Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Elfsquad7 (XBLIG): "A Cool Christmas Crisis Co-op Game"

I'm a huge fan of the Christmas holiday, and I always have been. During my childhood it was all about the toys, and video games I would get but as I grew older Christmas took on a different meaning for me. It became a time when family found common ground, and would spend some quality time together. It is definitely nice to spend Christmas with loved ones, but deep down I still enjoy the presents that I get (I probably always will ...). As a new XBLIG reviewer I recently encountered my first holiday themed games when Halloween rolled around this year. I was really glad to see developers producing some good indie titles for that holiday. I've found during my time as an Xbox 360 reviewer that the indie games cover a wide variety of genres, and themes. It's something I've definitely grown to love about the Xbox 360. After scouring Youtube for review material recently I found a Christmas oriented game that genuinely caught my attention. The name of that game was "Elfsquad7", and it was developed by 'Tykocom'. I ended up watching a gameplay video of it, and I decided that even though I could only go solo in it I still wanted to review it. It honestly looked very impressive to me, and I couldn't wait to try it out ...


Elfsquad7 is a 1-4 player story driven game that follows the holiday chaos of a robot named 'Kevin' who has ruined Christmas by going out of control. As you read through the brief (6 page) tutorial you will discover that Santa, and the North Pole are in panic due to the crisis an automated assembling robot named 'Kevin' has caused. It seems that Kevin has gone haywire launching all of the Christmas gifts into the air. It is the job of 'Elfsquad7' (a team of holiday misfits) to set things right by packaging all of the presents as they fall from the sky. There are a total of 6 playable characters to choose from in the game including 'S.Snowflake (a dark haired elf girl)', 'Clancy (an elf inventor)', 'Cheesums (a mouse)', 'Jellybean (a female reindeer)', 'Elfington (a nerdy elf)', and 'Panza (an elf elder)'. The goal of the game is simply to pack a certain amount of gifts as they fall in a certain amount of time. There are 3 difficulty settings in the game that each have different levels, and challenges to face. In the end you must confront Kevin in a final boss battle to save Christmas.

Gameplay in 'Elfsquad7' is really easy to pick up on. For movement you can use either the (D.Pad), or the (Left Thumbstick). The only other buttons you will use is the (X) button for firing your gift wrapping gun, (X + Down) for a ground pound/stomp, (A) button for jumping, and (A x2) for double jumping. The main goal of each level of 'Elfsquad7' (solo or co-op) is to wrap, and catch a set amount of toys/presents. You are given a time limit within each level that constantly counts down. Time can be added to the clock by collecting sundial power-ups. Each difficulty (easy, medium, hard) in the game makes the time limit, and present collecting objective progressively, and significantly more difficult. Even the levels change in appearance/structure with each difficulty setting. There are also enemy toys that you will encounter as you play 'Elfsquad7' including Ginsu Playtime Polly, Terrible Unbearable Mr. Top, and Acid-Soaked Slimelien. The final level you encounter in the game is a boss battle against Kevin, and it requires some pretty serious strategy to defeat. Elfsquad7 features an in-game Northpole item shop in which you can purchase an assortment of wacky weapons, and power-ups (Peppamint Flavabeam, Cupfulla Sugar, Strange Fungus ...) to enhance gameplay. After you purchase a weapon, or power-up you must collect it within the level from the flying 'G.I. Jimmy Whiskerkissies' who is a military cat that carries/drops items from a crate. The currency used in the item shop is gold cans of goldfish that can be collected in the same manner as the falling presents.

In the end I really enjoyed 'Elfsquad7'. It had a look to it that was similar to what I experienced in "Wizorb", and had a really cool retro game appearance. The assortment of playable characters were pretty awesome in my opinion. I ended up using 'S.Snowflake' as my character since she looked so serious (^.^). The levels in the game were designed well, and had neat background themes going on with them (an alien planet, food storage, north pole ...). What really wowed me about the game was the final boss battle with Kevin. It was something I didn't expect to see, but it was definitely a pleasant surprise. The one thing I did find bothersome in the game was the lack of any kind of leaderboard/scoreboard. You get a score at the end of each level you complete based on gifts collected, Foes defeated, and sundials collected. It truly puzzles me as to why the developer didn't include a leaderboard since the game is definitely score oriented. I would love to see an online leaderboard added in a future update. It would seal the package quite nicely (pun intended ^.^). More levels, and boss battles would also be a huge plus in my opinion. Overall I loved what I found in 'Elfsquad7'. I thought it offered something unique for holiday game enthusiasts. If you have the msp to spare then this would definitely be a good co-op experience.

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