Pikmin, with two differences. Firstly, it’s from a traditional 3rd-person behind-the-main-character viewpoint. Secondly, it’s evil.

The evil bit works well. Killing hobbits by setting fire to corn fields and controlling horrible (yet very cute) goblin minions is great fun. It’s played for, well, maybe not laughs, but big smiles and it has an atmosphere nestled snugly between Dungeon Keeper and Fable.

The viewpoint’s not so good. You have a huge character who, most of the time, is standing back and controlling things, rather than getting involved, and who obscures some of the screen. Also, the camera having to pulled back some way behind him means that events going on in front of you are less clear than might be useful. Optional first-person and top-down views might have been nice. Then maybe I’d see the hobbits in the corn field and not need to be told that they’re there by huge text messages in the middle of the screen.

Regardless of the graphical griping, though, I had great fun. I didn’t realise how much I was enjoying myself until the demo stopped and I just sat there staring at the screen, willing it to change its mind and give me more.