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> Results: Orcs & Elves
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The ESRB Says
Blood and Gore: GamerDad spattered enemy after enemy ... and then splattered their corpses. Fantasy Violence: The game is full of turn-based battles against monsters. Use of Alcohol: Some dwarves require you to drink with them before helping you. If someone tells me that a new game for the DS is a port of a cell phone game, I am immediately suspicious - and with good reason. Given that the business model for cell phone games is based around very limited controls, very short play time and limited hardware capabilities, it is not likely that any game ported that way would be a very engaging experience for fans of serious RPG's. Deep Labyrinth is a great example of this: it is cute and colorful, very limited and becomes dreadfully shallow and repetitive very quickly. Of course, that game wasn't developed by John Carmack of id software. Orcs & Elves was very well received as a cell phone game, standing out surprisingly from the typical stream of overly-simplistic and derivative games that are barely worth the monthly subscription fee. It is a game that I actually 'bought' simply because I thought it was worth playing more than a couple of times. I never finished it on my cell phone - never got close, as it turns out - but the experience put the game high on my 'must have' list when it was announced for the Nintendo DS. But is it a RPG? Certain compromises are apparent which were made to compress a RPG to a cell phone, nearly all of which are also present on the DS version. There is little choice in the game, as you cannot alter your kills or attributes, your spells grow naturally as you progress through the game (and there are only a few), your weapons arsenal largely comes to you by taking care of quests that you have no choice but to complete, and the pricing of armor and weapons dictates what you will use and when. There are no dialog trees, no branches to the main plot, nor any way to influence the way the game will turn out. The game was definitely improved in some ways, making it a true DS experience. First, the game was improved in terms of graphics and performance. This is still a two dimensional sprite-based game at heart, but the sprites themselves are more detailed and the environments look drastically better. It is certainly not the best looking DS game, but nor is it the worst - the graphics are perfectly suited for the game style and environment. The game also makes excellent use of the dual screens. The top screen is your view screen, showing you the world through the first person view of the protagonist. There is a fairly minimal interface shown - you see your selected weapon and your health. The screen therefore gives you plenty of visibility to what is happening. The lower screen is very nicely used - there is a touch-screen interface that looks like your belt from a top-down view, with icons that allow access to a variety of options. The sword lets you choose your weapon, the mug shows you what casks of ale you are carrying, the ring lets you choose which ring to wear, the shield selects your armor, the bad allows you access to repair armor or look at your quest log, the map shows the map for the current dungeon, and the pocket watch gives access to the main menu for saving and other options. The stylus works perfectly for this system, but you can also use the d-pad and buttons to work your way through the entire interface. It is a nice option and complements the excellent interface. My best definition of Orcs & Elves is a turn-based fantasy hack-and-slash dungeon crawl. This is not an epic game with loads of options or possibilities - indeed replaying is all about repeating the fun rather than getting much of anything different out of the experience. But you are likely to want to replay - because while it is a limited game, it is very well done and loads of fun. The sequel has already been released on cell phones and expands upon the original game, allowing much more customization and freedom of choice while sticking to core gameplay that makes this one work so well. Orcs & Elves is a solid game that knows exactly what it is trying to do and accomplishes that very well, making it easy to recommend to anyone who owns a DS (especially since it has already seen a price drop to coincide with the cell phone release of Orcs & Elves II), but definitely not the sort of game that would warrant buying a DS to play.  
For the majority of the game, Orcs & Elves is a fairly tame experience - constant turn-based combat and some animated blood during battles against monsters. No issues with language or sexuality or anything else that would push the game beyond E-10+. However, fairly early on you need help from a dwarf to advance through a locked door - and he will only give it to you on condition of drinking a cask of ale with him. Drinking ale in the game raises and lowers various attributes, but it also messes with your view and motion - everything seems to swirl and wobble a bit. This is the obvious reason for the game getting a T rating, and why I am going to conservatively give the game a 14+ GamerDad Age Seal. Simulated drunkenness isn't necessarily something that parent want their 10-year olds playing with in a game - especially since through the use of rings and an ale-making device you could stay drunk through the entire game if you desired. Yet at the same time the game is otherwise very much an E-10+ experience - so I remind parents to use their judgment with their kids as always.
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