The Shorts DS game draws our attention

Normally, a DS game based on a kids' movie wouldn't attract our notice -- they're as common as rocks, and tend to be less fun to play with. But the DS game based on Robert Rodriguez's Shorts, a movie about a neighborhood of kids who find some kind of wish-granting rock, appropriates one of our favorite new trends in side-scrolling games: drawing platforms.

Kirby Canvas Curse started it, but in the last year there has been an explosion of games that mix traditional platforming with user-created platforms. The Chase: Felix Meets Felicity did it, and the upcoming Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter, MarkerMan Adventures (also published by Shorts publisher Majesco), and, outside of the DS, Crayon Physics, Drawn to Life on Wii, Max and the Magic Marker on WiiWare, and Trine allow players to make platforms by drawing shapes.

And, as it turns out, we are extremely receptive to this idea, even when it is in a game in which you control a character named Loogie. See the trailer after the break.