Monday 21 October 2019

Ice Age: Scrat's Nutty Adventure - game review


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We love Ice Age, we’ve watched all of the Ice Age films numerous times and were blown away by the incredible Ice Age Live! Show. The storylines, wondrous Ice Age settings, comedic scenes and fantastic characters have enthralled both young and old Ice Age fans in our household, making the films favourites to watch again and again. One Ice Age character that we all love to see is Scrat.

The iconic character of Scrat is a wonderful addition to the films. We all love seeing the clips showing Scrat on his desperate adventures to retrieve his beloved acorn. As we see him battle against humorous misfortune that keeps him from his treasured acorn we have all his nutty character and hilarious misadventures charmingly funny and adorable. 

As we all love the unique, nutty character of Scrat we were delighted to hear the news that he would be given the starring role in his own platform game - Ice Age: Scrat’s Nutty Adventure. Our excitement about this new game was amped up when it was announced that the game would be released on Friday the 18th October .


Join Scrat for a perilous prehistoric quest 2.6 million years in the making.

BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Europe, worldwide family entertainment publisher Outright Games™ and UK-based development studio Just Add Water are excited to announce that Ice Age: Scrat’s Nutty Adventure is available now to play on PlayStation®4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch™ and PC Digital priced at £39.99. Set out and explore the beautiful, prehistoric world of Blue Sky Studio’s blockbuster Ice Age film franchise in Scrat’s nuttiest adventure ever.

Sparking our interest and eagerness to play the game we watched the new nut-tastic launch trailer as we waited for the game to download on our Nintendo Switch. After watching it, we all could not wait to travel back in time to the prehistoric land and help Scrat on his journey to find his treasured acorn.


Stepping back in time with Scrat for a nutty adventure 

Set in the Ice Age universe and featuring everyone’s favourite loveable yet incredibly unlucky sabre toothed squirrel Scrat, Ice Age: Scrat’s Nutty Adventure is a brand new 3D action adventure platform game designed for 6-12 year olds.


Like in the films Scrat is obsessed with his beloved acorn. In this icetastic game he is on an epic quest across the ancient lands to retrieve his prized possession which is locked inside an ancient Scratazon Temple – and the only way to get it back is to retrieve four legendary Crystal Nuts which are scattered across the land.


With four crystal nuts to find the world is split up into four paths each with their own crystal nut for Scrat to recover. Each path is divided into stages  such as the Woodland Valley, Hidden Jungle, Ice Mountain, Ancient Ice Cliff, The Fiery Peak, The Scratazon Caverns and The Magma Ruins.


Mimicking the films where Scrat’s attempts at getting his acorn is never straightforward, the game throws many obstacles at him that he needs to overcome to find the special nuts. The 3D action adventure set in epic prehistoric landscapes is a dangerous world. Scrat has to navigate rocky terrain, ride geyers, leap over lava and use acrobatic moves to get across large drops. Plus he has to face prehistoric creatures and boss fights.


As well as exploring the lands to find crystal nuts there are also shards of tablet pieces and sacred statues to collect in each stage. The tablet pieces and statues are hidden providing a challenge to gamers to find them. 

To help navigate the ancient land there is a map where you can see what stage you are currently in. Once you have been to a particular stage you can use the fast travel feature on the map to go back to it. As well as showcasing the different stages, the map also highlights the tablets and statues that you’ve collected or still need to find.


As Scrat explores the land he can collect sparkling purple acorns plus he can break boxes containing a number of acorns. If he is feeling a little worse for wear and his life is draining you can top it up by breaking a heart container. 


Whilst Scrat can die by falling in the water, having his lifeline drained from battling critters or accidentally dropping off the side of the cliff unlike some games there is no game over and you don’t run out of lives. After Scrat dies you simply start again from the last checkpoint you passed. Thankfully checkpoints are seen very frequently throughout the land so you don’t have to repeat too much to get back to where you were. To activate a checkpoint - which looks like an ancient stone with a glowing acorn adorned on it - you simply have to pass by it.

At the end of all four of the paths is a boss fight such as the Rhino Boss and Crocodile Boss. If you defeat the boss level you gain one of the crystal nuts. After recovering a crystal nut Scrat returns it to the temple where he gains a new skill before heading off to another path in the Ice Age to find another crystal nut. 

