Following the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal of 1998, Dallas-based NVision Design emailed their first Macromedia Flash project, Good Willie Hunting to 200 people on April Fools Day of that year. The small 1.4MB file garnered 5,000,000 downloads and 300,000 site visits by October, quickly cementing NVision Design as self-proclaimed proprietors of "aggressive design for the internet and traditional mediums."¹ As an early advergame, Good Willie Hunting was plastered with the creators' creed, website, and contact information, and the company quickly found themselves contracted the likes of AT&T, Miller Brewing Company, Texas Instruments, and Lucent Technologies.² Subsequent releases Good Willie Speaks, Y2K - The Game, and Frogapult kept the clients rolling in and the site views climbing. The December 1999 release of Elf Bowling would be where NVision Design truly exploded in popularity however.

It's critical to know that at this time in the Internet's relative infancy, .exe files (among other filetypes) could not be removed from email strings, hence the popularity of these small programs when they were sent en masse. Their proliferation made them a ripe target for fictitious claims of them being viruses. Around December 8, 1999, email strings and usenet posts on the alt.comp.virus newsgroup stated that Frogapult, Y2K - The Game, and Elf Bowling contained "a delayed virus attached to them that will be activated on Christmas day and will wipe out your system. Let everyone know of this."³ A similar hoax email proffered:
"If you have received Elf Bowling or Frogapult games that have been circulating the Internet, or know anyone who has, they must be deleted before Christmas day. They contain viruses that are set to go off on Christmas day and will delete your hard drive. If you don't believe me, just wait and see. Our IT guy here just tested it on a non-networked PC and everything was wiped out. Make certain that every copy is off of your hard drive or any servers. Please spread the world. These games are very detrimental to your computing life."⁴

This was quickly disproved by Symantec's AntiVirus Research Center, but that didn't stop the name of NVision Design's titles from spreading even further. If anything, the notion of such innocuous games - particularly Elf Bowling - harbouring malicious intent made them a great curiousity, particularly when they were demonstrated to be safe.⁵ It isn't as if the claims were entirely spurious, however, as email-distributed viruses had wreaked havoc previously in cases like 'Melissa,' and NVision's games in particular accessed their servers without express permission from the user (only to upload high scores and perform very basic analytics, but the point remained).⁶ Regardless of its safety, the risk in opening a random program sent to you without your consent that would unknowingly make an outside connection was immense.⁷ As such, when the virus claims turned out to be a hoax, the media looped back around on NVision Design by labelling games like Elf Bowling as potential spyware, a claim which was adamantly fought against by the company as per their official correspondence.⁸ Even today, Elf Bowling is labelled as spyware on TechTarget's site in a definition article updated in July 2021.⁹

Ultimately, Elf Bowling was and is simply a juvenile time waster which exploded in popularity to the point where the mainstream media audaciously claimed by 2001 that it was bigger than Quake or Doom.¹⁰ The gameplay couldn't be simpler and everything about it is so cheesy that it's almost charming. It received an astonishing number of sequels, the majority of which weren't bowling at all. Elf Bowling 2: Elves in Paradise is a shuffleboard game. Elf Bowling 3 is a target shooting game. Super Elf Bowling returned to the series' roots only for Elf Bowling: Bocce Style to once again veer off course. Elf Bowling 6: Air Biscuits bears similarities to Elf Bowling in that elves are to be knocked down, but this time these pin-replacements have another elf thrown at them rather than a bowling ball.

With Elf Bowling 7 1/7: The Last Insult, 'true' bowling gameplay returns, this time with powerups and powerdowns and a method of control that has you spinning your ball as it rolls down the lane, a la HyperEntertainment's HyperBowl Plus! or Skunk Studios' Gutterball 2. And you know what, it ain't half-bad! The items are largely irrelevant since you can either avoid them or counter them with your own powerups, but it plays fine. And when you get a strike the game slows down to comical levels as it shows the elves launching like you're playing BeamNG.drive and want to relish those softbody physics. I'll have to save the remainder of my paltry 43 remaining minutes in the trial version for when I want to play some more of this, which will probably be never.

