XBLA Today: Elements of Nature and Sea Life Safari

Hey all, and welcome the underwater with bad weather edition of XBLA Today! We are going to take a quick look at the new releases on Xbox Live Arcade this week: Elements of Nature and Sea Life Safari. If you want to only read this first paragraph though, here you go, meh, and for your kids.

Elements of Nature starts off with the premise that you are a mad scientist screwed over by his former employers, and now, fueled by rage, with control over the “Elements of Nature” you are going for revenge. You go around the map as a glowing orb, and activate one of your powers, such as earthquakes or lightning strikes, to destroy buildings, towers, and everything else you see. There is a time limit, as in getting it done before the company finds you, and ratings for destroying more within said time limit.

The game plays well, but seems a little on the small side in overall content. Fun concept, but will probably get old quickly, as destroying buildings as a tornado is fun, but only for so long. There is two multiplayer modes, destroy more than the other player, and destroy stuff together. Overall though, its okay.

Sea Life Safari is a kids game, all the way through. You play as an underwater photographer, tasked with getting the best pictures of exotic fish as you follow a predetermined path in a submarine. You can get the fishes attention to get better pictures with “gizmos” that make them do some sort of action that shows their personalities. You only have a set number of pictures you can  take each level, and you get rated at the end on the quality of your pictures by size, orientation, centering, and interaction.

The game looks pretty good, with colorful areas and creatures to see, and seems to have plenty of content as well. The game is very much for the casual/family crowd, and is definately not for the hardcore.

So, Elements of Distruction is very okay, light, and should only be purchased if the demo really interests you. Sea Life Safari is very casual/family oriented, and could be a great grab if you have kids, but otherwise it’s probably a pass as well. Thanks for stopping by, now to find an umbrella for those storms, and a towel for that smelly sea-water.