XBLIG News, Reviews & Previews

Elfland Reloaded Vol. 1 is the second XBLIG released by the Erikson brothers, Carl and Erik of Bog Turtle Games.

Elfland Reloaded Vol. 1 is a 2D adventure style platformer in which you take on the role of Elfie or Elfita to try and save your village from nasty trolls. As the 'ardest elf around, you have been chosen to take on the quest to travel to Gorgimer's Castle where you have to convince Gorgimer to help you to defeat the trolls.

Once you are out of the safety of the village walls, you face an assortment of enemies, such as snakes, birds and even bouncing springs!! However, fear not, you do have the means with which to protect yourself and that is in the form of berries! Yup you heard me right, berries, which you fling at your foes and it stuns them for a period of time, allowing you to get past them unharmed.

You have various types of berries at your disposal, all with their own unique properties. These are mega, flash, seek and bomb berries and as the hints available from the main menu explain each is best suited for particular enemies. Along the way, you will also be able to collect gems, which will come in useful when you get to Gorgimer's Castle - make sure that you collect enough, or you may find yourself short when you need them.

The game has fairly simple, but effective graphics that give it the right feel that just fits in so well.

Elfland Reloaded Vol. 1 has a complete walkthrough in the hints section of the game and even has a cheat mode available to those of you who feel it might be too hard and even comes with instructions on how to activate it. Once activated, you have unlimited ammunition and are able to toggle armour, which gives you invincibility.

To sum it all up, even though I wasn't very good at Elfland, it is a fun little game that would sit well amongst your game library. I'm looking forward to seeing volume 2, "The Troll Caves" I presume.