Latest Haul (and Impressions): Icebreaker II

Well, what’s this?  A new 3DO release?  That’s right… As I mentioned on one of the first posts to this blog, OlderGames.com was planning to bring us several new 3DO games.  Well, the time is now.  The Classic Gaming Expo has come and gone, the games are officially released, and everyone that placed a pre-order has the game in their hands.

All of the games that OlderGames has released were incomplete works-in-progress and are at various levels of playability.  Powerslide seems barely playable.  Decathlon is playable, but with a fair number of bugs.  Onside looks quite stable, but doesn’t interest me much.  Icebreaker II, on the other hand, feels like it was very much ready for an official release, and that’s why it’s the only one I decided to buy.  The only thing that indicates the game isn’t finished is that there is space on the level select screen for 150 levels, but only 118 are present.  (Oddly enough, levels 149 and 150 have been created even though 117-148 don’t exist.)  On top of that, there’s a whole collection of small tech demos to play around with, outside the scope of the game itself.

So how is it?  Was it worth waiting 13 years after the origial release for the sequel?  Well, I guess it depends on how much you were actually anticipating it in that time.  For someone like me, that hasn’t played the first and only found out there was an unreleased sequel a couple years ago, it wasn’t a bad wait at all!  But I pity those who were waiting with baited breath (if any of you exist).  Not that it’s a bad game, but rather… Why would you be waiting with baited breath for any game for 13 years? (Says the guy waiting for the NiGHTS sequel.  D’oh.)

For the unfamiliar, I think the best way to describe Icebreaker is as a puzzle-slash-shooter game.  The object is, as a floating white pyramid, to float around each level destroying all of the other pyramids.  Most of the pyramids are static and can be broken either by running into them or shooting them.  Some take more shots than others, some take more rapid shots than others, some turn into pools of acid, some turn into pools of lava.  On top of that, there is a constant onslaught of mobile enemy pyramids closing in on you, so you have to negotiate destroying them while destroying the static pyramids.

Though I haven’t played much yet, I think I can confidently say I’ve never played another game quite like this one (of course, like I said, I never played the first game).  From what I’ve seen, Icebreaker II is fresh and fun.  The concept is unique and I really like the colorful, cartoon-like graphical style.  Naturally, I’ll have a full review sometime in the future…