We’ve all seen the film trailer with the tap-dancing penguins, right? Well, that’s Warner Bros’ Happy Feet, and games are coming to most of the consoles from Midway.

‘So, we need a game based on a tap-dancing penguin aimed at families with kids. Come on, it’s obvious – we do an action adventure along the lines of Spyro, Crash, Jak & Daxter you name it, only we have these dancing sections too – you know, like Dancing Stage? See, easy.’

Man, we should be making games not writing about them.

We’ll leave it to the movie sites to fill you in on the finer plot details of Happy Feet. All you need to know for the sake of Midway’s game is that it features tone-deaf Emperor Penguin ‘Mumble’ and his ability to “tap dance something fierce!” Mumble is smart too, which means you need to be in order to triumph throughout the game. And this means saving all the penguins then getting the girl… err, female penguin.

Mumble’s Antarctica home is split between four areas in Happy Feet the videogame: Emperorland, Adelieland, Land of the Elephant Seals, and Forbidden Shore/Whaling Station. The game’s 28 missions also take into account the Zoo, where Mumble eventually arrives for the final confrontation with us humans. Mumble starts out as a toddler in the early stages, becoming a mean teen later on and then finally an adult, probably bemoaning how he’s too sophisticated for this kind of nonsense.

Apparently being unable to sing in tune is a major problem for Emperor Penguins. We don’t remember picking up this fact from Richard Attenborough, but okay. The game’s storyline closely matches the movie, and we’re not spoiling anything much here by saying that Mumble must prove himself in other ways.

For the majority of the game, Midway says there's plenty of penguin-type antics involving belly-sliding and fancy swimming. Since our hero Mumble has a healthy pair of dancing flippers too he’s also got a mean kick on him. A useful videogame attribute; no doubt about that. The dancing sections can be played solo or in two-player dance-off competitions with Family Mode. Other head-to-head challenges include multiplayer belly-sledding and swimming.

Your ultimate aim as Mumble is to gain enough experience to earn a Heart Song, without which he is a truly worthless Emperor Penguin. We can’t wait until November to help the little feller out.

Happy Feet is being published by Midway in November for Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance, GameCube, PC, PS2 and Wii.