Elroy and the Aliens is a point-and-click puzzle adventure game. And while its colorful cartoony world, fully voiced character dialogue and breezy puzzles might initially suggest it was created just for kids, there’s more here than you might expect.
Gamers kick things off as Elroy Deluna, a wannabe scientist who’s trying to make his mark with a new kind of space rocket. And he sets up a remote-controlled miniature version of it on his apartment rooftop to give the intrepid reporter Peggie Wolfe, from Slope City News, a demonstration.
Unfortunately, Peggie is far more interested in Elroy’s famous archeologist dad, Diego, who went mysteriously missing without a trace in 1975. And when Elroy’s rocket goes a bit haywire and crashes back into the roof, she’s ready to move on to her next story. However, the crash dislodges a strange holographic device and a message to Elroy that Diego left behind.
It seems that the brilliant man was betrayed and trapped in another dimension by his business partner Cyril Wanderbrust, who’s now very wealthy and mayor of the city. Now this is a story! Peggie gushes.
So Elroy and Peggie set off to gather clues, untangle the mystery and hopefully save Diego from his dimensional entrapment on a distant alien planet.
Gameplay wise, players jump back and forth between playing as Elroy, Peggie and Diego. All the action is controlled through a two-button interface on the computer mouse. Gamers can hover their cursor over objects, people and points of interest as they search for usable items; have dialogue-tree conversations; and solve a wide variety of puzzles.
Those puzzles include language, picture piece, number and logic challenges. Characters also gather items that can be combined in their inventory and used to clear a pathway forward.
Elroy and the Aliens is a traditional point-and-click, single-player adventure. And other than its initial download, the game does not require an online connection to play.
Elroy and Peggie are on a mission to save Elroy’s dad. And during their adventure, they help others with physical and emotional problems.
Elroy and the Aliens uses charming, hand-drawn visuals mixed with solid, fully voiced character dialogue. It then tells a story that manages to combine heart with interesting twists and turns in a story that both kids and adults can appreciate.
For instance, the game strongly encourages us to value our family relationships. On that front, Elroy’s neighbor encourages him to do whatever he can to connect with his dad again. “If I had a chance for just one more conversation with my mom or dad,” the neighbor proclaims, “I’d take it.” Someone else declares, “You should appreciate that you have a mom who cares about you. Not everyone’s that lucky. Show her some respect.”
The game also suggests that the things of our past, even the bad things, can be used or turn out for good.
For all its charm, however, Elroy and the Aliens sometimes leans in negative, less-than-kid-friendly directions. The language, for instance, can be harsh at times, including uses of the s-word and other vulgarities such as “h—,” “a–,” “d–mit,” “darn it,” “b–tard,” “dumba–” and some misuses of God’s name.
The game also exhibits extreme tonal shifts at times. It can be silly and goofy one minute, sending players to scoop monster poop. But the next moment, characters might encounter much more serious and deadly situations, such as talk of exhuming buried bodies.
There’s kidnapping and theft in the mix, too. Meanwhile, Elroy’s neighbor smokes constantly and talks of raiding someone’s liquor cabinet. We also see people drinking and come upon a drunken homeless man who has passed out in a train station with a booze bottle at hand.
Elroy finds someone’s “seduction bag” that contains sweaty boxer shorts, furry handcuffs and other items. There’s not a lot of violence in the tale, but someone does fall to their death from the top of a tall tower. A character is also blackmailed.
And when Peggie and Elroy briefly discuss religion, she says she was brought up Catholic. Elroy states that he only believes in science. “If science can’t prove it, it doesn’t exist,” he notes.
Elroy and the Aliens can look and feel like a very kid-friendly game, in part because it exhibits heartfelt moments and charm. But parents of young gamers should note that along with those otherworldly aliens, there are some adult moments and foul language to contend with here, too.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
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