Happy holidays, everyone! Elephant games has severed ties with BigFish and released this adorable and gorgeous Christmas adventure, albeit slightly past the holiday. Remember that they also released 2 other new games, which is very exciting to those of us who were devastated by the destruction of our fabulous genre. For those of you complaining about the price look at what you would pay to play this game on your PC or Mac ($19.99) and check out games with coins and energy which really drain your budget! Then stop complaining and be grateful!
This game was magical and family-oriented, so it was on the simplistic side. However you could customize settings to amp up the difficulty. The graphics were extremely beautiful, and the price of the game was worth it just for the graphics alone. The storyline was that you must assist characters from Lewis Carroll’s classic novel and save Christmas. Tasks were regularly updated. You were provided with an excellent teleport map which enabled instantaneous transport between locations, and indicated collectibles if so customized. Collectibles included puzzle pieces, statuettes and morphing objects. There was a plethora of entertaining tasks at each location. Inventory was labeled and there were complex objects to assemble; however the complex plus sign symbol was often not shown as present when there was an available action on the object. Don’t worry; you will figure it out! If you have any issues there was an in-game strategy guide to help you. It wasn’t quite as easy to follow as the BigFish guides, but you should at least be able to figure your next available action. The HO scenes had a good variety, which included word lists, silhouettes, returning objects to their places, use of one object to unlock another, and several other types (which included some unusual ones which I will not discuss lest it be a spoiler alert.) The puzzles/games included games of skill and dexterity, codes, a maze and a labyrinth, a board game and quite a few of the rotational genre. In short, there was a puzzle to suit everyone. Along your journey you had a Cheshire Cat to help you reach objects, and in the bonus adventure there was a Christmas Spirit Cat to do the same thing. Except for the small glitch with the complex item indicator, the quality control of the game was excellent. This game was sufficiently lengthy inclusive of the bonus adventure.
My true rating is 4.5 stars, and that was due to the aforementioned glitch, and for slight touch screen sensitivity issues. I enjoyed this game immensely, especially since Christmas was difficult this year.
Note to Catalina: feel better, my friend and Happy New Year! Reviewers, I would appreciate it if you would spread the word about these new Elephant games if you play any re-releases from BigFish. It seems that there are still players who don’t understand the situation. I have tried to update everyone but my reviews mysteriously keep disappearing, very disconcerting when you realize the amount of time I spend on them!
Anyway, Lynxie wishes everyone a very happy and healthy New Year!
