As eye-meltingly cute characters go, Ice Age's Skrat takes some beating.
The best bits of any Ice Age movies always concern the loopy squirrel's quest for acorns so it's something of a bonus that a new iPhone game based on the third movie Dawn of the Dinosaurs focuses on Skrat's twitchy insanity and not the other characters.
In the new official licenced game from Chillingo (who else would you want to have a hand in a game based on Ice Age, eh? and Two Tribes. Rather than just serving up a dull platformer, the developers have concentrated on the strengths of the iPhone / iPod touch, delivering something that looks superb and keeps controls nice and simple for the broadest possible appeal.
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs combines a simple core collect-em-up gameplay dynamic with some rather tricky puzzling. The idea on each stage is to guide Skrat through the labyrinthine mix of caves, platforms and passages using his squirrely skills to sniff out all the hidden items. Some are easily accessible, but some require a fair amount of lateral thinking and puzzling.
Tapping the screen on a location will send Skrat scurrying off to that point, but though he can climb ladders and walkways, he cannot jump gaps so you need to use the environment to think your way around.
Jabbing Skrat where he stands will make him perform a neat "stomp" manoeuvre that can loosen stalactites and help him bridge gaps and crevasses. He can also use this move to drop a stalactite on an enemy's head, quite handy in later stages when the game world becomes populated with nasty spiky dinosaurs intent on turning Skrat into lunch.
He can also push and pull blocks to use as gap fillers, though only one at a time. You'll find various puzzles based around knowing the right order to manipulate blocks. If you do get stuck, you can quickly hit the "pause" control to restart an area from the last checkpoint.
Later levels see Skrat taking to the air encased in a tar bubble. These surround Skrat and allow you to move to higher platforms or other areas, but will only last for a short while so you have to make the most of them.
Production values are high on the game, with visuals and characters lifted straight from the films. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is instantly attractive for younger players and there are several level types and environments to get to grips with.
There are a few weak points with the control system. Sometimes it's extremely difficult to get Skrat to do what you want him to, and accuracy in pointing becomes more important when you have to time things tightly. For instance, moving Skrat to a safe haven when a passing monster must be avoided can prove to be tricky, but it's a far more preferable control method to obscuring huge amounts of the iPhone / iPod's screen with on-screen controls so works well for the most part.
Film licences always carry something of a stigma and certainly past efforts on the iPhone and iPod Touch aren't always a great success, but Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs works well enough in its own right to more than do justice to the original spirit and flavour of the movie and of course the skittish Skrat, who is the real star of the series.
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