Recommended by Nightblade as part of [this list]

1. "NStorm Takes Internet By Storm," NStorm, archived October 18, 2000, http://www.nstorm.com/whatis/willie.html. Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20001018131151/http://www.nstorm.com/whatis/willie.html.
2. Abby Miller, “NVision Makes a Game of Better Marketing,” DMNews, November 7, 2007, https://www.dmnews.com/nvision-makes-a-game-of-better-marketing/.
3. Motoaki Yamamura, "FROGAPULT, ELFBOWL, Y2KGAME Virus Hoax," Symantec AntiVirus Research Center, Symantec, publication date December 8, 1999, archived February 29, 2000, http://symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/y2kgame.hoax.html; Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20000229230522/http://symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/y2kgame.hoax.html; “Frogapault Warning (Hoax?),” Google Groups (Google, December 9, 1999), https://groups.google.com/g/alt.comp.virus/c/CLa9zFjBMEA/m/Lu1RDeqcOGMJ. “Elfbowling Virus,” Google Groups (Google, December 9, 1999), https://groups.google.com/g/alt.comp.virus/c/Rwwlfwu5hPM/m/paYcVzz04GsJ; “Possible Trojan in Elf-Bowling Game,” Google Groups (Google, December 7, 1999), https://groups.google.com/g/alt.comp.virus/c/Qmcqg8Co6ME/m/goVFGgq3Y7kJ; Evan Hansen, “Vectrix.com Acquires Creator of Frogapult,” CNET (CNET, January 3, 2002), https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/vectrix-com-acquires-creator-of-frogapult/.
4. “Elf Bowling Virus.html,” Scambusters, November 25, 2020, https://scambusters.org/elf-bowling.html, quoted in H. Thomas Milhorn, Cybercrime: How to Avoid Becoming a Victim, (Boca Raton, FL: Universal Publishers, 2007), 284.
5. Fw: FROGAPULT, ELFBOWL, Y2KGAME virus hoax, accessed September 11, 2022, http://www.enron-mail.com/email/bass-e/all_documents/Fw_FROGAPULT_ELFBOWL_Y2KGAME_Virus_Hoax_1.html.
6. Dan Briody, CNN (Cable News Network, March 29, 1999), http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9903/29/melissa.idg/.
7. Ernie Smith, “Elf Bowling Game History: It's Not a Virus. It's Not Spyware.,” Tedium, December 21, 2017, https://tedium.co/2017/12/21/elf-bowling-history/; Heidi Prescott, “Truths: No Santa's Elf Virus, No Free Stuff,” South Bend Tribune, December 13, 1999, sec. Personal Technology, p. 16.
8. Ernie Smith, “Elf Bowling Game History: It's Not a Virus. It's Not Spyware.,” Tedium, December 21, 2017, https://tedium.co/2017/12/21/elf-bowling-history/; “Elf Bowling,” Elf bowling (NVision Design, November 1999), https://www.geocities.ws/Colosseum/Court/7685/elfbowl.html#privacyconcern; David Wilson, “E-Mailed Game Secretly Connects Private PCs to Firm: Bowling Santa Knocks down User's Privacy,” The Ottawa Citizen, December 27, 1999, sec. High Tech Report, p. B5.
9. Ernie Smith, “Elf Bowling Game History: It's Not a Virus. It's Not Spyware.,” Tedium, December 21, 2017, https://tedium.co/2017/12/21/elf-bowling-history/; Alexander S. Gillis, Kate Brush, and Taina Teravainen, “What Is Spyware?,” SearchSecurity (TechTarget, July 13, 2021), https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/definition/spyware.
10. itzaferg, “Elf Bowling Fox News Interviews Elf Bowling Creators,” YouTube (YouTube, August 3, 2014), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD3nBXwPjRg; LGR, "Elf Bowling: "Bigger Than Quake or Doom!,"" YouTube (YouTube, December 5, 2016), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28TyIsCwkQo.

