Jambo! Safari

The visuals look pretty much as they did in the original game and your mission, in Arcade mode at least, is the same: capture seven different species of animal before the time runs out. However, SEGA has thrown in a bundle of new stuff too. "The arcade game was a huge success, but it was in an arcade cabinet," says Humphries. "To make the full game we decided we'd add more content, giving it more longevity with the Story mode and things like that."

In Story mode you work your way up from trainee ranger to fully-fledged Dr Doolittle, completing a variety of missions along the way. Some of these involve healing animals in the reservation's animal enclosure, as Humphries demonstrates. He introduces us to a lioness called Sue who's had a row with a thornbush. Using the remote like a pair of tweezers, Trauma Centre-style, he plucks the thorns from her fur then rubs in some antiseptic cream. Which is all very nice if you're an eight year-old girl, but it's hardly wrangling an angry hippo with a flashing rope is it?

Anyway, time for the feeding mini-game now. The lioness is back in her stall and food is scrolling along on a conveyor belt. Humphries chooses from the selection of fruit, vegetables and meat, dragging and dropping items with the remote to feed the lioness. Yes, it's just like the best videogame ever made since Jambo! Safari, Fruit Mystery. Except Zookeeper Steve doesn't get angry if you give the lion banasas or stratberries and it gets a bowel instruction WELL DONE MATE. "Now I've bonded with Sue I can go and visit her in the wild and take photographs," says Humphries. Bit bottom of the barel.

There's also a Photography mode where you're given specific assignments and graded as to how well your shots turn out. Much like Afrika, then. But can you run over a lion and break its legs off? "No. You cannot." How disappointing. "You do have the emotional states of the animals like in the original game, so if you're trying to lassoo them and they're angry with you, they will try to ram the jeep. But no broken ones, only the ones you heal in the enclosure."

A Wii game just wouldn't be a Wii game without a few derivative mini-games, and there are four in Jambo! Safari. Jamble involves trying to score goals with your jeep - "It's similar to Top Gear football," says Humphries. Stone Skipping is self-explanatory, while Meerkat Madness is "a puzzle game very similar to Chu-Chu Rocket". Then there's Ostrich Racing, in which you get to "be" the ostriches rather than ride them, disappointingly. All the mini-games can be played by up to four players. There's also a two player drop-in, drop-out co-op mode, where one player drives the jeep while the other controls the lassoo.

But the solo Arcade mode still looks like the most fun, and is the element most true to the original game. The question is, can you complete the special research? "Obviously we're not dropping crates on rhinos and that sort of thing, but there are Story missions where you have to help people do research and capture animals for research and so on." But is the air of mystery still there? "Yes, the game doesn't actually tell you what the special research is."

That will surely come as a relief to Iain Soutar, James Bagshawe, Tom Preston, Dr Bonsu, Chris Rodd, Eric Lowe, JayKwon and everyone else who signed the Bring Back Jambo! Safari petition. It's hard to believe that just 19 people have enough power to win SEGA over in just 18 months. And that's because they don't. "This game was actually already in production in February last year," says Humphries. "But it's nice to know the support's there."

Ah well. The important thing is Jambo! Safari is coming back, and if they can sort out that steering it will undoubtedly be hailed by every critic in the world as the best game of the 21st century. Now then, how about Thrill Drive for Xbox 360?