The Good
- Variety of Gameplay with a good balance of Mini-Games.
- Main levels pose a challenge without being too difficult.
- The option to opt-out when stuck on a level while still progressing in the overall game is a plus for younger players.
The Bad:
- Unoriginal, somewhat awkward gameplay.
- Becomes dull after only a few levels.
- Glitches can cause characters to become stuck, forcing you to reload the game without saving your progress.
Story
In the sequel to the surprise hit film Ice Age, the unlikely trio of Sid the sloth, Manny the wooly mammoth and Diego the sabertooth tiger are back, but it might not be for long. The world is getting warmer and the ice age has started to thaw, hence destroying their home with floods and avalanches. In this storyline to both the film and the GBA game the three heroes must save their friends and themselves from the meltdown.Features
- Cooperative Gameplay
- Control three characters successively
- Mini-games
The Game
Sierra and Vivendi Universal Games (VU Games) bring a mix of levels featuring teamwork gameplay with mini-games interspersed between each world. Although it’s set up in a mock-3D environment, the main gameplay harkens back to the classic game The Lost Vikings where you control three characters consecutively, each has their own special abilities that allows them access to parts of the landscape the others do not. The main goal is to have the characters help one another reach the safety of a cave while collecting stranded critters along the way. If you get stuck on a level or grow wary of it eventually the possum brothers Crash and Eddie will pop up and give you the option of quitting the level and progressing to the next one.
Between each world there are two mini-games, one featuring Sid as a “Sonic The Hedgehog” look-alike, the other has the trio trapped on a moving ice-floe as the try to defeat the carnivorous water creatures that surround them.
The VU Games website lists this as an action title but with the exception of the mini-games this is more of a slow moving adventure. This incorrect label and the difference between the films target age group vs. the game's will mislead and annoy gamers as it may sell to the wrong consumer.
Parent Guide
Although the feature film has been rated PG, this game has been assigned an E for Everyone by the ESRB and is geared towards much younger audiences who prefer activities over action. With the exception of some minor cartoon violence this is a really strong exercise for early childhood players to learn basic problem solving skills and sharpen their powers of deduction. However, there is still minor violence with critter munching fish, Sid chomping on some baddie bugs and falling onto some spikes during his mini-game, but there is no blood and injured or eaten characters simply disappear.Trivia
Carlos Saldanha, the director of the feature film Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, received a 2004 Oscar nomination for the animated short Gone Nutty, which he shared with the short’s producer John C. Donkin.