The extremely strange Christmas game that went viral in the 90s: the story of 'Elf Bowling'

If you were a child of the 90s, you played it at some point. It couldn’t be simpler, but there was something addictive about being Santa Claus, throwing a ball down an icy lane and knocking over rude elves set up like bowling pins. Critics thought it was absolute trash, but more casual players enjoyed the simplest thing in the world for years. But… Where did it come from? Why did it die? Is it a classic or not? We tell you everything about Elf Bowling.

Elf Bowling DOWNLOAD

Elf on the Ground!

Elf Bowling wasn’t even a game: Dan Ferguson and Mike Bielinski created it to promote their game studio, NVision Design. In fact, the idea was to send it to companies to catch their attention, without needing to pay for any type of banners. What they didn’t expect was that this game would earn them 3 million dollars in profits in 1999, growing their business by 900%.

Other games they created in a very short time were things like Big Willie Hunting, Frogapult, or Y2K: The Game, short games where the advertisement appeared at the end, when the player was already hooked, and which were sent for free via email. In total, they gained a million players a week thanks to the .EXE files, and in fact, Elf Bowling became, in December 2000, the tenth most played game in the world. That’s no small feat.

So at NVision they were smart enough to sell the company, at its peak, to Vectrix Business Solutions right after launching Elf Bowling 2, which added complications to the gameplay and, in general, is less remembered. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t compiled along with its first part in an infamous game for Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance that had no extras or rewards compared to the free version. Basically, you were paying for something you could legally have for free. What a luxury.

And you might say “This was the end of Elf Bowling,” but you would be wrong. Over the years, the saga has reached eight installments in which the game has been converted to 3D, a “story mode” has been included, and you could even bowl in exotic locations. This last Elf Bowling Hawaiian Vacation is from 2008, was distributed by MumboJumbo, and frankly, I think no one is too interested in having another game in the saga at this point. Eight were seven more than it needed.

Ah, yes! Have I mentioned that there is also a movie titled The Great North Pole Elf Strike? It has a 1.9 out of 10 on IMDb, and rightfully so. Why would anyone want this to become a franchise?

Elf Bowling DOWNLOAD