N-Philes

Ice Age 2: The Meltdown

Posted May 20th 2006 by Max Bunge.

With the theatrical release of Ice Age 2: The Meltdown came the inevitable port of the game to virtually every gaming system on the market. Much like most games with such beginnings, Ice Age 2: The Meltdown for the Nintendo Gamecube oozes mediocrity from every digital pore. With decent sound, average graphics, and mind-numbingly boring gameplay, it's a miracle that I managed to make it through the entire game.

At first glance, the game looks like it could actually be entertaining. The graphics, although nothing spectacular, seem adequate nonetheless. It isn't until the movie cut scenes start to play that I realized just how unimpressive the games graphics really are. Even though there are only a few clips from the movie, the graphical designers didn't do themselves any favors by having the clips intertwined with the normal gameplay.

The game's audio is undoubtedly the best part of the game. With the cast of the movie providing original recordings for the game, it certainly makes the cut scenes more tolerable. Ray Romano, Denis Leary, John Leguizamo, and Jay Leno are featured as well as many others from the film. Throw in the quirky sounds of Scrat and an occasional fart joke, and kids are sure to have a good laugh. The background music isn't much, but it helps to present the light-hearted feeling needed in any children's game. In all honesty, the music fits the game very well, I just can't show too much enthusiasm because the majority of the music is comprised of xylophone and pan flute medleys.

The Meltdown's premise is simple enough: playing as Scrat, the feisty little squirrel-like character from the film, gamers must fight their way through the ice age, solving puzzles and chasing after the ever-elusive golden acorn. Sound intriguing? Of course not, but for little Billy Everychild and the rest of the youths to which the game is targeted, there's no need for a thought provoking storyline.

As it is a children's game, simple gameplay and easy tutorials come standard. Small signs are posted throughout the game to give gamers hints as well as show them how to perform the various moves. There is a fair amount of variety in terms of controls, allowing Scrat to jump, climb and fight his way through the levels. However, there is absolutely nothing challenging or innovative in the fighting system. Players simply need to pound one button repeatedly to defeat any animal. As for Scrat's special move, there's nothing special about it; it's just Scrat spinning in a circle for a few seconds. There was not one instance throughout the game where I needed or even wanted to use this attack.

Contrary to the real animal kingdom, almost no creature you encounter can die, they can only be stunned. So no matter how many times you hit an enemy, they will keep coming back to life and repeatedly attack Scrat. I realize why Vivendi Universal, the game's developers, did this, but having the enemies slump over and fade away would hardly be stunningly violent. And if a squirrel beats a polar bear, he should kill it, because if that polar bear gets a second chance, that squirrel is a goner. The fighting system is so unfulfilling that after defeating the same creatures once or twice, I found myself just avoiding and evading enemy attacks for much of the game.

Throughout each level, Scrat is presented with one task after another, often helping other creatures or overcoming obstacles. By helping a condor find her eggs or a sloth get some chili peppers, Scrat is able to progress to the next objective. In addition to the required tasks, there are several mini-games on each level, featuring everything from three-card monte to penguin bowling. Obviously intended to break up the monotonous gameplay, the poorly made minigames are more of a hindrance than a relief. Don't get me wrong, I get as excited as anyone else when it comes to throwing bowling balls at penguins, but even I have my limits. The minigames are at times too difficult – putting goals just within the reach of adult gamers means that kids will struggle with them. The fact that you need to complete each mini-game before progressing to the next portion means that gamers may be stuck playing the same unfulfilling game of Simon Says over and over.

It isn't just the mini-games that can be troublesome; the other aspects of the game had their own problems. While I am not über-1337 by any means, I consider myself an above average gamer, and even I thought that many of the puzzles and game objectives were unclear, even for adults. Given the subject material, the game's target audience is obviously children, but it didn't seem to play very kid-friendly in difficulty.

Quite possibly the most ridiculous and biggest waste of time in the entire game is the nuts. Each and every area of the Ice Age 2: The Meltdown is flooded with nuts. Like Sonic and his rings, or Mario and his coins, gamers will instinctively be drawn into collecting as many as possible. The difference between Sonic and his rodential ancestor Scrat is that Sonic's rings have a purpose; Scrat's nuts are just useless fluff.

So why waste all that time grabbing at nuts that aren't even needed to beat the game? Well, there is a purpose. Nut collecting is required to unlock bonus features, but be aware that this game will require that you run around and grab nuts like it's nobody's business. You need a thousand in each level to unlock a bonus feature. That's right: one-thousand nuts for EACH bonus feature. And what pray tell is all this work for you might ask? With what fabulous features could all of our nut hoarding reward us? The answer: behind the scenes looks with the actors who voiced the game's characters. Yes ladies and gentlemen, now you can have the same boring, useless DVD extras footage in your video games. It's just one more thing for you to not watch.

With all of the downfalls that I found in Ice Age 2, you might wonder, why did I bother using six precious hours to play through the entire game? True, after the first 40 minutes of running around the tedious levels, gathering nuts and completing mindless tasks, I could have called it quits. But still, I had hoped that beneath the game's harsh frozen exterior of lackluster graphics and boring gameplay there might be some feature of the game that is worth salvaging. My desire to find some enjoyable aspect of the game, however small it may be, led me to forge ahead. In the end, I did manage to find one worthy portion of the game. By far and without a doubt the best part of the game is when Scrat dies. After walking Scrat off of the edge of a cliff and listening to his comical scream fade away, it's difficult not to crack a smile. Aside from an occasional fart joke, Scrat's deaths were the only thing worthy of merit in Ice Age 2: The Meltdown.

Flatline - Let's all be happy that this Ice Age is over.

If you or your child is looking for six or seven hours of Ice Age-related entertainment, I suggest watching the original film three or four times in a row. Ice Age 2: The Meltdown just serves to show us that more often than not, movie-ported games are destined to fail. The game simply is not fun.

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