The Adventures of Elena Temple is a nod in the most impressive way to the games of yesteryear when times and pixels were much simpler and the only expectation was badass gameplay.
Think of The Adventures of Elena Temple as a prequel to the entire adventure genre; before the likes of Lara Croft and Nathan Drake you had Elena ripping up the temples. The best way to describe this game is thinking of the Tenacious D song Tribute; this may not be the best game ever made, but it certainly is a cracking tribute.
Developer: Grimtalin
Published by: Grimtalin
Release Date: May 2018
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Price: $4.99
Gameplay
When you first load up Adventures of Elena Temple, you are asked to pick from an option of virtual consoles to play on. My personal favourite has to be “Some Toy”, which is a nod to a certain old-school handheld that took up most of my childhood.
These virtual console options will definitely appeal to those nostalgic gamers or even gamers that weren’t lucky enough to witness that age of simplicity.
After making your choice you are then put into the game. The game starts as a simple platformer from days gone by as you jump from platform to platform collecting coins and gems and trying your best to dodge the dangerous spikes and traps on the way. This is were for me the game begins to unravel as it starts getting a lot more complex as you try to find your way around the temple; all the enemies and traps are one hit kills and can become very, very frustrating, however, this works in your benefit too as the enemies are one hit kills as well and go down easy.
Quite often I found myself moving about in no particular direction trying to find the exit as the map or even how to access it is unclear. I found it by mistake that pressing pause brings up the pause menu but also the map which starts to help you with direction, I also found out that Elena has a gun you can use and there are bullets dotted around for you to collect and use against foes. The dungeon you are exploring is massive with 50 rooms to get through, each one with their own puzzles and secrets to find.
Traversing through the dungeons is quite fun and quite enjoyable, the gameplay is like I said; at times frustrating, but I also had a lot of fun exploring the world with its old-school graphics and old school soundtrack.
I easily found myself losing time playing this, it’s so easy to tell yourself “I’ll have one quick game” and before you know it you’ve immersed yourself deep into the dungeons and hours have flown by.
The game is perfect for the Nintendo Switch as it’s the type of title you can play on the go, like a quick go on the commute to work or a quick go before bed, but be careful, as it gets really addictive.
Graphics and Sound
The graphics of The Adventures of Elena Temple are as simple as they can get but they add to the nostalgia vibe quite nicely.
The chiptune soundtrack really does add that authentic feel to the game making it all more believable that you are playing a game from that era.
Summary
I enjoyed The Adventures of Elena Temple, in a certain flashback way, it was quite fun to explore the open plan dungeons going wherever you see fit, but this can become tiresome and have a samey feeling to it and the one hit kill can definitely frustrate. But overall I found it a pleasant game to play and, to be fair, the price of the game is well worth a punt and something I would recommend to have in your library as a go to for the quick time killer games you need in you life.
The Loot Gaming 