Hands on with Guinness World Records DS

To be completely honest, we didn't go looking for Guinness World Records DS. We were after LEGO Batman PSP - which we sorta got via the PS3-PSP Remote Play option - but got sent into the wrong room. Poor old TT Games' Nick Ricks. While he was excitedly demonstrating how you eat an entire plane or shear 43 sheep in 30 seconds while waving around his Wiimote, we were standing grumpily in the corner, refusing to join in with the other journalists. Oh, we are so arch.

Then we found out there was a DS version of the game. So we had to stop being so arch and join in. Oh, aren't we silly.

It was another TT producer, Richard Earl, who let us have a go on the DS version of the game, which wasn't otherwise available.

But before we get onto that, what's interesting about the game is that it's the first non-LEGO game TT has developed since it was bought out by Warner. The significance of that is TT Games - in the cunning forms of execs Jonathan Smith and Tom Stone - actually approached the Guinness World Records company to get the licence to make a game, rather than it being offered around to uninterested parties willy-nilly as you (or certainly as we) had imagined.

The reason, according to Earl, is the brand is very family-friendly, as all of TT games have been over the years, and it contains something of the same living room bragging rights as the co-op modes of the LEGO games. It works throughout Europe too, with sales of the Guinness World Records books especially strong in the UK and Germany (which just happen to be the biggest two European games markets - see what they've done there?)

Also, the brand helps to give a bit of backbone to what otherwise could be just another collection of mini-games on Wii and DS - and we all know how saturated that market is. Indeed, the synergy with the Records book means players will have the opportunity to get into the next edition. And both games will use the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection to enable you to upload your scores, and as well as the global high score tables - which will also link out via the game's website - you'll be able to see how well you're doing compared to your friends too.

But that's enough of the industry talk. What's the game actually about?

Well, holding your DS in the book mode, you start of in a global hub, where you get the usual cartoon avatar customisation features - and the ability to buy various other collectibles as you go - to create your character and then it's off around the world, continent by continent to play mini-games based on actual Guinness World Records. There are 36 in total, although 12 are initially locked. All the mini-games can be played by up to four players.

Examples include stupid or wacky (depending on your point if view) activities such as the Fastest Time to Crush Watermelons with Your Head, Fastest Time to Pop 100 Balloons and the Longest Human Cannonball, and are generally played out using repetitive Track & Field-style stylus mashing actions. Yes, it's all very frantic. We also imagine it's likely to work much better in a communal environment rather than a booth in a trade show, so we not going to be overly harsh in our judgement.

Still, with that license and a promised mid-budget price, we expect Guinness World Records DS will do well when it's released sometime this winter.