Thanks to dual controls - left analogue stick for moving Scrat around and the right analogue stick for changing view - you can get a good look around the 3D ice age world to find statues and tablet pieces plus decide where to go next. As my kids are avid little gamers and play many games that require use the same format to move around they had no problems navigating this game. 

To help players new to the game to learn the controls the game highlights the controls for particular moves. This is particularly helpful if you have to use a new skill in the game such as climbing ancient mountains and is great to help younger gamers play the game without adult assistance.


Thoughts on the game from the little gamers of the house

Both of my little gamers have enjoyed testing out the game, having already spent a number of hours exploring with Scrat and still wanting to play more. They love the fact that the game does not follow storylines from the Ice Age films, providing a new adventure for their favourite Ice Age character whilst bringing the essence of Ice Age with its wondrous scenery and comedic character of Scrat to a brilliant 3D action adventure  game. 


The kids love the style of the game and think it’s awesome that Scrat adventures through different types of land from woodland to volcanic to ice. On the whole, the graphics are impressive with lovely attention to detail in the scenery and the fact that the game is designed in 3D brings the ice age landscapes alive and makes exploring the lands lots of fun. On the odd occasion especially when Scrat is moving frantically such as when he is fighting the textures become ever so slightly pixelated plus compared to the 3D landscapes the map is of poor quality. However this does not detract from the fun of the game and the slight blur only lasts a moment.

Whilst the game is aimed at children aged 6+ both of the boys have played it and even at 4 years old H the youngest gamer in the house has loved playing the game. He’s especially loved collecting the treasures and fighting prehistoric creatures. Perhaps it because he is so well versed in playing a variety of games, he has found it great to play and has managed really well to navigate the world and find treasures. 


There has been the odd occasion where he has found platforming a little tricky as it can be hard to factor in the depth of a jump, master trickier jumps or deal with moving platforms but his skills have vastly improved after a few attempts,helping him hone his hand-eye coordination skills plus he always has big brother on hand to help if needed. The fact that if he does die he is spawned back to the nearest checkpoint helps curb any gaming frustration.


At 8 our eldest has had no issues with the game and finds it lots of fun to play. He loves that the game has lots of different treasure to find, puzzles to solve and that it challenges him with obstacles such as moving platforms, wall-to-wall jumps and ancient mountains to climb.He’s also loved the boss fights being so good at them he has helped his little brother defeat the bosses on his account too. He also loves that you can celebrate your success in the game by  gaining trophies- in fact there are 37 trophies of varying rarity and difficult available to achieve such as Hope you thaw everything!, Scrattle royale, Scrat-er up and Dearly be-lava-d.


The kids love that they are Scrat in the game and think the way he moves especially when fighting with his awesome sabre-toothed squirrel combat moves and rolling around is hilarious. They love that the game is interactive with lots of obstacles, puzzles, boxes to break and prehistoric baddies to battle. Both of them think it’s cool that Scrat can throw acorns and thanks to them being confident gamers both of them can easily use this feature. They also think that it is great that you unlock special powers such as double jump skill to make exploring the land easier. 


It has lived up to other games from Outright games and Bandai Namco that the kids love playing such as Dreamworks Dragons Dawn of New Riders and Paw Patrol On A Roll as well as honouring the icetastic Ice Age  film franchise.

Ice Age: Scrat’s Nutty Adventure is a fun, family friendly game that is perfect for little gamers especially fans of the Ice Age films. It is a fantastic starter platform game for younger players whilst also challenging older players at the higher end of the recommended age. Even though it is a game designed for children the whole family has enjoyed playing it including us adults.

  
Ice Age: Scrat’s Nutty Adventure is now available to buy on PlayStation®4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch™ and PC digital. This title will launch on December 6th in Australia and New Zealand.

5 comments:

  1. Who doesn't love Ice Age! This sounds like such a fun game to go along with the film as well, I always feel like Scrat is a character a lot of people love so a good idea to use him in a game!

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  2. Another game I am sure Jack would enjoy! He's a big fan of the Ice Age films so is sure to love this fun game

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  3. I have a Switch and love Ice Age, I would love to play these! The screenshots look great x

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  4. I've always love this character since he's quite hilarious every time. I'd definitely check out this game.

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  5. This sounds like one that all three of my children might enjoy playing together. I'll have to add it to the Christmas list.

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