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THQ today announced to investors its financial holdings for the year ending December 31, 2009, reporting a net income of $1.4 million and sales of $701.5 million in the final nine months of the year. To put that in some perspective, the net income for the same period last year was a $334.2 loss. No doubt well-reviewed titles like UFC Undisputed 2009 and (personal favorite) Red Faction: Guerrilla helped that financial 180° turn -- a much needed one after a rocky 2008 and a mess of layoffs in 2009.

The publisher also announced "first four week" sales of Darksiders have already reached 1.2 million in the US (Ahem, Mr. Greenwald? Did you hear that?). Interestingly, THQ called the game part of its "growing portfolio of owned brands," among Red Faction, de Blob, Drawn to Life, and Saint's Row. And with this afternoon's investor call, it would certainly appear we'll be seeing more from that portfolio in the coming year.

5TH Cell received a lot of attention at E3 for its DS platform adventure Scribblenauts, but that wasn't the only DS game 5TH Cell brought to the show. THQ had a demo station set up running the DS sequel to the company's first DS hit, Drawn to Life. Planet Moon's (different) Wii version of Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter was also on display, but we were unable to spend any time with it.

One thing is abundantly clear from watching the trailers for both versions of Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter (after the break): They are not the same game. It's even more clear from reading IGN's interviews, because, you know, they're with different people. The DS version is being made by original developer 5TH Cell, while the Wii game is being handled by Planet Moon Studios.

Both games now feature "action drawing" that allows the player to draw directly in the game world rather than in an editor. Planet Moon describes expanded drawing options in this mode, like certain types of ink imbued with gravity or bounce -- like an anvil that you could draw, which would then fall straight down. 5TH Cell's drawing enhancements (at least the ones mentioned in the interview) include the ability to customize character designs even more, with up to four arms and four legs, and resizable limbs.

The games have different stories, as well -- the DS game (whose story is told in a "redone overworld" with, like the rest of the game, animation by Pirate Baby's Cabana Battle Street Fight animator Paul Robertson and art contributions from Braid's David Hellman) follows the events of the Wii game (whose story is told in a new side-scrolling hub world).

If you were a fan of THQ's DIY DS title Drawn to Life, you'll be pleased to hear the highly sketchable game will be getting a follow-up this fall, as revealed by a recent press release. This time around, Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter will be coming to Wii and DS, and will be adding a whole slew of new features -- the most intriguing of these is the "Action Drawing" tool, which lets you create objects mid-game in order to work your way through the title's environments.

The original Drawn to Life was pretty enjoyable, but a tad shallow in the actual gameplay department. Hopefully, this new feature will spice things up a tad. However, given the average DS illustrator's undeniable proclivity for doodling dongs, they really should give the portable version a different subtitle -- perhaps Captain Wangsword Vs. The Genital Armada would be more apt.

We really, really liked Drawn to Life, so we view Drawn to Life: SpongeBob SquarePants Edition with both curiosity and trepidation. On the one hand, hey, more Drawn to Life! On the other hand, it's more Drawn to Life without the guiding hand of developer 5th Cell, and with a license we aren't young enough or high enough to appreciate.

If we were going to take the plunge and just buy the thing to satisfy our curiosity, today would be a pretty good day for that. Amazon has marked Drawn to Life: SpongeBob SquarePants Edition down to $17.98 for today only. And we wouldn't have to be seen in a GameStop buying a SpongeBob game. Or in a GameStop at all.

Developer 5th Cell is known for their unique use of the Nintendo DS touch screen in their titles, which include Drawn to Life and Lock's Quest -- however, their next project makes those two titles seem like the creative equivalent of Madden 09. In a recent interview with IGN, 5th Cell creative director Jeremiah Slaczka gave a brief run-down on Scribblenauts, which will have players traversing puzzle-filled worlds, spelling nouns to make objects appear that will help solve said puzzles.

For instance, in the first gameplay trailer that 5th Cell provided (posted after the break), Maxwell (the game's protagonist) is trying to collect a "Starite" from a treetop. Writing "ladder" will provide the vertical assistance needed to reach the Starite, but you could just as easily create a "football" with which to topple the Starite from the tree. Then again, you could spawn a "beaver" to chew the tree down. Or maybe you could summon basketball superstar (and crically-acclaimed actor) "Shaquille O'Neal" to grab it for you.

Okay, we made that last one up -- but if the possibilities are as endless as the trailer suggests, we better see some Shaq functionality in the final product.

[Via DS Fanboy]

For those of you that got a kick out of Drawn to Life, you've likely been watching Lock's Quest. Following up the video that was released back at E3, we've been sent a new trailer which details the premise of the game and shows off some of the things you can do in it. It's a really interesting title, if we may say so. What do you all think?



