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GameSpot Review of Elf Bowling 1 & 2
You'll find plenty of elves in Elf Bowling 1 & 2, but not much in the way of bowling. In fact, both of the games on this budget-priced Game Boy Advance cartridge are so devoid of gameplay, fun, and flair that you'd be equally entertained by just pressing the A button while the system is off.
Elf Bowling originally came to life as a freeware PC game back in 1999. It involves Santa, as the bowler, and his elves, who have been turned into bowling pins after complaining about working conditions at the North Pole. You have to try to knock down the elves, but the elves will do their best to distract you. Elf Bowling 2: Elves in Paradise came out the following year. It isn't a bowling game, but rather a shuffleboard game with the elves doubling as pucks.
Both games look similar to their PC counterparts, which were basically rudimentary Flash games. Each game has one flat 2D background. In Elf Bowling, the left half of the screen shows Santa at the near side of the lane, while the right half shows the elves at the far end. The ball moves down the lane with no animation whatsoever, but the elves are cutely drawn and sometimes do wacky things like flash their bare butts at Santa. There's slightly more animation in Elf Bowling 2, with Santa tugging on the elves' thong underpants to propel them spinning down the lane. Once in a while, the elves will bump into one another or fall off the edge of the boat and land in the mouth of a shark. The GBA version of Elf Bowling 2 is actually marginally better than the DS version (if only ever so slightly), because the power and aiming indicators are situated on the one screen instead of split between two screens.
As for the audio, both games feature some elfish screams and naughty spoken-word comebacks along the lines of "Those all the balls you got, Santa?" Elf Bowling doesn't have any background music, but its sequel has a short mambo tune that plays before each bowling attempt.
Quizzically, although both games resemble the original PC versions, a number of animations and sound effects have been removed. In Elf Bowling, the ball no longer makes noise while rolling down the lane. In Elf Bowling 2, there's no longer a coin toss at the beginning, there are fewer elf animations, and the formerly smooth scaling effect now looks choppy and uneven. Those cutbacks are tough to stomach considering how minimalist the original games were.
The main failing of both games is that there really isn't much of anything to do in either of them. In Elf Bowling, you launch the ball by pushing the A button when the moving arrow is where you want it. Beyond that, there's no way to guide the path of the ball. You can't even specify how much power or curve to put into the roll. Elf Bowling 2 is slightly better, if only because you can vary the aim and power behind shots by managing two separate indicators.
Ten frames in Elf Bowling take less than five minutes to complete. Once you've played through once, you've experienced everything the game has to offer. Elf Bowling 2 can be drawn out to about 10 minutes and is good for perhaps one or two replays, since it involves a CPU opponent and three full rounds of play.
There aren't any extras worth mentioning. Two players can compete against each another in Elf Bowling 2 by passing the system back and forth. Neither game keeps track of high scores.
Budget-priced GBA two-packs are becoming increasingly common these days, but this one is totally devoid of merit. After all, the original PC games are still available free of charge at various online download sites. NStorm, the creator of the original Elf Bowling, did eventually manage to churn out a decent bowling game with Elf Bowling 3, and it's completely stupefying that Ignition Entertainment chose to put the first two games on this cartridge instead of the superior third installment. Elf Bowling 1 & 2 is a cruel holiday joke that preys on the ignorant and uninformed.