Drawn to Life (NDS) creator 5th Cell is currently developing Construction Combat: Lock's Quest for the Nintendo DS, publisher THQ announced today.

Said to combine the action-adventure and life simulation genres, Construction Combat focuses on a young hero who must defend his homeland against robotic invaders by building defense towers. The game utilizes the Nintendo DS touch screen and stylus to allow players to construct defenses block-by-block to defend their homeland.

In addition to build-centric combat, the game features elements of strategy and puzzle-solving. Construction Quest will offer both local wireless and internet multiplayer for players looking to battle their friends.

Construction Combat: Lock's Quest will hit retail shelves this fall.

A new follow-up to 5th Cell's drawing-adventure hybrid Drawn to Life (NDS) will feature children's television network Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants license, MTV Multiplayer reports.

Entitled Drawn to Life: SpongeBob SquarePants, the follow-up adopts gameplay mechanics of the first Drawn to Life title and allows players to draw their own protagonist, erase enemies and illustrate power-ups and checkpoints. The game will be developed by Altron, a Japanese studio which has produced several licensed titles.

Though the pairing of the animated series license with Drawn to Life may make little sense to newly acquainted gamers, publisher THQ is quick to point out that the game's antagonist DoodleBob, an evil sketched clone of SpongeBob SquarePants, is lifted directly from the animated series. So, there's that.

Drawn to Life: SpongeBob SquarePants will hit the DS in North America this fall.

Earlier this week, Nintendo held a press summit to show off some upcoming first- and third-party games headed to Wii and Nintendo DS in 2007. Sadly absent from the event were the company's heaviest hitters--namely Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3 Corruption, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass--all of which are likely to show up at this year's E3 given the recent news that all four games will ship this year.

Despite the lack of marquee titles, Nintendo had some solid offerings playable. Contributor Tracy Erickson attended the event for some hands-on impressions of Next Level Games' Mario Strikers Charged (Wii), Visual Concepts and Blue Castle Games' The Bigs (Wii), Genius Sonority's Pokemon Battle Revolution (Wii), and EA Montreal's Boogie (Wii). Check out his report. Notably, two of the four games, Mario Strikers Charged and Pokemon Battle Revolution, feature long-awaited online multiplayer.

Multiplayer is where this young series is really looking to move forward, promising to be among the first wave of online-enabled Wii titles. A leaderboard will track players, rewarding points for wins and goals. Cumulative records are posted to the board; additionally, the overall performer of each day will be recognized as the "Striker of the Day." Nintendo hosted a small online tournament with players back at the headquarters and, based on that live demonstration, the game runs well in head-to-head matches.
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Nintendo also released the following screenshots and movies for various first- and third-party Wii and Nintendo DS titles:
- Big Brain Academy Wii Degree (Nintendo; Wii) gameplay trailer
- Boogie (EA Montreal; Wii)
- Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day (Nintendo; NDS) gameplay trailer
- Drawn to Life (5th Cell; NDS)
- Jam Sessions (Plato; NDS) (this game is amazing; look for Shack hands-on soon -Chris)
- Mario Party 8 (Hudson Soft; Wii) gameplay trailer
- Mario Strikers Charged (Next Level Games; Wii)
- Metroid Prime 3 Corruption (Retro Studios; Wii)
- Picross DS (Jupiter; NDS)
- Planet Puzzle League (Intelligent Systems; NDS) (you know, Tetris Attack)
- Pokemon Battle Revolution (Genius Sonority; Wii) gameplay trailer
- Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Nintendo; Wii)