Ever found yourself wishing you had, say, a helicopter to get past a particularly tricky section of a game? Or a car, space shuttle or even, er, a big bowl of salad? Being able to call up what’s required in any given gaming scenario is precisely the premise in Scribblenauts, the new DS game from developers 5thCell and publishing partners Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.

Players take on the role of Maxwell, who is charged with finding the ‘Starite’ in each level. Problem is this first requires solving a series of fun puzzles. Here’s where the game’s neat twist comes into play. For instance, finding their way blocked by a beached whale, players need only to write the word ‘bulldozer’ on the DS’ Touchscreen for that object to appear and to behave exactly as it would in real life, nudging the stricken beastie back into the water. The big bowl of salad is used to satiate the appetite of a hungry dinosaur, by the way.

And so it goes, with players able to, ahem, draw upon countless objects, thus creating almost unlimited outcomes in order to solve each level’s puzzles – 5thCell reckons there are over 200 levels in the game, with two distinct gameplay modes too.

With its intuitive gameplay mechanics, bold, cartoony visuals and near infinite replay potential Scribblenauts looks like ideal DS fodder. It’s scheduled for an autumn 2009 release, but we’ve got a neat video for you in the meantime. Posting shortly.