[Via press release]

Summer in the northern hemisphere officially starts today, which means one thing: sharing strawberries with a loved one in a tranquil hay meadow as you soak up the rays grabbing cheap games in the sales! The folks at HMV know the heat turns us Brits into mushy-minded impulse buyers, and so they've gone and slashed prices on approximately 30 DS titles to around the £12 - £15 mark. Here's the best of what's on offer:

• Mr. Driller: Drill Spirits for £11.99
• Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings for £15.99
• Drawn to Life for £11.99
• The Simpsons Game for £12.99
• Geometry Wars: Galaxies for £12.99
• Sim City for £11.99
• MySims for £14.99
• Magical Starsign for £11.99
  

Remember also that HMV offers free shipping to the UK, so you won't need to leave your La-Z-Boy and expose yourself to that nasty summer sun.

It's a credit to the original Drawn to Life's concept and quality that we're still interested in the follow-up despite 5th Cell's absence and its attached license -- SpongeBob SquarePants.

IGN previewed the customizable platformer, and while it doesn't revolutionize the draw-your-adventure formula, it's a "polished, Nickelodeon-ized" take on it. We've never played any games from Alton, the developer taking the reins from 5th Cell, so we'll have to try Drawn to Life: SpongeBob SquarePants Edition ourselves before developing an opinion with any firmness to it.

Word has it, a two-player versus mode will be included, so look forward to pitting grotesquely phallic avatars against crude renditions of cartoon characters -- Donatello, Heathcliff, skies the limit!

See also: DS Fanboy Review: Drawn to Life

First, watch this awesome video. It's an awesome video, right? A YouTube user 007craft remade The Legend of Zelda, from the first screen through the first dungeon, in the Xbox Live Arcade version of N+. It's wonderfully bizarre to see the screens so faithfully rendered in a completely different gameplay style. Simple things like reaching doors at the top of the screen become acrobatic struggles.

Have you ever used one game to recreate another game or its elements? Maybe you've edited all of the textures in your Animal Crossing town, Drawn Mario to Life, or composed some game music in Mario Paint. When you get access to an in-game editor, is making references to other games the first thing you do?

Having had a day or so to absorb the news (oh man, that was totally unintentional, but we're leaving it) of a SpongeBob SquarePants-themed version of Drawn to Life, we're somewhat less negative about it and more ... conflicted.

Basically, we don't know if we should feel bad for the original game or happy for the license. Being based on a good game means that SpongeBob SquarePants Drawn to Life has at least an outside chance of not being terrible, which puts it immediately ahead of just about every other licensed game for kids. However, the converse is also true: being stuck with some random license may sink what was great about DTL.

Of course, there's also the separate issue of the game being passed off to another developer. We're pretty sure that doesn't bode well.

How can you tell that Drawn to Life was a success? Publisher THQ is making full use of the IP, with a new licensed spinoff ... Drawn to Life: SpongeBob SquarePants. It's a Drawn to Life game, developed by a company called Altron and not 5th Cell, set in the SpongeBob SquarePants universe, featuring a story in which lazy sea creatures SpongeBob and Patrick are captured by the pencil-drawn SpongeBob clone DoodleBob. The player creates a hero in order to rescue the pair and defeat DoodleBob.

We don't know what to say. We thought we'd be happy to hear about more Drawn to Life, especially one with a two-player mode, but we didn't expect this. Doesn't putting the game in an established setting kind of defeat the create-it-yourself appeal of Drawn to Life?

5th Cell's Creative Director, Jeremiah Slaczka, likes the DS. He has good reason to, since his company's debut game Drawn to Life is a success (to an unspecified degree) in the U.S., Australia, and Korea (it "did decent, not as well as Australia" in Europe). For the Korean release, a contest was even held to name the game. "They had, like, 20,000 submissions or something."

After a successful stint making mobile games -- in both original IPs and licenses -- for THQ Wireless, the company got a chance to move to the DS. "We're done with mobile," Slaczka told me. For that matter, they're done with licenses. "We only do original IPs, no licenses. Except for Star Wars -- I'd do Star Wars."

There's the upcoming Wii version of Drawn to Life...

Can't talk about that.

Are there more projects coming up?

Yes, we are working on the DS. We are working on an unannounced title -- I'm not sure when it's supposed to be announced. We're basically doing two unannounced projects right now ...

Aside from the benefits that come with being able to whip countless bloggers at your whim and ensuring a dark future for us all, our overlords at Joystiq sometimes report on news in the gaming industry. Beneath that snarling husk of fur and evil must be a heart of partial gold.

The latest bit of information to come from Camp Joystiq pertains to DS title Drawn to Life. THQ revealed nothing other than their intent to bring the title to the Wii, so those looking for more information will have to draw a sad face. They aren't getting anything else right now.

For some screens from the DS version of the game, hit up the gallery over at DS Fanboy.

Squirreled away in the same conference call that brought us news of Volition's Red Faction 3 was the announcement that the clever draw-your-own-platformer Drawn to Life wouldn't be confined to the DS any longer, with a Wii release planned for "the future." Gamasutra reports that in addition to announcing it would, uh, announce "several other new Wii exclusive titles" in coming weeks, THQ Pres Brian Farrell said the company intended "to extend the [Drawn to Life] brand to the Wii in the future." No word on when to expect the Wiimote-enabled title, but we'll fill you in when we know more.

[image credit]