Elf Bowling
Encyclopedia
Santa Claus
Santa Claus is a folklore figure in various cultures who distributes gifts to children, normally on Christmas Eve. Each name is a variation of Saint Nicholas, but refers to Santa Claus...
, attempts to knock down elves
Elf
An elf is a being of Germanic mythology. The elves were originally thought of as a race of divine beings endowed with magical powers, which they use both for the benefit and the injury of mankind...
who are arranged like bowling
Ten-pin bowling
Ten-pin bowling is a competitive sport in which a player rolls a bowling ball down a wooden or synthetic lane with the objective of scoring points by knocking down as many pins as possible.-Summary:The lane is bordered along its length by semicylindrical channels Ten-pin bowling (commonly just...
pins.
Overview
In Elf Bowling, Santa ClausSanta Claus
Santa Claus is a folklore figure in various cultures who distributes gifts to children, normally on Christmas Eve. Each name is a variation of Saint Nicholas, but refers to Santa Claus...
gets revenge on his striking elf employees by using them as bowling pins.
During the game, the elves say phrases such as "Is that all the balls you got, Santa?" when the player misses their first spare opportunity or "Gutter ball!" in a silly-sounding voice when a ball is rolled into the gutter. Other potential distractions for the user are a deer
Deer
Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...
that walks up along the bowling lane that you can "hit" with your bowling ball if you press the right buttons, a frog
Frog
Frogs are amphibians in the order Anura , formerly referred to as Salientia . Most frogs are characterized by a short body, webbed digits , protruding eyes and the absence of a tail...
wearing a Santa hat hopping back and forth across the player's field of vision (resembling Kalvin Kroaker from Frogapult, also made by Nstorm) if you hit him with the bowling ball his body is hauled away from the screen by a bird from Frogapult, a white rabbit
Rabbit
Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world...
that also jumps and defecates across the bowling lane, the elves mooning Santa (asking "who's your daddy" as they do it). Both during the game and after a game finishes, the elves do a dance, shouting "Elf elf, baby!" in reference to Vanilla Ice
Vanilla Ice
Robert Matthew Van Winkle , best known by his stage name Vanilla Ice, is an American rapper, extreme athlete and home improvement television personality...
's song "Ice Ice Baby
Ice Ice Baby
"Ice Ice Baby" is a hip hop song written by American rapper Vanilla Ice and DJ Earthquake. The song samples the bassline of "Under Pressure" by Queen and David Bowie, who did not initially receive songwriting credit or royalties until after it had become a hit...
". One of the elves randomly moons the bowler (Santa). The elves can also randomly move out of the way of the ball, and one elf can be decapitated by the pin setter.
Synopsis
In the sequel to Elf Bowling, the elves return, as they attempt to go on an island vacation with old Kringle.Dingle Kringle (a failure as a used ice salesman) is Santa's elder brother, who Mrs. Claus takes a shine to. The brothers make a double-or-nothing wager in a game of shuffleboard
Shuffleboard
Shuffleboard, more precisely deck shuffleboard, and also known as shuffle-board, shovelboard, shovel-board and shove-board [archaic], is a game in which players use broom-shaped paddles to push weighted pucks, sending them gliding down a narrow and elongated court, with the purpose of...
. The winner gets the title of "Father Christmas" while the loser loses his job. The elves are used as pucks.
Gameplay and scoring
The player grabs the thong bathing suit that the elf is wearing, then snaps it to propel the elf forward. There are 100, 200, and 300 point scoring zones, and a player can score 400 points if their elf slides all the way to the edge of the board without falling into the ocean; elfs falling into the ocean get eaten by sharks or crushed by a falling MoaiMoai
Moai , or mo‘ai, are monolithic human figures carved from rock on the Chilean Polynesian island of Easter Island between the years 1250 and 1500. Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, but hundreds were transported from there and set on stone platforms called ahu around the...
(Easter Island
Easter Island
Easter Island is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian triangle. A special territory of Chile that was annexed in 1888, Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapanui people...
monolith). There is also the possibility of an elf not advancing far enough to score, which happens if a player does not get enough power behind the snap. Only elves that are on the board after Santa and Dingle have taken their turns count towards the score, and it is possible for an elf to be knocked off the board by another elf (although it is also possible for the elves to be moved into higher scoring zones after contact). One elf per round is worth bonus points, indicated by a flashing bathing suit. In the first and second rounds the bonus elf is worth double the throw, and in the third he's worth triple the throw (meaning that the maximum amount of points in these rounds that can be earned on one turn is 800 or 1200). The elf only appears once per round, and appears randomly.
Bonus points can be gained by shooting the penguins and their balloons on an iceberg located to the right of the ship. The iceberg can also be shot, but doing so (in the right spot) will sink it and take it out of play.
Other Elf Bowling games
To date, there have been eight editions of the game for PC computers.- Elf Bowling 3 involved slinging elves in Mrs. Kringle's pink bra onto distant ice-bound targets.
- Super Elf Bowling (Elf Bowling 4) was a 3-dimensional upgrade of the original with more complicated ball control and a wider variety of backgrounds, elf antics and elf jokes. One could also play as a variety of characters, including Santa, Dingle, and Mrs. Kringle.
- Elf Bowling - BocceBocceBocce is a ball sport belonging to the boules sport family, closely related to bowls and pétanque with a common ancestry from ancient games played in the Roman Empire...
Style (Elf Bowling 5) used the elves as bocce balls. - Elf Bowling 6: Air Biscuits involved bowling the elf over a mound of snow which sends the elf airborne. The elf could remain in the air by using "fart" power.
- Elf Bowling 7: The Last Insult returns the game to its original bowling but with new wrinkles. A story mode is added, and the Elves can and will do anything to stop Santa from rolling a strike. Santa, however, has power ups that can foil them.
- Elf Bowling Hawaiian Vacation - Elf Bowling in exotic places.
Elf Bowling 1 & 2
The first two Elf Bowling games were released under the title Elf Bowling 1 & 2 on the Nintendo DSNintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
and Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Advance
The is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia and Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China...
. The pack was universally panned by critics and is considered one of the worst video games of all time, citing poor graphics
Graphics
Graphics are visual presentations on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, computer screen, paper, or stone to brand, inform, illustrate, or entertain. Examples are photographs, drawings, Line Art, graphs, diagrams, typography, numbers, symbols, geometric designs, maps, engineering drawings,or...
, crude audio
Sound
Sound is a mechanical wave that is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a level sufficiently strong to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations.-Propagation of...
and controls, and no extras beyond the original freeware version. It ranks as one of the lowest scoring games at both GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
and Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, receiving only 1.4 out of 10 at GameSpot and 12 out of 100 at Metacritic.
Elf Bowling movie
There was a film based on the games released in 2007 entitled Elf Bowling the Movie: The Great North Pole Elf Strike. The film was directed by Dave Kim with Rex Piano as co-director. There is a sequel planned.Voice cast
- Joe AlaskeyJoe AlaskeyJoseph "Joe" Alaskey is an American actor, comedian, and voice artist, credited as one of the successors of Mel Blanc in impersonating the voices of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and other characters from Warner Bros. cartoons. He was born in Watervliet, New York.-Other work:Alaskey has also done voices...
as Santa Claus - Sean Hart as Lex the Elf
- Tom KennyTom KennyThomas James "Tom" Kenny is an American actor, voice actor and comedian. He is especially known for his long-running-role as SpongeBob SquarePants in the television series of the same name, as well as the live-action character Patchy the Pirate, Gary the Snail and the French narrator based on...
as Dingle Kringle