Ice Age

"I looked up BAD in the dictionary, and it gave the definition of Ice Age!"

Movies don’t usually translate well into games, and Ice Age is definitely no exception. Poor gameplay and graphics can all be found here, and levels with no variety are also included. Hardly anything from the movie is in the game, making you wonder if they really should have called it Ice Age.

This game features very unimpressive Gameboy type graphics. Not much effort was put into making the enemies you’ll have to face, because there are only five different enemies. Some enemies you will face are birds, hedgehogs, and skunks. Well, actually skunks are there to help you in the game. When you go over their smell area sticking out from their behind, the wooly mammoth that you control will go up in the air and be able to temporarily fly, letting you get to different areas. The music also changes when you do this, which was a great idea. One of the few, great ideas.

All the levels are pretty much the exact same. Run through the level, collect as many walnuts as you can, and fight the boss at the end. When I say boss, I don’t mean that the level of difficulty is going to increase because they are a special enemy. They’re only bosses, because you face them at the end of a level. I found some of them to be easier then the level itself, because they can be ridiculously easy. One boss has you shooting acorns across the gap, pushing some extinct animal. You will have to go back and forth to keep on collecting the power-up, so you can shoot those acorns or walnuts, whatever they are. It feels very repetitive, because you know right away you’ll be going back and forth. The number of times the game sends you going back and forth for walnut power-ups are incredible, because that’s the only thing you’ll really be doing in this game. If it weren’t fun the first time, why would they make you keep on doing it over and over?

If the title for the game wasn’t Ice Age, I would have no idea it was based on a movie, let alone Ice Age. The only thing that gives you the slightest clue is the screenshots, that appear with no accompanying sound or words to describe what is going on. The whole game you’ll be controlling a wooly mammoth with a kid on it’s back. I haven’t seen the movie, but I do have a guess that the whole movie isn’t based on a kid riding on a wooly mammoth’s back collecting walnuts, jumping over logs and pushing sleeping rhinos over cliffs by shooting at them. A few special levels have you controlling a little weasel, that has to run through the level. The screen is continuously moving, forcing you to keep on moving.

In this game, you’ll be able to move your trunk, jump, and make the guy on your back jump. The gameplay is so repetitive, thankfully you’ll only have to sit through ten levels of this. That’s right, ten measly levels. It’s incredibly easy to get 100% completion, in less than two hours. Granted, this game is directed for a younger audience, but even kids won’t find this exciting. After getting the 100% completion, there is completely no incentive to go back and play it again.

Sometimes, they game may seem hard. But don’t worry, its not you. One serious problem I had was the enemies would respawn in seconds after you kill them, making you get injured when you try and move. Also, sometimes you can get stuck bouncing back and forth between enemies. You will continuously lose life, but not be able to move. When doing the levels with the weasel that has to keep on running, it can get difficult when you’re trying to get at least 40 walnuts. Spinning on rocks to make them spill out walnuts takes time, and the problem is you need to keep on moving.

The health is measured very strangely in this game. Not in a good unique way, but dumb, too easy way. Remember how I said you have to collect those walnuts? Well, those are your lives. Actually, they’re your lives and health at the same time. When you run out of walnuts, then you die and respawn with one acorn. After getting hit by an enemy or running into a spiky log (hey I slipped on ice in that level!) you lose one walnut. So in each level there are 50 possible walnuts to collect, allowing you to miss or lose ten to finish the level and meet the goal.

When listening to the game, all you pretty much hear is a cheap little song that is probably five seconds long. It sounds the same, and it is repeated throughout the whole game. The only time there is different music in the background is, when you’ve gone over a skunk’s smelly area, or at a boss. As a friend described, “That sounds let it will get annoying”. He said that after watching for 20 seconds. Imagine how boring it sounds when you’ve been listening for two hours.

Here’s an example of one of the more difficult bosses. There’s water surrounding two platforms, with the snake underneath. No, he can’t attack you, that would be to hard, he can only stick his head up underneath the platforms to raise them. You have to grab acorn power-ups that are only possible to get when the platform is raised and you are on it. After grabbing a power up and used it, you’ll need to get it from the other platform. When you’re platform goes down, the snake will push the other platform up and that’s when you need to shoot the walnut. That’s about the hardest boss in the whole game. One problem that made me die on this boss, was there was a delay between the platform going down and the game lets you jump. It made me jump into the water a few times in a row, and chuck the GBA on the ground. One of the easier bosses is a sleeping rhino. Again, he can’t attack you, the game depends on you to kill yourself. You must run back and forth picking on an acorn power-up, so you can shoot it and push it back. After about four shots from the acorns, he will get pushed off the edge of a cliff. Yay for you, you beat a boss that can’t even attack you.

One funny thing that happened in this game was when you press was I pressed down, the game made a funny sound and the wooly mammoth looked down. The respawning problem I mentioned earlier occurred, so that a bird reappeared and made a popping sound. This happened the exact same time that the wooly mammoth bent down, so it looked like it came out of its ass. This was about the most entertaining thing that happened during the game, which is actually pretty sad.

If I was a judge and was punishing a kid, there’s no way I would sentence them to play this. That would be too mean. Okay, maybe it’s not horrible, but it is bad. The reason I gave it a six was because the gameplay is bad, and the replayability is also bad. Just good enough to get a six. I was considering a seven, just because I knew it did include a bonus level that you could unlock. But after finding out there’s only ten levels, that solidified my decision.

The Duff Man Verdict

Duff Man: This game is terrible! What would Jesus do?
Bart: Burn it.
Duff Man: Duff Man thinks you’re right! Duff Man suggest if you were given this game, pretend you lost it and ask for a new one!

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 03/30/02, Updated 03/30/02