Neopets Puzzle Adventure

More like Puzzle Quest, though, Neopets uses mini-games and derivatives of the core Othello gameplay to take care of secondary elements. For example, you can collect up to 150 Petpets - pets owned by Neopets - and by training these you can reduce the cool-down time for spells that prevents you using them again for a few turns (a bit like Puzzle Quest's mounts). These mini-games include competitive, memory-based card flipping and matching, or Othello games where the shape of the board is altered to force you into new approaches and condensed tactics. On top of that, you can round up food and collect recipes to generate items (also via mini-games) that can be used to pep you up in Othello battles.

As with Puzzle Quest (notice a theme developing?), single-player storytelling will be handled via dialogue boxes on still backgrounds, and Infinite Interactive's CEO Steve Fawkner informed us at Captivate that the music is being composed by the same chap who handled Puzzle Quest's. There will also be multiplayer, separate access to the mini-games and an "Instant Action" element.

Gamers who like continuity, then, certainly won't be startled by the approach Infinite Interactive has taken, and it will be up to them whether Puzzle Quest with its core elements switched out for equivalents is enough to tempt them back. Wii owners who were disappointed by Puzzle Quest's control system will have more to shout about, however, as Fawkner told us that the team is implementing several control schemes that allow players to use the Wiimote or Classic Controller depending on their preference - with Infinite keen to avoid another lukewarm response to its attempts at Wii control systems.

And of course Infinite and Capcom are keen to make sure Neopets.com users get some added value. As well as working closely with the web-game's owners and incorporating a lot of elements that its followers expect, the videogame will generate codes that can be redeemed for unique items on the website.

What we don't know at the moment is exactly when it will be out ("Holiday 2008" is Capcom's guidance), and whether the team will extend the experience to other platforms. Capcom was certainly keen not to rule it out, telling us that it will be "working with Nickelodeon to see what works", and that this could mean PSP, Xbox Live Arcade or PlayStation Network in future. To begin with, it's Wii, PC and DS, and given that Puzzle Quest's profile grew largely from a free PC demo distributed on Infinite's website, and the developer's observation that the best way to sell that game was simply to get people to play it, the publisher says we're "definitely likely to see some demos in the future".

From our experience of playing it, it shares the same intoxicating puzzle/strategy qualities as its videogame predecessor, and although the devs admit that it still has an enormous amount of balancing to go through (last-minute reversals via spells are very common at the moment, and the AI struggles in places), we're quietly excited. When we saw "Neopets" on the Captivate 08 schedule, we didn't expect to have time to write about it what with Street Fighter IV, Resident Evil 5, Bionic Commando and Dark Void competing for our attention. We made time. If Infinite can find the same subtle balance of compelling elements that it achieved with Puzzle Quest, we imagine you will too.