If there’s one thing that history has taught gamers over the years, it’s that when dealing with licensed games you need to exercise a certain degree of skepticism and caution. Thankfully, I’d say that in the last generation there have been a fair number of licensed games that have managed to shine at least, but there have also been some clunkers out there. That said, what if it’s a licensed game where you may not be familiar with the license? 

At least as an American I can’t say that I’ve ever run into the Eldrador Creatures toys, but on the whole I’d say their contribution to the game is generally a positive one. It has a reasonably wide variety of creatures ranging from the ordinary to the more fantastic, and best of all they’re generally quite colorful and have some personality. While perhaps the models and the voice acting for the cutscenes aren’t the best, overall the presentation side of the experience is strong enough that it doesn’t get in the way.

Of course, I haven’t gotten to the meat of what makes the game tick, and that’s the fact that it’s a turn-based strategy title where you’ll eventually be assembling a squad of creatures to take on all comers. To start with you’ll get walked through a pretty lengthy and thorough tutorial phase, where you’ll get introduced to each new creature, get to know how best to use their abilities effectively, and then take the reins to see how you do. While this more drawn out approach may leave genre fans feeling a little underwhelmed at first, the ability to set your difficulty level a bit higher does help.

There’s no question that while the game is capable of having a wider general appeal, in the end its focus is on appealing to younger or at least probably more casual gamers. While its presentation may not quite wow you, its reasonably diverse roster of elementally-charged critters you’ll have the opportunity to command, and its combat which generally plays out at a decent pace, do help to keep it more engaging. While there are some other strategy titles out there in the eShop that are intended to be enjoyable to genre newbies, I wouldn’t say they manage to clearly outclass Shadowfall by any clear margin. The result may end up being a bit niche overall, but I appreciate the effort put in and that a license I hadn’t previously been acquainted with at least seems to have been put to proper use.