A babe in toyland

If there was ever a hit TV show destined for a video game conversion, it was Bagpuss. But publisher Acclaim Entertainment wasn't too keen to develop the tale of an overweight, pink pussycat and his carved wooden friends - so it plumped for the high-octane, stealth and destroy spy thrills of Alias.

The US smash, starring Jennifer Garner as Sydney Bristow, is now in its third season. It's the everyday tale of a postgraduate student who leads a double life as a covert operative for a government agency called SD6.

She finds out said group is actually evil, goes undercover for the CIA after her fiancè is killed, then discovers her dead mother is actually alive and that she is also a baddie. Confused? You will be.

The show has more twists than a game of pontoon - including a guest appearance from Ricky Gervais as a crazed bomb-maker - but has stunts galore and plenty of martial arts, explosions and death. And that makes it perfect for the transition from prime-time to pixel.

'A video game based on the idea of Alias is thrilling,' says the show's creator JJ Abrams. 'We've all seen games based on movies and TV shows that shouldn't have been made but, with this game, it had to be something that we would want to play.'

In the game, you play Sydney. She's young, female and deadly, which is great when you're old, male and timid. It's designed to be a sort of post-Splinter Cell infiltration caper but with more confrontation with the enemy and the use of a nifty split-screen system which allows you to view your current situation from two angles.

To that end, Acclaim spent time creating a combat engine that incorporates several fighting styles - from krav maga to capoeira - so the particular can of whoop-ass Sydney chooses to open for her foes depends on the geographical location of the action.

Also, rather than featuring a grizzled old marine, it's got a bottom-wiggling superbabe. 'I think it's pretty funny they left my wiggle in,' says Garner of the game's exaggerated depiction of the real thing.

What's more is that you get to dress her with a top line of alluring spysuits and kit her out with plenty of Bond-style gadgets.

Unusually for most video games (Futurama is a notable exception), the game's storyline has been devised by the TV show's script team. In fact, the whole cast and crew worked on the game, from actors doing voiceovers to costume and set designers working on the graphic representations of the Alias world.