Xbox

Ice Age 2: The Meltdown

This is normally where I tell you that Ice Age 2: The Meltdown is pretty good considering it’s a movie-licensed game, but actually, this is a fun platform adventure regardless of the movie spin. Scrat is one of the most endearing characters in animated films and it’s high time he got to showcase his talents in his own adventure. And this is also one of the few movie games where they don’t actually spoil the movie. By creating an entire side-story you get hints of the movie plot, but Scrat is pretty much doing his own thing, which may or may not inadvertently affect the fate of our movie heroes. If you loved the first Ice Age and plan to see the sequel then this game is a must-play adventure. Rent it for the experience or buy it for the movie ticket. Either way…play Ice Age 2 – it’s COOL!

Ice Age 2: The Meltdown is worth your attention if you’re a platformer fan who isn't also a platforming snob. The game delivers a fairly conventional adventure packed full of collect-a-thons and tried-and-true, been-here-and-done-that challenges. But it does them well. Control is tight, levels varied, and there are some genuinely funny moments, which is an uncommon trait of any videogame, let alone a so-called kids' game. Best of all to Ice Age fans, the entire experience is wrapped in a package that perfectly capitalizes on the license, from movie snippets and voice acting to bonus features and funny in-game animations. This is a charming little platformer. Get it for your little brother because he'll love it. And when he's not looking, give it a chance – you might just like it, too.

The Meltdown is recommended for fans of the movie and gamers of all ages. Hardcores will probably turn their collective noses at the collecting element but the platform elements are challenging and fun. There's no way you won't get a laugh out of this game. I would more than likely recommend a rental of this game since you'll be done with it in less than a week.

Ice Age 2 makes some advances in an otherwise stagnant genre. The amount of minigames that you can play and the unrestrictive levels really put it above other tiles in the same genre. While it’s not the longest game, it’s certainly something that’s easier to recommend than most other movie-based titles. Eurocom has done some great things with this license, but some of it is just too similar to other titles in most respects.

All told, Ice Age 2: The Meltdown is a fun, engaging platformer that ought to appeal to multiple audiences. The gameplay is enjoyable, the characters are well represented, and the graphics are top notch for this sort of game. So, what keeps it from greatness? The one, fatal flaw that holds Ice Age 2 back is its brevity. This game won't take more than a few hours of play to complete, except perhaps in the case of the youngest of younger audiences. It's over practically before it starts, and the scant bits of bonus content aren't enough to justify paying $40 for a four-hour game. If you liked the film, Ice Age 2 is a game well worth playing. But before you run out and pay full price for it, be aware that it won't last you very long.

Ice Age 2: The Meltdown is an excellent gift for a youngster or for fans of the movie. It's full of fun action and adventuring and has the star power of three Hollywood actors. The graphics look great, the gameplay will keep you interested and the cut-scenes can be funny for people of all ages. If you're expecting a long adventure though, look elsewhere or just give this a rent. You might get 4-6 hours out of this, but that's the extent of your play time.

No, Ice Age 2: The Meltdown isn't hot enough to be an instant pick-up for audiences all around, but it's a far more suitable movie-licensed game than one would expect. The gameplay may follow familiar territory, but it still manages to work rather well, and it's backed by the sense of its own craziness. I never thaw it coming. Get it? Thaw. Alright, alright, I better stop before the staff starts throwing ice cubes at me.

While Ice Age 2: The Meltdown is essentially a standard platformer, and a kids' one at that, it manages to successfully incorporate some of the movie's best elements with some original, better-than-average gameplay and graphics (plus a good dose of humour), into a quality game that should provide plenty of enjoyable entertainment for its target audience.

Too often a game is released in conjunction with a major box office movie that really doesn't capture what the movie was all about. Ice Age 2: The Meltdown is stunning in the way it looks and feels, but this is no more than you would expect when the film is essentially computer generated anyway. Unfortunately the thought just hasn't gone into the gameplay itself and although I have to concede that children and fans of the film may enjoy it, there isn't enough here to keep this title from going extinct in a short period of time.

As a general rule, videogames based off of children’s movie tend to be experiences in boring gameplay and very mechanical in nature. Still, children tend to devour them time and time again. Ice Age 2: The Meltdown is no better or worse than the other kiddy movie inspired games that came before it, but the added charm and laughs that this cast of characters brings with them adds some extra points to the mix. As a whole, the action in this game isn't incredibly engaging, the camera is far too wonky to be called passable, and the overall challenge is set fairly low. Decent graphics and low end audio don’t hurt or hamper, but keep this at a title that actual fans of the platforming genre will avoid for its complete lack of boundary pushing, but kids will eat up like candy. In the end, it isn’t a half bad game for them to spend a weekend with, just don’t expect a long lasting experience.

Overall, Ice Age 2 does a great job adhering to standard conventions, and begins to add its own personality, but it just doesn't do enough. While Ice Age 2 has a number of very successful elements which make it into a decent platformer, it remains too short, too simple, and too repetitive for longer play. Ice Age 2 is still a very entertaining game for a short play session. If Ice Age 2 offered increased difficulty, more complex puzzles, more depth, or even more extras, it could have been a great game. Ice Age 2 is well worth renting to play with children or younger siblings, but even the excellent voice acting and cute connections to the film don't save Ice Age 2 from quickly losing interest for long-term play or replay. For Ice Age film fanatics, Ice Age 2 is fun for a few hours. For the rest of us, this isn't a great game and isn't worth more than a cursory-albeit still highly enjoyable-short play session.

While it can be said that Ice Age 2: The Meltdown is following the well-worn trail of action/platform titles to a fault, it's still better than a lot of the titles game companies try to pawn off to kids or motion picture fans. More enjoyable the younger you are and the more enamored you are with the cast, Ice Age 2 will nonetheless provide any gamer with a few hours of enjoyment, along with a couple of laughs along the way. Oh, and we can't forget nuts. Lots of nuts.

If Fox cares this much about preventing you from seeing any more cinematic footage in a game that you've just spent around £30 on, in order to force you to see the actual movie, that's a perverse way of going about it. And if Eurocom thought it could do an easy job of wrapping a weak platformer and some mini-games around a big-name cartoon, and maintain some critical integrity just because it's for children, they're kidding themselves. But this is 'Batman Begins' Eurocom we're talking about, which is developing a reputation for wholly average movie adaptations Either way, Ice Age 2: The Meltdown is a tedious game with serious length issues that doesn't distance itself from a million other average platformers, movie-based or not.