The word 'Pengel' is a combination of 'Pen' and 'Angel', so your Pengel is literally a 'Pen-Angel'. It flies around with you and draws your doodles (under your command, of course). Your 'doodles' are characters that fight for you in your doodle battles and they're created by you. You use your Pengel to draw your doodles in 2D and they are filled in and puffed up into 3D characters as you work on them. Not only do these characters become 3D, but they are auto-magically assigned animations that not only look good, but are often more appropriate for the characters than would be expected. I chose Magic Pengel as a write-in nomination for SpikeTV's Video Game Awards 2003 for Best Animation and Most Addictive.
In addition to the really cool doodles, the areas have a nice, relaxed feel and good continuity across the entire area. The characters that you interact with are characters indeed, bordering on stereo-typical, but each has their own persona and interests.
The music in Magic Pengel is another point of excellence. The title theme and other songs are cheery and up tempo, with a rich acoustic timbre. When the title theme first started, I thought the music was from a different source, since it was an almost folksy island song with acoustic guitar. It fits the game well, though, and is a nice departure from the typical choice of electronic blips or licensed rock.
The only sonically aggravating part of the game would have to be the short talking clips used when not in the arenas. An encounter with a villager in the village will get you a few choices of things to say, but the only part of the discussion that's actually spoken is the first word or two of the other person's narrative. To make good use of it, they typically play it twice per interaction. This can be, for example, 'Howdy!', and can easily get on one's nerves after a while. Luckily, the music and the gameplay make up for this shortcoming.
WARNING:
The 'doodles' in this game are subject to the imagination and creative talents of the player. If the player can think of something and has the creative talents to draw it in the editor, it comes to life as a doodle. This means that dirty little minds can make dirty little doodles that come to life in ways that parents might not approve of... and that juvenile adults might laugh for entirely too long about. No, really. Two words: 'Wiggle Parts'. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Um, yes. Ha. Moving on...
