Finally a peep from Michael Smith and the team at MindCandy, whose fans have been waiting for the next installment of cross-media alternate reality game Perplex City for some months now, since it was indefinitely delayed.

The folks at Gizmodo tracked down Smith's latest project: a collection of cute monsters on cell phone charms (they whirl and light up when you get a ring) who belong to the virtual world of Moshi Monsters. Each $10 pet unlocks a virtual version of itself, which users can raise and care for. Some interesting social networking elements involved, too -- pet owners can swap pictures and comment on one another's monsters MySpace-style, with a newsroll à la Facebook.

Gizmodo says it looks like the monsters will be able to interact together in a virtual environment too, but it's unclear whether the tiny creatures will be able to do what pocket-sized monsters do best -- which is, of course, battling each other!

Moshi Monsters (website is up, but no content yet) will be targeted at the 7-12 year-old set, and from the looks of things, will go live this September.

[Via Gizmodo]