I was taken by surprise earlier today as I perused last week’s top ten sellers list on Impulse, Machinarium, Amanita Design’s robot adventure that has enchanted us over the last few weeks, was sitting right there in the seventh spot.

Woah! That’s quite excellent, especially when you consider that the list covers through October 17 and Machinarium launched a day before on October 16. That points to a lot of launch week pre-orders and day one purchases. The PAX 2009 Selection and IGF 2009 Winner for Excellence in Visual Arts is showing that it’s not just good to look at, it’s good period.

Congrats to the game and the people behind it on the strong start. Demo. Steam. Impulse.

Machinarium, by Amanita Design, finally sees its release today. After 3 long years of development, the adventure title that has been recognized by  many indie awards finally get’s to share itself with the world. It wasn’t all that long ago that I was just a bystander, watching the game being played by a crowd of people at PAX09. Now, however, I’ve played it, I’ve beaten it, and I absolutely, bloody loved it.

Machinarium is a fairly simple story about a robot. Now, I’ve heard words around the web that the game was about discrimination and that you play as a “lesser” robot. This wasn’t true to my findings. The actual story is one of lost friendship and bullies. You see, you aren’t being tormented by every robot; just a specific three who are the antagonists of the game. In fact, most other robots, aside from a single dick policebot, are pleasant and they help you through the city.

Anyways, there are many layers to the game and I don’t want to give away any spoilers so let’s just get on with the review:

What an adorable game! I mean really, a very well-thought out game with an insightful concept. Amanita’s actual website for the game, Machinarium.net, lists the explanation of the story as “A little robot who’s been thrown out to the scrap yard behind the city must return and confront the Black Cap Brotherhood and save his robot-girl friend.”

The puzzler is based in a robotic world in which you control a little robot that can expand or detract its body. There seems to be some dissonance in this universe as your robot is not being treated equally and more like a piece of junk. The catch is that you can only interact with what you’re closest to in the environment. You need not worry, however, as walking is allowed and–when added to the expanding/detracting attribute–the action of reaching objects is quite simple. You are also expected to combine different objects to complete objectives in order to get to the next level.

Steam has listed Amanita Design’s award winning indie puzzle adventure game Machinarium for pre-order, offering 25% off to those who purchase the title before it’s release. Meaning the fully 2D hand-drawn game can be had for merely $15 before October 16 when the game unlocks.

Machinarium was honored twice in 2009, first at this year’s IGF receiving the award for Excellence in Visual Art and later as an official selection for the this year’s PAX.

A demo of the game is available for Steam users as well.