Elefunk review (PS3)

I’m always talking about price. Whether it’s a cheapo PSN or XBL game, or an expensive peripheral reliant monster purchase, the price of a product does come into a review. Relative worth is an important factor in deciding whether or not a game is worthy of your purchase, and it is because of this that I came to Elefunk with a less favourable attitude.

Okay, it’s only a fiver. £4.99 isn’t a lot of money, and has become pretty standard for these PSN games, but I spotted that the price on the US store was $4.99, and a direct dollar to pound conversion is never fair. That makes it twice as expensive for us to buy as our star spangled banner waving friends, and rather than looking at the game as a £4.99 game, my first impression was of a game worth £2.50 that we were being taken for a ride with. (Though it was nice to see it out at the same time over here.)

The first level

On first viewing, the game appears to be a tweaked version of Pontifex, the excellent physics based bridge building downloadable PC game, swapping the trains that have to cross each chasm for cutesy elephants. Indeed the first level gives you a simple tutorial that teaches you the controls, but doesn’t really give you the information you need to complete the level. In the interest of full disclosure, it took me about 30 minutes, and two sets of ‘giving up’ trying to get the concepts that would allow me to support the simple bridge for one elephant and complete the first level; and I got through Pontifex.

See, the game gives you various different structures of girders around certain solid points to use to prop up the various bridges, and rather than just making the most robust hardcore bridge possible, the trick lies in combining strength with low weight of the entire structure. Then you’ll realise that even the weaker combinations in the right position end up using the other girders to reinforce themselves. Then you’ll notice a difference between holding it up from above as supporting it from below, yet all ‘held in place’ with a fair and robust physics engine that will play out the elephant crossing the same way if you have the same girder structure.

The back 19

As soon as the solution (or the first of many) for the starting level hit me I sailed through the remainder of the 19 levels, but constantly challenged with new restrictions and abilities. Suddenly you’ll be without any girders, instead giving you an introduction into cables, used to suspend the bridge from solid points higher up, then perhaps wooden girders to use instead of metal; weaker than metal, but lighter. Combinations of all of the systems are finally combined with the ability to build your base bridges how you want them, before even starting on the support, over multi layered, sections with multiple gaps.

Even at my best, later levels took me close to 30 minutes to complete, not because I was running into problems, but the complexity of the levels means that you’ll be setting up separate sections for separate elephants to cross at the same time, testing each one before moving on to the next gap so as to keep as many materials as possible for unforeseen problems later.

A Mechano simulator?

Once you get past the start, and begin to think logically it’s a remarkably satisfying puzzle game. There is even a brilliant set of five levels that require your elephants roll down a structure you have created, collecting gold statues on the way down before coming to rest in the target area. After each set, you’ll be ‘treated’ to a bonus level that feels more of a gimmick than any other part of the game; you must launch an elephant onto a target to gain bonus points, and to be honest, I could have done without them, rather getting on to the next bridge building exercise.

It’s all over too quickly, but replayability comes in the form of leaderboards for each level, scored on how long you took to achieve the goal, and how few ‘pieces’ you used to achieve said target. Of course once you’ve found the best solution, it’s just a case of remembering how to reproduce it, restarting the level and building it as quickly as possible for those extra points, but the game keeps track of how many girders are used, so it’s a good way of seeing how efficient others have been at building.

A Jenga simulator?

With the few levels available (at the moment – an ‘online store’ menu option is present, but currently empty, potentially for extras later) it is nice to see a rather unique multiplayer game mode that can be played online or locally. It’s essentially a kind of bridge girder based Jenga. There are five MP levels to try, and they are all some kind of crazy balancing structure with elephants poised on top of and within it. The idea is to remove girders alternately, until the whole thing comes crashing down from lack of support.

It’s an entertaining distraction, and a nice addition to the package, which avoids the typical concept of the second player removing the exact opposite girder to you on symmetrical levels by having slightly different girder set ups, and central girders to remove if you’re concerned over your opponent’s methods.

Coming in to a game with a preconception of its value is a difficult idea to change, but after playing it through I have simply come to the conclusion that it is a great puzzler for the money (yes, even our money). America is simply getting a fantastic deal.