ELF

STORY / GAMEPLAY
The game is based on Cornelius's story, a male Elf that has to save his girlfriend Elisa from the armies of the evil Necrilus, before he boils her on a large bubbling vat of oil! To accomplish this Cornelius first has to walk and fight his way through 8 hostile levels built from platforms and ladders. This mission is surely not a walk in the park, since the levels are swarmed by numerous bad guys, whom you have to either avoid or kill. Your jumps have to be calculated carefully, as Cornelius can be instantly killed if he falls from too high. You must find particular stuff to give and also help your friends (or animals) and, in return, gain items that will help you solve your problems, otherwise there is no chance for you to progress to the next level! During your quest you will find a variety of herbs and other items around in order to combine them and create magic potions (powers/spells). Inside some shops you may also get a few hints to progress. But each level has its own unique problems so new strategies are needed to succeed. Elf isn't a "run of the mill" platform romp, where you go run and kill from one end of the game to the other. It features eight huge levels and a "save game" option gives this game a long-term appeal. The only downside here is that the difficulty level is pretty hard; and it's too hard for those who fancy playing the occasional arcade blast but really challenges the die-hard platform freaks!

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The Atari ST version offers good, cartoon-ish graphics and the backgrounds are done well, although the flip screen scrolling looks a bit jerky. The ST version has an impressive number of up to 40 colors on screen and features smooth sprites animation and fast action. The ST version's sound is as good as its visuals. On the main menu, the player has the option to choose between music and sound effects. The music gets quite repetitive after some time but the sound effects (not sampled as on the Amiga version) cover the action in a very cool way indeed! Note: An amazing, creepy and funny at the same time detail on this game is the Game Over sequence in which the hero is decapitated on a guillotine!