#AD #GIFTED
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.
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!
ReplyDeleteAnother 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
ReplyDeleteI have a Switch and love Ice Age, I would love to play these! The screenshots look great x
ReplyDeleteI've always love this character since he's quite hilarious every time. I'd definitely check out this game.
ReplyDeleteThis 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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