| Credits | |
| Published: |
1994, Renegade
 |
| Developer: |  |
| Coder: | Antti Toiviainen, Jani Askolin |
| Graphics: | Antti Kallioinen |
| Musician: | Aleksi Eeben, Ville Hyvönen |
| Information | |
| Hardware: | OCS, ECS |
| Disks: | 2 |
| License: | Commercial |
| Language: | English |
| Players: | 1 or 2, Simultaneous |
| Orig. Price: | £25.99 |
| Categorization | |
| Genre: | Arcade |
| Subgenre: | Beat'em Up |
| Tags: | competitive, fighting, horizontal, scrolling, sideways |
| Magazine Reviews | |
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Added by Kim Lemon on Jun 9, 2004. Viewed 29082 times.
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Awesome graphics, animations and effects!!! Good sound quality, great atmosphere!!! Sound and Music on an Amiga game!!++++
Not as good or balanced on the gameplay though... I guess the quality testers were so impressed and stunned by the game that they forgot about actually playing the game.. It happens to almost all Amiga games and developers are praised so much, that they prematurely stop putting any more effort into it.
Missing best out of 3 match as it tried to take a different approach with 1 win matches, thus resulting in loading times to take more out of the game than actually playing. Why did they change something that has been practiced and known on over 100 fighting games?
An ElfMania 2 would have been awesome following in this ones step and improving on it...
View all comments (15)
You will not find better graphics on an OCS machine, and not really on an AGA machine either. Unfortunately the gameplay is lacking. Simon Byron as editor of the The One magazine had an occasional tendency to seriously overate a game (e.g. Elfmania, Liberation) to the extent that I assume money changed hands (otherwise a good magazine though). Unfortunately as a suggestible 14 year old, I fell for it with this one.
View all comments (93)
Very impressive, technically. Elfmania is without a doubt one of the best-looking titles in the Amiga library. If only the very talented developers had spent more time on finetuning the gameplay. The fighting mechanics are decidedly subpar. It's a shame because the game could have become a classic.
View all comments (962)
This game's got enough going for it in the presentation stakes to be a Streetfighter 2 beater, but the game suffers with lack of play testing, lack of special moves and really suffers with a single button system. But whoa, it looks and sounds so slick! On the CD32, with twice the memory, 32 bit colour and a proper joypad this would have been a history changing event. I love to imagine what might have happened if they had teamed up with the developers of Shadow Fighter, and then they went and teamed up with Bloodhouse instead. Nice going! They are responsible for Super Stardust. My favourite PS3 game!
View all comments (23)
Again on AMIGA, a technically stunning game missing its goal with poor playability and interest. Character design is ridiculous and the voices inflated with helium always make me laugh out loud
View all comments (141)
Plays beautifully and looks wonderful. However, the lack of moves and characters brings it down. Won't take you long to finish and not the greatest amount of replayability value in the two player option either. That said, it's alright while it lasts and it certainly isn't terrible. 5/10 from me!
View all comments (24)
Could easily have been a classic. Play it once and you immediatley see what I mean ...
Technically the graphics are some of the best seen on Amiga ... Especially on OCS/ECS Chipsets. Looks way better than most AGA titles of the same Genre.
Didn't play it much though because of the missing HD-Install-Routine in the original.
View all comments (165)
Absolutely brilliant graphics, animation and sounds (for a standard OCS Amiga). The gameplay, though - the single thing that really makes or breaks a game - is sadly lacking. The control system was awful, the characters had very few moves, the sense of inertia was really wrong, characters jumped more than 6 meters in the air, the whole "buy your fighter" thing was not a good idea, IMO... It could easily have been great, but it really wasn't. What a shame!
View all comments (211)
Mindblowing gfx for it's time, the parallax scrolling really made the foreground come to life. However as a beat 'em up I found it too tough and not very responsive. It just seemed to lack something overall.
View all comments (524)
I agree with most people up here, though judging by the score Elfmania didn't anger them as much as Rise of the Robots did...
The immense technical potential of this game was not only in the stunning visuals, but also in the slick enemy AI (which I heard was implemented as a neural network by Stavros Fasoulas himself). Problem is, you have little resources to counter this AI: few moves, one ineffective and extremely predictable special, no throws or combos (in other words, not much to build a strategy to speak of), and most of all, many later rounds have you seriously disadvantaged as to the damage done by hits. Also, your character turns around with a noticeable delay when the enemy jumps behind.
Trying to bring innovation in a genre is good, but you should first make sure there are enough good-quality 'regular' games of that genre for the target platform. The Amiga had had mostly botched attempts by then, so what's the point in trying to be original with the tic-tac-toe strategy and a monetary component (which is rather unfair, as prices rise according to the money you have), with such weakly designed gameplay behind?
I wouldn't make a fuss about the lack of 'punch', though. It was a clear stylistic choice to make the game cuter and not so brutal. But again, I'd rather have gone that way once there were enough good 'brutal' fighting games around on the Amiga, and titles like Shadow Fighter, Fightin' Spirit and Mortal Kombat II were yet to show up.
View all comments (274)
Great graphics, but disappointing gameplay. No weight behind the moves and a bit too much of the cutesy stuff. But again, the visuals are easily among the best in any Amiga beatemup.
View all comments (57)
Quite a awesome looking fighting game for the old amiga but i always preferred ik+ to this...
View all comments (65)
Amazing GFX for on a A500 with some very technical effects! Very impressive! People feel let down by the game, but its not trying to be street fighter or mortal combat... Its a little unique and off beat. If you look at it for its own merits its not a bad game and i quite like it... But if you are looking for a street fighter or kombat style game... You will be disappointed!
