Scribblenauts for the Nintendo DS is a kind of adventure game that you don’t see often — actually, there hasn’t ever been a game like Scribblenauts; an adventure game where your character progresses through the levels by you typing the name of an object, pretty much any object you can think of, from dinosaurs to cars, to monkey to trees, as long as it isn’t vulgar or trademarked, it’s probably in Scribblenauts. The core concept of the game is highly original and extremely entertaining, and if it wasn’t for a few issues, it would’ve been the ultimate must-have game for any DS owner.

The gameplay is simple and follows the standard 2D side scrolling fashion, but to solve puzzles in Scribblenauts, you need to use an object that might fit and help you move forwards. You “scribble” the object (say, a “meteor”) and poof! it appears on the screen. The goal of each level is to secure a Starlite at the end, and accumulate them. On top of that, you have dedicated puzzle levels, which don’t feature as much action but pack plenty of challenge for your imagination. Once you’ve settled in the gameplay and figured out how advance through the levels (maybe you need a club or a crowbar to break something, maybe you need a walking robot), you’ll be troubled by the rather frustrating controls the game has to offer. You control your hero (named Maxwell) via the stylus, where you point to an area on the screen, and he’ll run to it. But it’s far too easy to point a few pixels too far, and see yourself walk into certain death. READ ON »

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Apple has reached a massive milestone with its app store for the iPhone and iPod touch, revealing that the store now features 100,000 applications categorized into 20 categories, and over 125,000 developers have signed up and are actively making apps.

Over 2 billion applications have been downloaded in over 77 countries. Astonishingly, over 19% of those apps are games, meaning there are over 19,000 different games on the platform, which definitely rivals the DS.

Movie site comingsoon.net posted a magazine ad of the upcoming Tekken movie at the American Film Market Expo (where a ton of movies are bough and sold). The ad features the tag line “Survival is no game”. The movie, directed by Dwight Little, is set in the future and features sci-fi elements, while staying true to the Tekken characters and franchise. We’ll see how it turns out.

Serious Sam HD developer Developer Digital announced via Twitter that Croteam’s Serious Sam high def re-incarnation has gone gold — however, as fate would have it, that particular tweet has since been removed. Another tweet reveals that you’ll be able to pre-order the digital copy of the game next week. We’ll see if that one sticks on Twitter or not.

The highly successful platformer Braid, which has already won the hearts and minds of Xbox 360 and PC gamers, will find its way to the PS3 next week, on November 12. The game was released on the Xbox 360 over a year ago, and on the PC via digital distribution earlier this year. The PS3 version will carry the same price tag as the other versions; $15.

Count this one as one of the really good offers you can get this holiday season: when you purchase a $199 Xbox 360 Arcade at Walmart, they’ll give you a $100 gift card, which you can use on games, accessories, or whatever else Walmart has to offer (which is a lot).

Forking over another $35, alongside the gift card, will get you a hard drive for your Arcade console — still a great deal. But hurry, there’s a limited amount of offers per store.

Wii’s Motion Plus accessory makes the Wiimote a lot more useful, offering a true 1:1 motion sense, meaning that everything you do with the controller is exactly replicated on the screen.

Nintendo legend Shigery Miyamoto has said in an interview with Wired that the next Zelda game, widely believed to be released next Fall, will use the Motion Plus attachment for more accurate sword play, among other things. However, he didn’t mention whether the game will require the accessory, or whether it will be optional.

Developer Amanita Design have previously distinguished themselves with artful point-and-click adventures with Samorost and Samorost 2. This time, the point-and-click adventure continues, in another Flash-based game called Samorost, which is easily the most artistically pleasing game of this holiday lineup.

You play as a little robot who has been evicted from his city, and finds himself on the junkyard, and it’s now your job to find his way home, by guiding him through the puzzle adventure. The game is dominated by its art style, which takes Steampunk to a whole new level. The meticulously hand painted levels and backdrops are just gorgeous, and will instantly draw you in (coupled with an amazing soundtrack). The gameplay on the other hand, consisting of a lot of pointing and clicking, meaning the action is very slow. If you’re into fast paced FPS games, you’ll feel the drag, as you have to carefully check everything, solve the puzzles and move on, where one screen can take hours to complete if you’re not paying attention.

Sometimes this kind of gameplay tends to get tedious, and even with the beauty of a game like Machinarium, it still might not appeal to everyone, as you spend five minutes hovering your mouse over every object, hoping to get a reaction. At times, this will frustrate the hell out of you — and rightfully so — but the end result, the pay off is very rewarding in return. There is one hint per level, but usually it’s vague, although there is a small 2D shooter game you can play in order to get a full walkthrough, but the mini-game is far too long and almost just as frustrating, which will encourage you to stay away from it, and instead try and solve the puzzle yourself.

Machinarium, while not going head to head against blockbusters like Modern Warfare 2, showcases just what kind of game can be created with some love and a great sense of style by the creators. The soundtrack is equally stunning, a mix of ambient and electronic music that suits the game perfectly. It’s a point-and-click gamer’s dream, and is definitely worth the $20, even if $10 would have been more suitable for a game of this length and features. For everyone else, it’s a good idea to check out the demo, which gives you a sample level.

The Good:
Absolutely gorgeous
Very original
Wonderful soundtrack
Oozes of style
Cutest protagonist ever

The Bad:
A bit overpriced
Can be frustrating

Overall score: 9/10

Thanks to GameStop, we now know that those who pre-order LittleBigPlanet PSP will be rewarded with an exclusive costume pack full of 6 different outfits.

These costumes are taken from popular PS3 games such as Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, MotorStorm and Killzone 2. Of course, the coolest costume is the the little tank taken from Killzone 2.

Pre-order LittleBigPlanet PSP now and November 17th, 2009.