Ice Age is one of the few games that I knew about in some detail, but never played (thanks TheLonelyGoomba), most other games on my journey through licensed games I've either never played, or touched briefly. I actually had "(That infamous one)" written next to this game in my list of potential licensed games to play. It's winter, and christmas is coming, so I decided to take a look at a few licensed games with winter or christmas theme. Ice Age has Ice in it's title, so it must have a cool feel about it, right?
Well, Ice Age does have some snow and ice in it, but for the most part it doesn't. The game is definitely a unique take on the movie, alright. You control Manny with Roshan riding him through linear platforming stages, he can jump, attack, and stomp the ground by pressing the jump button again, which can be used to break the blocks underneath or stun some enemies that can be used to bounce on, and pressing L or R will make Roshan jump, which is only useful for collecting nuts that aren't obtainable by a normal jump. You can't perform a Roshan Jump when in air or anything, so there's no cool tricks involving that, so it ends up being a rather lame gimmick. Normal enemies like Dodos can be defeated with a normal attack or jumped on, but some other enemies can be defeated or pushed away by spitting a super mega nut, which creates an element of back and forth if there are many obstacles that require nutting away. There are occasional skunks that can make Manny levitate with its bad smell, because... why not. Aside from Manny, there are autoscroll sections where you play as Sid, who is super active, and can perform a Crash Bandicoot-esque spin attack to destroy rocks or enemies. Touching the left side of the screen means death, so you must be always on the move. There are plenty of common nuts that are a main collectible of the game, and they act as health, and since each level has 40 and more (40 required for 100%ing the level), the game ends up being really easy for the most part, falling to a pit doesn't mean death for instance, and you just lose a nut and restart at the section you're on.
The level design is fairly basic for the most part, avoid enemies or hazards, some really light, practically thin puzzle elements and, as I mentioned, some back and forth. There are a few instances of trial and error, the camera isn't always very helpful, like when sliding a slope, the camera pans up instead of down where you're going. You can pan the camera by holding up or down, but it's pretty slow, and in some instances it's disabled, which doesn't make a lot of sense. At the end of each level where you control Manny, there's a boss fight. As hinted earlier, this game has rather bizzare design choices, and the bosses are pretty strange, like a giant turtle or a sleeping armadillo, or a giant eagle. The bosses are pretty easy, not just because of influx of health, but the patterns aren't very difficult to learn, or there's none in case of sleeping things. There are only 10 levels in the whole game, and I beat it in, like, 40 minutes.
Graphically, the game is a mixed bag. I think background and foreground graphics actually look pretty good, but the characters look pretty odd and inconsistent, as if they're lacking some detail and polish. The stills from the movie look decent. The music is good overall, the title screen theme sounds like it would fit in a game about space, not freaking Ice Age. The only issue I have regarding sound is that it's louder compared to other games with no way to adjust the sound volume in-game.
Overall, Ice Age is a rather strange licensed game that doesn't feel very much like the movie, with odd design choices, inconsistent presentation, and mediocre gameplay.
Well, Ice Age does have some snow and ice in it, but for the most part it doesn't. The game is definitely a unique take on the movie, alright. You control Manny with Roshan riding him through linear platforming stages, he can jump, attack, and stomp the ground by pressing the jump button again, which can be used to break the blocks underneath or stun some enemies that can be used to bounce on, and pressing L or R will make Roshan jump, which is only useful for collecting nuts that aren't obtainable by a normal jump. You can't perform a Roshan Jump when in air or anything, so there's no cool tricks involving that, so it ends up being a rather lame gimmick. Normal enemies like Dodos can be defeated with a normal attack or jumped on, but some other enemies can be defeated or pushed away by spitting a super mega nut, which creates an element of back and forth if there are many obstacles that require nutting away. There are occasional skunks that can make Manny levitate with its bad smell, because... why not. Aside from Manny, there are autoscroll sections where you play as Sid, who is super active, and can perform a Crash Bandicoot-esque spin attack to destroy rocks or enemies. Touching the left side of the screen means death, so you must be always on the move. There are plenty of common nuts that are a main collectible of the game, and they act as health, and since each level has 40 and more (40 required for 100%ing the level), the game ends up being really easy for the most part, falling to a pit doesn't mean death for instance, and you just lose a nut and restart at the section you're on.
The level design is fairly basic for the most part, avoid enemies or hazards, some really light, practically thin puzzle elements and, as I mentioned, some back and forth. There are a few instances of trial and error, the camera isn't always very helpful, like when sliding a slope, the camera pans up instead of down where you're going. You can pan the camera by holding up or down, but it's pretty slow, and in some instances it's disabled, which doesn't make a lot of sense. At the end of each level where you control Manny, there's a boss fight. As hinted earlier, this game has rather bizzare design choices, and the bosses are pretty strange, like a giant turtle or a sleeping armadillo, or a giant eagle. The bosses are pretty easy, not just because of influx of health, but the patterns aren't very difficult to learn, or there's none in case of sleeping things. There are only 10 levels in the whole game, and I beat it in, like, 40 minutes.
Graphically, the game is a mixed bag. I think background and foreground graphics actually look pretty good, but the characters look pretty odd and inconsistent, as if they're lacking some detail and polish. The stills from the movie look decent. The music is good overall, the title screen theme sounds like it would fit in a game about space, not freaking Ice Age. The only issue I have regarding sound is that it's louder compared to other games with no way to adjust the sound volume in-game.
Overall, Ice Age is a rather strange licensed game that doesn't feel very much like the movie, with odd design choices, inconsistent presentation, and mediocre gameplay.