WBIE announced today that Scribblenauts, 5th Cell's puzzle adventure game that spawns any object a player writes in, has now shipped one million copies worldwide. According to WBIE, which, as publisher, has an admittedly biased view of the situation, Scribblenauts has now reached "blockbuster status."

Keeping in mind that the reported figure is one million units shipped (and not necessarily sold), it's still an impressive number for a third-party DS game -- especially one as weird as an adventure game that features puzzle solving through the use of one's vocabulary. How are other developers expected to rip off that formula?

We've seen some pretty comprehensive breakdowns of how the U.S. gaming industry performed last year -- however, industry analysis firm GfK-ChartTrack recently compiled a sizable amount of data to inform us how the whole planet did. In short, the planet did okay. U.S. sales faltered somewhat, the U.K.'s past-gen console sales sunk like a rock (or, rather, an original Xbox), and Japan stayed afloat upon a makeshift raft of Nintendo DS RPGs.

The worldwide best-selling game of 2009 was (you'll never guess) Modern Warfare 2, with 11.86 million units sold. The runners-up were all proud members of the casual Wii suite: Wii Sports Resort, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Wii Fit Plus, and plain ol' Wii Fit. For more details on how the gaming industry did across this great big terrestrial mass we call home, check out MCV's analysis of the statistics.

If you're hoping to play a cute DS game starring a young witch, but not NIS's A Witch's Tale, Natsume has you covered. The publisher just announced Witch's Wish, a new game joining its DS lineup of extraordinarily quirky stuff.

Witch's Wish stars "Vicky," a girl who wants to go to Hogwarts witch school, and has to help save her town from some kind of "dark force" while simultaneously learning how to do magic. The ESRB reveals a bit more about the gameplay, describing "comical duel sequences" -- rock-paper-scissors style duels in which "buckets of water are dumped, little tornadoes may twirl, and bursts of cloud-and-fire are sent." Precious!

(Retailer orders for) Witch's Wish will be fulfilled this spring.

We've always thought the regular inclusion of slot machines in the kid-friendly world of Pokémon to be bit strange, and apparently we weren't the only ones. According to Official Nintendo Magazine, the English-language versions of Heart Gold and Soul Silver have had their gambling devices replaced by a new mini-game which, according to the magazine, is surprisingly fun.

In the new game, players must flip over panels in a five-by-five grid. Some panels hide multipliers for the player's coins. Some, however, hide Voltorbs, which end the round and cause the player to lose all coins accumulated to that point. You can guess where each Voltorb is hidden using numerical clues at the end of each row and column -- it other words, its Picross meets Minesweeper. Meets Pokémon. Yes, please.

There are plenty of things to love about Final Fight. There's the ridiculously diesel, shark pile-driving wrestler-turned-mayor the story is centered around, Mike Haggar, and the fact that citizens in Metro City like to store whole turkey dinners inside of dirty oil drums. And, after 20-plus years, somebody's finally getting around to making a movie.

You'll find the initial teaser trailer for the fan-made project after the break which, while a very tasteful take on the series, has made one small error: Jesse Ventura is the only man on the planet who can play Mike Haggar. We're sure this is paying more than his current gig, so get in touch!

[Via Capcom-Unity]

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Apparently, Sega's plan is to represent every Sega franchise ever in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing -- except, of course, for Segata Sanshiro. The publisher announced two more playable characters today (well, four, actually, in pairs): Virtua Fighter's Akira and Jacky, and Bonanza Bros.' Mobo and Robo. The Virtua guys appear to be riding in a red Ferrari, which would add the OutRun franchise to the list as well. All these reveals are in line with the character portraits found hidden on the website.

NiGHTS will appear in the game as well, though not in a capacity that will cause superfans "DiGi" and "Trippy" to lose their bets and burn their NiGHTS memorabilia collections. The androgynous dream-monster will appear as the flagman in the racing game.

Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia says that Sony is in for a good 2010 -- he expects the PlayStation 3 to experience its largest year-over-year growth from last month's sales among all consoles, and for Sony to beat its own record from the month before for the console's best sales ever. The PS3 appears to be on a roll, and January sales are expected to continue the trend.

Bhatia also says that the Wii's sales are being hurt by "meaningful shortages," and points out that just 28% of the stores NPD checked in January had Nintendo's console in stock. Bhatia also suggests that Xbox 360 sales would be up slightly, due to a big GameStop promotion, and that software sales would be down in general. Not unexpected, given that January almost never matches up to the frenzy of the holiday season, but 2010 has already started off with a bang in terms of quality releases. NPD's official info, released soon, will let us know if there were sales to match.

We'll be in the waiting room a bit longer before we're allowed to meet with the Trauma Team. Atlus announced a delay from the game's original April 20 date to May 18.

In the meantime, in lieu of an old magazine, why not watch this video about Trauma Team's orthopedics mode? It's all about bones -- setting broken bones, drilling into bones, setting pins, and all manner of extremely methodical work to fix broken Day-Glo bones, all represented in-game as movements within precise guidelines. Even without the Trauma Center time limit or malevolent viruses, it seems stressful.

Little did Team Penny Arcade know that by hosting PAX on our native East Coast, they'd be opening their event up to all kinds of Joystiq shennanigans. We'd like to announce the first today: The First Annual Joystiq Blueberry Muffin Tops Breakfast, brought to you by your fine friends at Malt-O-Meal.

No, this is not a joke. If you're a PAX East attendee, then Saturday, March 27, for the low low price of free, you can join your friends from Joystiq as we collectively enjoy the planet's finest cereal: Blueberry Muffin Tops. The only catch? You're going to have to have one of 600 bracelets that will be distributed at the show. If you want details on how you can get one, you can find them after the jump. You're also gonna want to head to the event's Facebook page and follow it on Twitter: @JoystiqBBMT.

