Format: iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch
Developer: Gameloft
I think that I am more than qualified to be the judge, jury and executioner of a Ice Age game. You see as the father to two young kids I have seen the first three movies around 100 times (how I wish I was exaggeration) And I think I know the movies now as well as my kids do. I just thank god we have not got round to getting the fourth one on DVD yet. Anyway the movies are pretty good to be fair and Ice Age Village is one of the big success stories on the iOS. So I was looking forward to playing through this with my kids.
In terms of visuals I think this game captures the movies very well. All your favourite characters are included and it does have that same charm the movie did. One really cool thing was that a somewhat recent update has opened up a dinosaur section like was in Ice Age 3. And this adds some of the dinosaurs who were in that movie and my favourite character Buck Wild. In short this is a game that certainly does its license a fitting tribute.
Now the game play here is that of a town building game. Me and town builders do not really mix, but if I dig the license I am more willing to dig deeper into them. This is a game that I feel is more aimed at kids which is great…….. and bad. Lets talk about the great first.
The idea here is that Sid, Manny and the rest of the Ice Age gang need your help to make a suitable place to live for a bunch of creators that have no where to live. The game really does a good job of holding your hand in teaching you how to build the various buildings. And collect money from certain things that you will do and from things like a mud spa that will earn you some extra cash.
It starts off really well and you can play it for what seems like a long time with the currency you already have. And best of all the tutorial is perfect for kids. My daughter was able to read and understand the instructions easily which is always a good thing. And she had a great time building this world and having new creatures come to live in her town.
Ice Age Villages for of currency is acorns and this is where the bad of the game comes in. While you can earn a acorns here and there. I think the most we earned in one go was three. Some of the prices for the premium buildings and new creatures is really high some new creatures are as much as 1000 acorns. So you can see that it would take a very long time to get this unless you were willing to put your hands in your pocket. So if your kids get really into this game be ready to hear “please lets just buy a few acorns”
Despite the freemium model I think Ice Age Village does what it does very well. We have had it on our iPad for a very long time now and it is one of those games my daughter always goes back to every now and again. And it looks like this is going to be a game that gets a decent amount of updates such as the Ice Age 3 themed world. I say give this a go if you have kids, but for more experience players of this type of game it may feel to simple.