Scribblenauts was the #5 DS game of 2009

In its "NPD: Behind the Numbers" feature for January, Gamasutra included a chart of the top five DS games in the US for 2009. As expected, the list is dominated by Nintendo's evergreen first-party lineup; however, at number five was a third-party title, 5th Cell's Scribblenauts. WB announced earlier this month that the bizarre adventure puzzle game shipped over a million copies. It sold "over 900k for sure," 5th Cell creative director Jeremiah Slaczka told Joystiq.

"The DS is a very different market than console, I think treating it as such helps," Slaczka said about cracking the DS market. "I think it's one of the toughest markets to sell on because the demographic is so broad: gamers, non-gamers, kids, adults, boys, girls. And unlike the Wii, it's even more limiting in power. Making a game that appeals to everyone is tough." And that kind of universal appeal is exactly what 5th Cell went for with Scribblenauts -- an approach that put them in some pretty exclusive company.