NeoPets: Puzzle Adventure (Wii, Nintendo DS, Windows)

NEOPETS: PUZZLE ADVENTURE inserts the virtual creatures from the popular NeoPets online community into a standalone story filled with puzzles and mini-games. Players begin by creating their own neopets, selecting gender, color, and a name. They then steer them around small maps where they meet, visit with, and accept missions from other creatures.

These missions, which include objectives such as capturing and training wild creatures or finding and defeating bandits, are actually strategic, Reversi-like board games in which players place tokens on a grid of squares and try to flip their opponent's tokens to their color by sandwiching them between two of their own. Other activities are represented by various mini-games. For example, to train a neopet you'll need to play a memory card challenge, and to cook food you'll need to find some ingredients and then play a puzzle that involves removing similar blocks that are adjacent to one another..

Anyone who enjoys puzzles can have fun with NeoPets: Puzzle Adventure; there is no need to be a fan of the NeoPets universe, nor does playing the game necessitate becoming part of the NeoPets online community. The puzzles seem simple at first, but get more complex as players level up their characters, earn special powers through captured neopets (such as the ability to arbitrarily flip enemy tokens or change the scoring value of certain squares), and equip various items that upgrade their statistics. The mini-games are a bit too basic to hold the attention of older kids, but they don't have to play a major role; players can choose to focus their time on the more strategic Reversi-style puzzles should they choose. And if you do happen to be a NeoPets fan, then the game will give you the opportunity to earn several rare virtual items for your existing online Neopets.

Available on: Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, Windows
Available online
Genre: Puzzle
Developer: Capcom
Released on: November 24, 2008
Price: 29.99
ESRB Rating: E