to spoil the fun. Suffice it to say that each puzzle we saw could be completed by dozens, if not hundreds, of unique solutions. And, some of the levels are actually pretty tough, as Maxwell can actually be put in danger in certain situations. While some of the puzzles were simple enough, there was at least one level that I was never able to complete.

The only real issue I had with Scribblenauts was its controls. Between moving Maxwell with the D-pad and controlling objects in the world with the stylus, there were a few moments in which I had to pause to make sure I was controlling the correct thing. In principle, it seems fairly simple, but it can cause a bit of confusion in the levels that require quick timing.

But aside from that tiny gripe, Scribblenauts looks on pace to be an amazing game. There will be 220 levels in the final product, and each can be solved by using items from the 10,000-word database. Graphically, there's really nothing to cheer about, but this game is not about the graphics. There are so many possibilities to every situation that I could easily see myself spending three or four hours on a single level.

But wait, there's more! Included in the final game will be a full-fledged level creator. And best of all, you'll be able to share custom levels with other gamers. If this game picks up any reasonably-sized community (which it certainly deserves), there could be hundreds of thousands of levels floating out in the ether.

I can tell you with absolute confidence that Scribblenauts is going to be one of the best Nintendo DS games ever to hit the market. If you don't already own a DS, you need to go buy one for this game. It truly feels like the folks at 5^th Cell have created an astoundingly entertaining product here. Honestly, if I hadn't had other games to play at E3, I would have spent 99% of my time at the Scribblenauts kiosks.

The game is currently slated for a release in "early Fall" of this year. And really, I wish I hadn't sold my DeLorean, so I could jump into the future to play this game. Forget about Uncharted 2 or Halo 3: ODST. Scribblenauts is the game at the top of my wish list this year.