Welcome to EXPlay, (Explain & Play) the review series where we care not for scores but tell it how it is when it comes to every game we get our hands on, whilst also taking the time to include some lengthy gameplay, to give you the reader, the chance to shape your own impressions and views whilst watching and reading.
In this explanatory review, we’re covering The Fall of Elena Temple by developer GrimTalin:
The Fall of Elena Temple:Â (The Explanation)
In The Fall of Elena Temple, you guide Elena through yet another adventure, this time exploring ruins with the power of time reversal. The stages are sprinkled with comedic banter and hints, but let’s be honest—this isn’t a game you play for the plot. Thankfully, the hints don’t repeat if you die, so the banter stays fresh.
The Fall of Elena Temple is a Playdate port, echoing the LCD inspirations of previous Elena games and similar in graphics to the original GameBoy Super Mario Land. This iteration feels more like a Game & Watch title, with Elena moving tile by tile rather than freely around a 2D plane. The game offers a charming visual throwback, complete with a neat border that you can zoom in on, enhancing the retro feel.
Throughout the game, you unlock extra backgrounds for the GrimBoy interface. I didn’t unlock too many of them during my EXPlay, but it’s easy to see the appeal in having a colorful background while playing on the black and white GrimBoy. Because the game plays out on a small screen I found myself using the camera zoom feature which negates the background art almost entirely. Still, there’s a nice variety if you prefer having a background visible.
The music is surprisingly good, featuring a variety of electronic tunes for each stage. Some tracks are catchy, while others, like the first stage song, can become repetitive. You can disable the music for an authentic LCD handheld experience, but I enjoyed most of the tracks and kept the BGM on. However, as I grappled with some of the more intricate time and space puzzles that require zooming around and retracing steps, I found myself tuning out the music the longer I spent in a level.
Gameplay-wise, The Fall of Elena Temple tasks you with collecting all the coins in each stage and reaching the exit unscathed. These single-screen puzzles introduce the game’s central gimmick: a Time Crystal that lets Elena rewind to just before she fell off a platform. Depending on the stage, these crystals have varying charges. Once you run out, the first fall point gets replaced by the next one. For example, if Elena has five rewinds, you can fall five times and hit the B button to return to right before your first fall. You will be required to understand spatial recognition as well as ‘see’ the puzzle’s solution to exit a room safely. Sometimes the simplest solution to a room was staring right at me.
This is where the puzzling shines. Items you collected, enemies you defeated, and doors you opened remain unchanged upon using the time crystal. Due to the levels’ design and Elena’s limited movements (she can only move and jump straight up), you often fall into inescapable places, requiring a rewind. But if you waste your falls or cross a breakable bridge and rewind to before it broke, you might still be stuck. You can grab a heart to tank a hit, but you can’t carry more than one, and rewinding doesn’t restore it.
Thus, falling in the right order, noting the best routes, and ensuring you can reach the exit after collecting all the coins are key to victory. Despite the main game having only 20 stages (with a few bonus levels), this puzzler is delightfully tricky. Even by the eighth stage, I found myself stumped and needing to restart several times.
The only major gripe is the lack of a quick restart button. Restarting requires pausing the game and selecting restart from the main menu, which can be tedious. Adding a quick restart button, perhaps on the minus button, would greatly reduce this tedium. Despite this, I enjoyed my time with The Fall of Elena Temple. The challenge was satisfying, and the “ah-ha” moments were rewarding.
It’s been a while since we’ve seen Elena, but The Fall of Elena Temple is a welcome return. Each room is deviously tricky yet satisfying to solve, and the game’s seemingly short length is offset by well-crafted puzzles that take time to figure out. The simple mechanics and pick-up-and-play nature make this a fun ode to handheld systems.
When the lack of a quick restart feature is my biggest complaint, there’s not much else to criticize. The game may be brief once you master it, but its short length adds to its charm, especially given the price. I’m already excited for more of Elena’s puzzle adventures!
The Fall Of Elena Temple: (The Gameplay)
Game Specifications:
Developer: GrimTalin
Publisher: GrimTalin
Platform: Nintendo Switch (eShop)
Category: Puzzle, Platformer
No. of Players: 1 (Single System)
Release Date: April 30, 2024
Price: $2.99
File Size: 215 MB
Nintendo.com Listing
