Ice Age: Continental Drift – Arctic Games Review for Nintendo Wii (Wii)

Ice Age: Continental Drift – Arctic Games Box Art

System: Wii, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii
Dev: Behaviour Interactive
Pub: Activision
Release: July 10, 2012
Players: 1-2
Screen Resolution: 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p

Finally, Shell Slide is the one most dear to me because it's a play on one of my favorite winter sports—curling—and is the only event where the two teams are competing at the same time. Trying to slide your "rocks" to the target is fun, but the controls hinder the gameplay. You cannot adjust the camera to view the opposite end, nor get any indication of your trajectory when making an angled shot. Also, the colors of both teams' turtle shells are so similar that it's hard to know which one you're aiming at to launch out of the way.

Ice Age: Continental Drift – Arctic Games Screenshot

Aside from the decent cinematics, the gameplay visuals are subpar, almost like something you'd find on a system from two generations ago. Everything has rigid animations, and the while the characters look authentic, they don't exactly look good. Still, they at least give a shred of color to the otherwise bleak background. I realize the game takes place in an era dominated with snow and ice, but there still needs to be something from the developers that shows an effort; maybe good water effects would have done the trick, or believable physics.

The audio doesn't fare much better. The tunes are very Olympic in nature, with plenty of horns and drums, which might have been impactful had the volume not been set so low that nothing resonates like it should. And you can't control it manually either. The fact that very few actors from the movie have lent their voice only solidifies that this game was designed from the get-go with a small budget.

Minigame collections have their own issues to deal with, rarely seen as having enough substance to promote a fully priced retail product. Add a movie tie-in tag to the formula and you're sure to alienate almost the entire gaming community. If you are in love with the series, looking for any extra pieces to add to your collection, then I will not stop you from picking up Ice Age: Continental Drift – Arctic Games. For anyone else, I doubt you need convincing to leave this one on the store shelves.

By
Sean Engemann
Contributing Writer
Date: July 17, 2012

RATING OUT OF 5

RATING DESCRIPTION

2.6

Graphics
The cinematics are relatively nice, but the rest of the game is very Nintendo 64-ish—a little too outdated.

2.2

Control
Designed for younger hands, they are very simple, but the gameplay could have benefitted enormously with a little more depth.

2.9

Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Nice orchestrations made poor by volume control and often being lost in the background. Decent voice acting from the actors who showed up.

1.5

Play Value
Ten minigames for thirty+ dollars, with only room for one more local player? It's less than an hour's worth of not-so-fun fun.

2.3

Overall Rating - Poor
Not an average. See Rating legend below for a final score breakdown.

Review Rating Legend
0.1 - 1.9 = Avoid	2.5 - 2.9 = Average	3.5 - 3.9 = Good	4.5 - 4.9 = Must Buy
2.0 - 2.4 = Poor	3.0 - 3.4 = Fair	4.0 - 4.4 = Great	5.0 = The Best

Game Features:

Hop, Smash, and Dash in 10 wild arctic events including Glacier Hopping, the Prehistoric Plumber, Bob-Smashing, and Coconut Slingshot!

Battle for Prehistoric Plunder and win gold, silver, and bronze acorns!

Climb to the top of the leaderboard as you challenge your friends in fast-paced multiplayer action!

Test your skills in multiple modes including Story Mode and Free Play designed to test even the most skilled arctic athletes!