Rock, Paper, Shotgun

By John Walker on June 6th, 2008 at 10:03 pm.

In case anyone’s wondering how to get a story on RPS, it’s all about jumping up and down and demanding. Eurogamer‘s Tom Bramwell has executed this with grace and finesse, and thus I’m forced to write about the forthcoming Neopets Puzzle Adventure.

It’s the sort of name your eyes glide right past when scanning a list of press releases. The idea of Neopets fills me with a sense of horror (other than reminding me of the happy time I fed my little sister’s Tamagotchi until it died of fullness). But the key words here are, “From the people who made Puzzle Quest, Infinite Interactive.”

Tom’s excitement is borne of his time spent playing some early code of the game, while on some corrupting trip to Vegas. At Capcom’s Captivate… WAIT A SECOND! I came up with that name! Senior PR bod at Capcom, Leo Tan, asked me what they should call it. I said that! It’s my name! I thought it was funny because it would wind up Activision with their Activate event. Someone owes me an absolute fortune. Flipping heck. And then Tan didn’t even invite me. I’m so mad. What was I talking about?

Oh yes, NeoQuest Puzzle Pets. There’s no point in messing too much with a winning formula, and as other copycats (LIKE LEO TAN AND CAPCOM) try and churn out embarrassing copies of the PQ format, Infinite are the right people to know what changes to make. So this time, rather than Match 3, it’s Othello. You know, Turnabout. Go for people who find Go way too hard. This game core is surrounded by spells and abilities, this time presumably based in the Neopets universe.

Wait a second. Look, I’ve found the chat log with Leo! Here are the ideas I had:

botherer: Capcomvention.
botherer: I’m a genius.
botherer: Capcommunism.
botherer: Captivate would be hilarious.

How do you sue people? I’m sure this is the sort of situation where you sue people.

So, Neopets Puzzle Adventure has three Lands of Neopia, and over 150 puzzles, pet collecting, and you can make much more sense of it by reading Tom’s article. Meanwhile, hooray! These people know what they’re doing, and they’re doing it again.

Man! Seriously! My idea!