To keep up with increased demand at the North Pole, Kevin the robotic toy builder is invented to help with plaything production. But when Kevin goes haywire and threatens to ruin Christmas, it’s up to a group of elves to shoot falling toys with their present wrapper devices, collect all the gifts, and deactivate Kevin before Santa’s flight. Now you can help them save Christmas with Elfsquad7, an indie game for Xbox LIVE.

First you must choose from six wacky characters that include elves, a sugar plum fairy, even a stirring mouse. Then you proceed to several holiday themed levels that are about two screens long. Toys fall from the sky, and you must shoot them to put them in present boxes, then collect the presents before they fall off screen. To pass a stage, you must nab a certain number of presents before the time runs out.

Gather sundials to increase your time limit, and collect falling coins to use at the shop to buy power-ups between levels. But watch out for misfit toys that can attack you and make you lose collected presents. Dispatch them with a good stomp from above. The graphics have a retro style to them, so it reminds me of old arcade games from the 80’s.

The only problems with this game are the controls, which feel a little loose sometimes. And the game can be a little difficult unless you have more players joining in (up to four can play at the same time). But at only 80 MS Points, it’s not a bad pre-Christmas treat for your gaming family.

Kid Factor:

Indie games on Xbox LIVE aren’t rated by the ESRB, but I imagine it would be E for Everyone. You only shoot toys and turn them into presents, and stomp on defective ones, so it’s not very violent at all. Reading skill can be helpful for the instructions, but most everything is easy to figure out just by playing. Younger players may get frustrated at the difficulty, but other gamers can join in and help.

Tags: Game Reviews