People in the US who pre-ordered Scribblenauts at GameStop were the lucky recipients (if they were still in stock) of the incredibly cute and awesome Maxwell Rooster Hat, as seen here:

Funny hats are always a key ingredient to WIN, and if I’m honest, picking up the hat was just as exciting as collecting the game itself. Which I was pretty dang excited about. The great thing is, the chickenhat is good quality — and stretches enough to fit onto my giant noggin.

Browsing Twitter, I found I was not alone in my appreciation for the awesomeness of the roosterhat. Click for the large size (totally worth it):

I will add more pics as they turn up, and if anyone who happens to read this would like to be added, post a comment with a link to your pic.

Photo credits
Row 1:
1: @lauraehall (me!)
2: @gotee12
3: @vznet
4: @vixorien
5: @sampagan

Row 2:
1: @rondhi
2: @ravensvoice
3: @nbcrescendo
4: @monique_soto
5: @matthewrex

Row 3:
1: @levihaag
2: @jugglerofgeese
3: @jaimeorourke
4: One of the Scribblenauts developers
5: @duckyvonkarma

Row 4:
1: @briguyd
2: @czarneckid
3: @bigopinion
4: @gogoroflcopter
5: @rosakam

Re: my last post — duh! of course I was going to buy Layton, the sequel to the bestest DS game ever.

Thanks to GameSetWatch for alerting me that Layton is Twittering. Find him at @TopHatProfessor.

In honor of purchasing the game last night, I have set my desktop wallpaper to one of the promotional images kindly provided by IGN. Grab one here if you’re similarly inclined.

The real dilemma now, of course, is when to buy Fat Princess for PS3 — before or after the Layton cartridge arrives?

I just finished playing Professor Layton and the Mysterious Village (DS), and despite having taken fewer than 10 hours in total to complete, it’s firmly among the top of the list of my favorite games of all time.

Everything about it is frankly just great. The story, setting and tone are engaging – you play as the Professor and his assistant Luke, invited to a village to investigate the mystery surrounding a very strange inheritance. The game is set in a non-specific time period, and Layton might as well be Sherlock Holmes (he even has a funny tall hat) except that there are cars around.

The music sets a great mood, too – one of my favorite tunes can be heard here (YouTube link).

I even like the way the puzzles are integrated. The characters just dig puzzles and want you to help them solve a few stumpers, for the most part…but perhaps there’s more to this odd habit than meets the eye. At any rate, it’s a change from other puzzle games I love (like the Monkey Island series), where you find yourself “putting different fluids in balloons so you can put them in a mail tube so you can flood a communications room so you can etcetera.” [1]

The puzzles were frequently challenging, often trick questions, and two or three times involved geometry, the answers for which I caved and googled. (Length of a side of a triangle, my foot!) Plus the illustrations are hella cute! [2]

Anyway, I finished the game so quickly because I couldn’t get enough of it, and by the end I was wishing there was more. Luckily while searching YouTube for videos of the cutscenes I found that Layton is part one of a THREE part series (not two as I’d heard before).

I do wish they would make a full length anime film or series out of these characters, though. It could be the new and improved Detective Conan/Case Closed.

- Superstruct is entering its third week and there’s a lot to see and do, and some truly brilliant ideas – but so far players seem to be struggling to put ideas into motion. This week I’m focusing on creating missions and having people enact them in real life (for example, creating and displaying posters).

- I’m participating in both 24 Hour Comics Day (technically this took place last Saturday but I was out of town) and NaNoWriMo, both of which rely on generating a certain amount of content in a set time frame…not unlike a game mechanic, really. Is content over quality the writing equivalent of WoW level grinding?

- Just got Professor Layton and the Curious Village. I have been waiting it to arrive for WEEKS, painstakingly tracking the shipment, and am now more than ready to bust out the DS every night. I’ve been missing it ever since I finished Phantom Hourglass.

While traveling I saw two Nintendo DS systems in the wild.

Stats:
- one pink, one white
- both wielded by young girls
- both used on public transport (train)
- I couldn’t see what game one was playing, but the other appeared to be set in a village – Harvest Moon, maybe?

The hunt continues.

I’ve decided to collect sightings of Nintendo DS units in the wild. I always see them in airports, but every once in a while they turn up somewhere surprising.

Today’s entry is a record of the pink unit I saw in a restaurant on the Fourth of July, wielded by a burly man wearing a “Beretta” cap.

Courtesy of the Cornish Game Hen, here’s a link to some screenshots from The Sims 2 Apartment Pets for Nintendo DS.

According to videogamer.com, the Sims move into an apartment near a pet spa. But seeing this cat’s outfit (is that a tiny bow on its tail?), you have to wonder exactly what trade these animals are getting into:

The concept of this game makes me laugh, though. Most real cats would not tolerate little hats and vests for a second before wriggling out of them and pouting for the rest of the day. Judging by the range of little caps and turbans, I doubt their Sims counterparts will be half as finicky.

This video shows a little bit of the action from the upcoming Namco Bandai Release, Panda-San Nikki (Panda Diary), or as it’s known in the US, National Geographic Panda.

Wow, this game is an easy sell. Cute animals – check. Rolling cute animals around with stylus – check. Promises in site intro of pandas on slides – check.

Oh yeah…presumably it’s educational in some way, too (it does have “National Geographic” in the title). But we all know what’s important, here; the gameplay consists of “take care of pandas, receive more pandas.” It has nothing to do with facts about bamboo growth, and everything to do with fuzzy panda bellies and how many times I can rub them.

More info here, here and here.

(with thanks to the Cornish Game Hen)