The reason that every pub needs a DS and a copy of Scribblenauts is simple. After a few drinks, talk inevitably turns to that old chestnut "Who'd win in a fight between a bear and a lion?" but how would you settle this argument? Unless you have dangerous carnivores on hand you will never know. With Scribblenauts however, the answer is a few stylus prods away. Cat or dog? Scribblenauts. Bull or giraffe? Scribblenauts. 8 penguins vs a walrus? That's right, Scribblenauts. It's invaluable.

Aside from pub banter arbitration Scribblenauts has other charms. Fiddley controls aside (on one occasion my girlfriend accidentally beat a rabbi to death with a cross!) the game has a sandbox that makes Liberty City look like Vib Ribbon and that is just the front screen. Liberal use of landmines and jetpacks can get you through a lot of the basic puzzles but it's the restrictions that get you head-scratching. How do I get past that guard without resorting to high-explosives? (Dartgun) How do I get the druid's unicorn back alive? (Give him an apple) and how do I get the starite off that platform when I can't move? (Rope it to a murderer and get him to chase a woman onto lower ground!) It's all good fun.

So it's new game bonanza in the INK household at the moment with Dead Space:Extraction waiting to scare my trousers oily and Fallout 3: Game of the Year edition ready to swallow my life. If only I could get swine flu and start enjoying some sick leave. If life was Scribblenauts all I'd only be a P, an I and a G away from a weeks loafing. Bah!