Elebits review

For all its creepy storytelling and Precious Moments-style character designs, Elebits is really nothing more than an elaborate game of hide and seek. Hundreds of electricity-spewing critters have gotten loose and it's your job to turn your house upside down and find them all. As you gather more of these living battery cells, objects in the area will activate, further empowering your proton pack - er, capture gun - to the point where it can lift chairs, refrigerators and eventually, entire houses.

And for the most part, that's all you do. From the very first level to the last, it all boils down to zapping, zapping and more zapping. While that may sound quite dull, there's some kind of sick joy we get from dismantling an immaculate kitchen or heading outside and flinging boats up onto rooftops. The tiny Elebits are tucked away in practically every corner of the world: underneath pillows, inside stoves, sleeping on top of chandeliers... anything's fair game for these little guys.

But after a few hours have passed and you've flung your 50th dining table across the room in pursuit of the Elebits, the "what the hell?" atmosphere starts to fade. It takes 10 levels to even make it outdoors (and even then parts of previous levels start repeating and showing up in new ones) and aside from a few restrictive gameplay goals, nothing ever, ever changes.

Most levels let you go nuts, making a huge ass mess just to find as many 'bits as you can in a given amount of time. Meet the goal and you've won. Later, you can't break objects, which forces you to gingerly place items like lamps or vases on the floor so they don't get smashed. Then you can't make a lot of noise. Then if you make too big a mess, a giant, spiked Elebit comes out and attacks you. They're not game-breaking moments, but when the gimmick is "tear the place apart," you need to let us tear the place apart.