View all comments (178)
There's been a lot of controversy and mixed reviews about this one ever since it was released, but for me the stunning graphics just about make up for the average gameplay. In fact i think the biggest flaw with this game is the lack of proper, meaty impact sounds that any self-respecting beat em up should have. The weedy sounds here just don't cut it and make the game unsatisfying. This would have made the game a lot better on its own. Still, its a game to demonstrate just what your Amiga 500 could do in the right hands...
View all comments (248)
The graphics of the game are awesome - even in a coin-op they weren't misplaced. But the gameplay itself was just poor...
A missed chance - too bad...
View all comments (26)
Nice gfx
crappy sfx
mediocre gameplay
too few characters to choose from
View all comments (95)
You can't believe how beautiful the gfx until you see it in action. Playability was not so incredible, but it worked. Too bad the expansion pack didn't come out :/
View all comments (206)
Again, I only ever played a demo of this but it wasn't bad. The graphics were ok, as was the sound, but I found it a little boring. My little brother loved beat-em-ups however, so I left him to it.
View all comments (64)
This could have been so much more. Amazingly detailed, colourful (who needs 256 colours?) and beautifully animated graphics but no gameplay at all. The moves were weak, the "buy your fighter" system unbalanced and... Well. It just sucked as a game.
View all comments (142)
Incredibly stunning graphics & visuals for unexpanded stock A500! Best beat'em-up of the Amiga. Great short title tune. Give it a try!
View all comments (26)
Technicaly perfect, with amazing graphics, sound, visual effects and animations; this beat'em up has a very special style and atmosphere. Controls are very simple and responsive wich is very important in this type of game.
I think it's the best Amiga's 1 on 1 beat'em up since it's very different than anything else and it didn't try to copy other beat'em up like Street-Fighter II, etc. No, instead it's a very original production. The main problem is the game is way too hard... (anyone ever finished it?).
I wish this one had a story mode and was more balanced when it comes to difficulty. With that and if peoples had taken it for what it is (a very original product) and not for yet another SF2 wanabee, this game could have becomes a classic.
View all comments (79)
Comeon - it's obviously a pranksters choice.
View all comments (8)
Good looking game, but feels rushed and unrealised
View all comments (132)
Graphics demo disguised as a poor SFII wannabe.
View all comments (100)
'Elfmania' looks and sounds pretty fantastic but it just doesn't play as well as other beat 'em ups. The controls don't feel responsive enough and the single-round bouts often feel unfair. It's a shame, as so much effort, care and obvious talent has gone into much of the game (as an example, look at the dungeon stage with the tentacles). It's certainly not a bad game and it's charm helps it stand out from a lot of other beat 'em ups but it's not comparable with some of the superb console fighting games it wants to compete with.
View all comments (145)
Despite the game being poor in its control system it had beautiful GFX and sound & it couldve been up there with the greatest games on the Amiga, alas it were never meant to be
View all comments (522)
After all the hype, I found a game that has pretty graphics and...er...um...that's about it, really. The sounds are okay, too. But the fighting mechanics are totally off - you really don't feel like you are actually "fighting" at all. In fact, sometimes you don't even know when you have registered a hit, or when you have been hit. And what's with the whole collecting coins business? The fighters look nice (perhaps too nice, for a beat em up) but aren't properly designed for a dynamic fighting game, unlike Street Fighter 2 arcade and Shadow Fighter on the Amiga. Get it if you like pretty graphics and manga style characters with big eyes, avoid in all other cases. I can't believe that reviewers at the time were comparing this to Street Fighter 2!
View all comments (30)
This really typifies some of the later Amiga games - technically extremely impressive, but seemingly designed by people with no idea of how the style of game should work. The lack of meaty impact sounds robs it of any 'feel', and as mentioned the game structure is a little over-complicated. Shadow Fighter blows this out of the water really.
View all comments (41)
One can't deny the fact Elfmania was technically competent. Unfortunately the developers weren't so good in coining up a plausible beu. As a fighter it's okay but nothing more. It would have required more depth. Being Finnish game you can imagine all the Finnish magazines went crazy over it...
View all comments (166)
The game is truly beautiful, but sadly in terms of action it just doesn't cut the mustard (and the music is too demoscene). Punching &kicking people just doesn't feel satisfying in this game (it should, because otherwise young people get angry and beat up people in the streets for real!).
View all comments (201)
Once you ignore the graphics (which are probably the best ever seen for a non-AGA beat 'em up), all you find is stupid flaw after stupid flaw. The whole structure of buying fighters and saving up for the best ones is not only over-complicated, but also fails because the prices go up as you earn more money - if real life was like that no one would ever make a business succeed. The movement of the characters was all wrong as well. Strange how on almost every other Amiga site, all you get for this is wall-to-wall praise, yet here few seem to like it?
View all comments (185)
Technically awesome but unfortunatelly playability ruins the game. Could have been a real classic. Now it's just a great looking technical achievement. What a shame.
View all comments (258)
The characters have no sense of weight to them and the way that you can see a special move coming an age before it is executed really ruin the playability.
View all comments (15)
While the graphics are kinda nice (some serious perspecitve and proportions problems) the very limited number of moves, and horrid special moves system, really just knocked this game down hard. A shame really since it could have been really special.
View all comments (245)
Excellent artwork but how the hell can you finish this game? The game is a unique joint-venture of logic "6 in a row" game and beat'em up. Unfortunately, authors seemed to forget about the gameplay... The handling of the warriors is very tough, they jump too high, they move... Strange. Pity that the idea and technical side of the game was wasted by lack of the whole rest...
View all comments (732)