You'll be playing as Madeleine, the young daughter of the chick-magnet prophet Nostradamus. He's too old and crotchety to solve the mystery of a curse and the royal family, so Prophet Jr. takes to the streets and begins solving puzzles and unravelling intrigue all over the place.

A large element of gameplay will require stealth and different disguises to successfully investigate the old-tyme goings-on. The control will be standard point-and-click gameplay, which is totally suited for the DS touchscreen. We have no official DS media as yet, but Elektrogames has made a brief announcement on their official website, and you can check out the teaser for the original PC version in the video above.

[Via Wiiz]

Evidence of a Broken Sword game for the DS is mounting. First, there was a petition posted by Revolution Software designer Tony Warriner to register player interest (which, predictably enough, was sky high). Then, a Broken Sword game cropped up in the database of the rarely wrong GameStop. And now, Revolution Managing Director Charles Cecil has dropped some heavy-handed hints about such a title.

Speaking to Videogamer.com, Cecil admitted that the petition was "really inspirational," and that the DS was "an ideal platform" for the point and click genre. His final comment on the matter was far more suggestive, however: "I just wish that we were having this interview in about a month's time," he told VideoGamer.com's Wesley Yin-Poole. "Then you'd be asking me much more direct questions!" Hmm.

Even though Broken Sword for the DS remains a rumor, we're struggling to think of other ways in which Revolution can hint at the game without, you know, announcing it. Petition posted by developer? Check. Appearance of Broken Sword in GameStop records? Check. And now Cecil's comments? Frankly, you don't have to be a heavily pixellated, world-saving law graduate called George to figure out where this might be going.

We're all going on a holiday to Syberia in the near future, and it looks to be a rollicking good time. If that wasn't enough, creative prodigy Benoit Sokal is back to offer DS owners an even greater holiday destination -- Paradise. Well, it used to be Paradise, but the original PC adventure title is being ported to the DS as Last King of Africa. Hang on, a port? Of an adventure game? That sure shows these guys a thing or two.

You'll be taking up the point-and-click reigns of Ann Smith, daughter of King Rodon. Unsurprisingly, she is struck down with amnesia on her way to visit her pop, and must journey within fictional African country Maurania to unravel her own mystery.

The first screens are in, and apparently the game has been seriously reworked for the DS -- even the story and dialogue itself has been streamlined. This is pretty good news, considering the original wasn't particularly well-received compared to Sokal's other work.

Last King of Africa is vaguely scheduled for a release at this end of this year. It's another addition to the growing adventure library on the DS, which is nothing but pointy, clicky awesome.


[Via press release]

Sometimes you go into a game thinking the formula is so brilliant that it can't do wrong. When things don't go as smoothly as you expected, you begin to make excuses for not enjoying yourself. Finally, you realize what you were afraid of all along: that the game is just not that good. If you've ever had this happen to you, you'll know exactly how it feels to play Touch Detective 2 1/2.

4 Color Rebellion got a hold of some Famitsu scans from a brand new Bandai game called Brave Story. Based on an upcoming Gonzo Digimation film (the guys that did Last Exile, if I'm not mistaken), it revolves around a young boy forced to wield a sword and embark on a perilous, family-saving journey, one fraught with ghosts, magic and terrifying sliding tile puzzles. The game happens to be an old-fashioned point-and-click (or is that tap?) adventure game, resulting in my desire to see this game translated for a US release grow quite rapidly. The game boasts quite an appealing art style and, judging by the icons in the HUD, some pretty typical adventure gameplay mechanics.

The DS is an ideal platform for the genre, and after the stellar Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (and to a far lesser degree, Trace Memory), I'm convinced that adventure gaming will continue to find new avenues to explore, a situation far removed from the repeated (and incorrect) claims that the genre is "dead". It's not dead--it has merely changed and moved beyond its traditional PC platform. I don't think anyone ever expected adventure games to eventually include wacky manga-inspired titles on a portable platform.