If you think that's great (and it is, make no mistake) wait until you see what else we have planned ...

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Japanese gamers get to experience the joy of Excitebike with a different camera angle and online play today, with the release of Excitebike World Rally (as "Excitebike World Race"). It's a pretty faithful adaptation of the original, something that can't be said for Tecmo's Are? DS ga Sakasa Desu Kedo: Gyaku Shooting, a shooter with elements of its own Star Force, but played from the other side -- and with the DS upside down. Using the DS's touch screen, players control the enemies firing downward at what is usually the player ship. DS ga Sakasa Desu Kedo: Sakasa Drops takes the same approach and applies it to a falling-block puzzle game. Check out a trailer for Shooting after the break.

• Quarth (MSX, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points)
• Contra (MSX, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points)
• Excitebike World Race (WiiWare, 1-4 players, 1,000 Wii Points)
• Are? DS ga Sakasa Desu Kedo: Gyaku Shooting (DSiWare, 1 player, 200 DSi Points)
• Are? DS ga Sakasa Desu Kedo: Sakasa Drops (DSiWare, 1 player, 200 DSi Points)
• Artist ni Narou! Minna no Nurikai Museum Hen (DSiWare, 1-2 players, 500 DSi Points)
• Hobonichi Rosenzu 2010 (DSiWare, 1 player, 500 DSi Points)
• Renjuku Kanji: Shougaku Sannensei (DSiWare, 1 player, 500 DSi Points)

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In Nintendo's recent quarterly investor Q&A, president Satoru Iwata discussed the possibility of an HD-followup to the Wii. "If asked if making the Wii compatible with high definition -- just making it compatible with high resolution -- will get players throughout the world to buy it," he said (as translated by Andriasang), "I would of course say, 'Do you think it would sell with just that? It needs something new.'" Note that his statement isn't a denial of an HD Nintendo system at all.

Iwata also addressed the contested statements he allegedly gave to the Asahi Shimbun about a DS successor. The newspaper reported that he said it would have motion-sensing and "highly detailed" graphics, a claim that Iwata later said was "misinterpreted." Iwata helped clarify the situation further in the investor Q&A, suggesting that the reporter led him to that statement.

According to Iwata, the reporter asked, "The next DS will need to have high resolution graphics and include a motion sensor, wouldn't you say?" to which he responded, "Those are naturally considered requirements. However, do you believe it will sell with just this?" All together now: It needs something new!

Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune.

What are the two Sony Pictures Television game shows that THQ has licensed for video games?

The publisher announced that it has acquired multi-year licenses for the two venerable game shows, specifically for the Wii and DS/DSi, with options for other platforms. The first games will be out later this year.

A statement from THQ Kids, Family, and Casual Games Executive VP Doug Clemmer suggests that THQ has online play in mind for its adaptations: "The opportunity to implement new features such as Wii Speak will re-imagine how these games are played and engage fans with a whole new level of interactivity," he said. No longer will it be shameful to leave the show with naught but the home game!

An aside: We find it extremely odd that there's a sudden uptick in Wii Speak use a year-and-a-half after the accessory was released.

First reaction: lolwhut? Of course casual gamerz haven't hurt the hardcore. Hardcore have mad skillz.

Second, more thoughtful reaction: Oh -- Cowen and Company's Doug Creutz was speaking in terms of business. That makes a little more sense. Speaking to Edge, Creutz espoused his belief that "non-traditional" formats like the iPhone and social gaming have not hurt the core gaming market. Rather, said Creutz, "We believe that these newer gaming media represent a distinct and non-competitive market segment from console gaming, which is dominated by the core gamer." He elaborated that while casual titles didn't fare as well in 2009, the sales of core titles were still strong (a reasonable belief).

According to Creutz, the "difficulties" faced by the industry are the result of the "relatively slow uptake" of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, thanks in large part to their high price points. However, now that both the PS3 and 360 have reached mass market prices, the console cycle will "reaccelerate to the benefit of the publishers that are positioned to take advantage."

Creutz sentiments seem to be in line with many of the major game publishers, as both Capcom and EA have expressed dissatisfaction with the Wii market, with a Capcom spokesperson outright declaring, "If you're not Nintendo, it does seem harder to make money on the Wii today compared to the PS3 and the Xbox 360". Meanwhile, Ubisoft has announced that it plans to "refocus" its efforts on the Xbox 360 and PS3 in 2010.

Alex Kidd comes to the rescue on the Virtual Console this week. It's more of his usual hijinks in the latest Alex Kidd entry from Sega, as players must call upon the powers of Shinobi -- including platforming, dodging incoming throwing stars and chopping dudes up something fierce. Check it all out in the latest episode of VC in Brief above!

• Alex Kidd in Shinobi World (Sega Master System, 1 player, 500 Wii Points)

Oh, and big ups to reader Cody Borst for creating that sweet new intro. Heck of a job, Cody!

It's likely that The Last Story, Mistwalker's new Wii RPG, is the project Hironobu Sakaguchi has been hinting at for a while. In a new blog post, the Final Fantasy creator said that the new RPG is "my only project because I am concentrating on this particular one right now." And then, because that didn't meet the appropriate level of creepiness, he described the game as "raised like a only daughter, but sometimes she was forcedly pushed into the abyss of ravine ... She's sturdy, beautiful and I'd like to nurture her gently."

Yikes. Anyway, the point is that Mistwalker has been at work on the game for a while, and Sakaguchi is working on it directly.

Since The Last Story is Sakaguchi's "only project" right now (except for the Lego creation above, of course), that means that either another team within Mistwalker is working on the iPhone game or it's been put aside until the The Last Story is all grown up.