Y'know, this game could actually be symbolism for how toxic Santa's workshop actually is. Most probably envision it as this joyful, happy place of industry where all the elves are jovial and giddy when making toys. But Elf Bowling showcases the dichotomy, and implies that the elves are bowling pins for Santa Claus to throw bowling balls at his very will. Presumably, this is one of the forms of torture he utilizes when the elves are slacking off. This could also be a form of entertainment whenever he gets bored of watching his marionettes perform elf labor all year round. Or maybe, it's all just a metaphor for the ill-treatment the elves experience on a daily basis, with Saint Nick not physically torturing them but loading them with work that hits them like a bowling ball, to which they squeal in pain and immediately topple over (as an act of surrendering to anguish they cannot fight against).

anyways the game is okay I guess

You wouldn't think the NES would have a fighting game of this calibur, and for what it is, it's fairly impressive: It only has 8 playable characters, sure, but there are 36 characters in the game total (even if I wanna say half of them are powered up versions of previous, which can be funny in its own way after you beat a weak robot only to find a more threatening stronger version of that, with a silly name). Not only that but they all have 4 special moves, setting them further apart from each other, all with unique names. The game even has proper cross-ups which is impressive.

It's not all perfect though, as combos aren't really there besides a minor air juggle or two. Moves have seemingly no endlag, once your hitbox goes away you can start your next move. On top of that, there's no hitstun either, so enemies can and will quickly punish you back if you aren't careful. The AI will love to spam their strong special moves at the end of the game because of this. Grabs are also incredibly powerful and have no counterplay, just don't get grabbed.

There's a fun campaign, but it does drag. 36 fights is a lot to ask of a player, especially with how brutal they can get closer to the end. I would have just cut out one of the sections and rebalanced accordingly, and compensated elsewhere.

The biggest crime of Joy Mech Fight is its copyright getting lost for years until someone found it in a drawer, this could have been a solid Nintendo fighting series, but it just wasn't meant to be. Now that the rights are recovered, I hope something can be done with this, as I'd love to see it return with the polishes of modern fighting games.

In one of the most confusing sequels to one of the most confusing games I've ever played, my main question still ends up being, who the fuck is Glenn?

Kind of rushed to the final few chapters to avoid increasing spoilers across the internet, but it never diminished from what I played. The story definitely gets wacky and I wouldn't expect anything else, especially after the 1st part in this trilogy went out of its way to make itself different. In a way I like to think I understand what's going on, but at the very least it gives something to talk about for the next few years.

Several hours prior.

From the very beginning I knew I was going to like this game more than Remake, but didn't expect to like it more than the original FF7. Featuring vast open areas, improvements to near every system, a multitude of minigames both old and new. There's always something to do and it was some of the best 70 hours I've spent in gaming. Lately games have rarely gotten me to do side content, as there is so much to play and catch up on I would rather play the main story and move on to the next title, however something just clicked in Rebirth and I ended up doing most everything asides from the final piece in most major side plotlines. Putting double the time in this game compared to what I had in remake, giving this world another real chance and it really paid off.

With half the original game left + new content sure to be included, to a sprawling and continuously growing cast of antagonists, and whatever they plan on doing with Wutai. There's still so much left to cover in the 3rd and final part, that I fail to see how they do it. However if they maintain the surprise this game brought, then I believe they can do it again. Even if it's the most insane nonsensical thing in the world, I will be there.

There's still a few problems like Vincent being disappointing, and a few moments from the original I was hoping to see being skipped over completely. There's no real justifications for either, and I hope square enix finds a way to include a lot from the latter in new ways for part 3.

It's a step down from DMC3 but still better than the first two games. It does annoy me in a lot of areas like the repetitive levels which are often recycled and contain a lot of poorly designed areas (even at points wasting your time taking you to areas from previous levels that shouldve been blocked off),the over-abundance of cutscenes in the beginning of the game, some of the special missions not making it clear that extra abilities are required to even make them tolerable and the story being a bit of a slog.

But it's a DMC game and the combat is where these games shine. Glad to say the core combat of the game is still just as great and while Dante has a more limited role in the campaign, the game more than make up for it with the vast amount of playable characters each feeling feeling unique from each other and really giving DMC4 a ton of variety in combat to carry through those levels that really drone on.

The core tennis gameplay is the best it's ever been here, it does get a little confusing to follow sometimes but that's just me not bothering to put more time into learning it.

This game suffers from a lack of content past the story mode and core base game, the nature of these kind of games just leads to them getting stale after a while.

The story mode has it's moments and it's cool having boss fights and a world map. Some of the challenges even asks a bit more of the player with some puzzles which was sometimes pretty cool, other times frustrating. As a Golden Sun fan this stuff just has me imagining how a current gen revival of that series would look
It does however have an abysmal difficulty curve with some of the opponents and challenges having downright broken AI.