Searching for the Elephant is a wonderful point-and-click game featuring an intrepid little bear. The bear’s best friend, the Elephant, is missing. And so the Little Bear sets off to find his friend. The game seems to be the manifestation of a child’s imagination, in which stuffed animals come to life.
As the little bear progresses through its little world, it must get past various obstacles such as doors with lasers or create a path by having an anteater fall through the floor. On its way, the bear becomes something of a hero, rescuing trapped animals in what seems to be a research facility run by robots.
The standout in the game is definitely its art with its adorable characters set in a black and white world. The game has a whimsical, fairy-tale like feel about it, with a definite hat tip to the ever-influential games from the Amanita Design stable (specifically Machinarium). I also enjoyed the lilting accordion music by vhava with a definite throwback to the music from the movie Amelie.
The gameplay is very straightforward, with very few areas that might leave one foxed. The puzzles are straightforward and experienced gamers may actually find them a little infantile. One drawback is that it is not immediately obvious what situation one is falling into. For example, an anteater hanging by its snout and an aggressive squirrel protecting its hoard of acorns—when I came across this, there seemed to be no logical option to move forward. So it came down to clicking everything and combining everything with everything else to figure it out—something I personally hate seeing in games.
But despite that one crib, Searching for the Elephant is a delightful half an hour spent guiding the little bear on its journey.
My rating:
- Artwork: ★ ★ ★ ★
- Gameplay: ★ ★
- Story: ★ ★ ★
- Music: ★ ★ ★
- Replay value: ★
Extra Chutney 