Elvira The Arcade

STORY / GAMEPLAY
You control Elvira, a famous witch and you must regain your family's medieval castle in Transylvania. All you have to do is to conquer three hostile environments and share your assets. Elvira can choose which world she wants to start her quest by selecting the appropriate globe. The choice is made between the Arctic Earth and the Fiery Underworld and only when she's conquers the two she may progress to the Transylvanian World and finally claim the ownership of the castle. The game is a classic multi-directional platform adventure in which you fight with hordes of evil creatures using your deadly daggers (your first weapon) that can be soon be upgraded by collecting more of the same kind. Although there are a few other advanced weapons to collect (such as throwing stars), the most important factor is to enhance your magic ability. For that reason, there are various objects around to manipulate and activate a number of useful magic spells. Also, occasionally you will get some help from an ancient Trader who offers advice for magic spells in return. Note: Make sure you avoid any water pitfalls in the Frozen World or lava pitfalls in the Fire World, as both will diminish your precious health fast! The gameplay is rather tough sometimes like when you encounter enemies that appear out of nowhere; and this can become frustrating. But fortunately you have nine lives to play the game!

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The graphics look nice when running in either EGA or VGA mode. The latter has a 64-colored palette like the original (Amiga) but it looks better as there are several extra backdrops on the PC version! Note that both PC graphics modes suffer from low framerate (same as the ST version) which makes the gameplay frustrating at times (the Amiga version runs a bit smoother, but still it has problems). The two different worlds (Fire and Frozen Worlds) are nicely presented with animated backdrops here and there. Watching details like snowing effects in the Frozen World is quite impressive. Elvira herself is very well animated while there is a degree of perspective at the backdrops. The game's sound is average here although the game supports AdLib/ Soundblaster sound hardware. They both share a sort of Gothic-style tune at the main menu while there are sound effects during gameplay but no music.