Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs Xbox 360 – Back With A Bang

Sum n substance:

Thumbs up:Hilarious, kid-friendly, loyal to the movie, genuine LOL moments, varied gameplay, factual character animation.

Thumbs down:Only one very easy difficulty level, weak multiplayer, monotonous.

Inside the trunk:

• Platform Xbox 360
• ESRB rating Everyone 10 and older -
• Genre Action
• Number of players 1-4 Players
• Resolution 1080p,Widescreen

The whiz-kid  speaks:

Being an ardent ice age series fan I really wanted to try my hand on this one, and trust me this game is almost exactly modeled on the movie. It’s vibrant and it would really appeal to the kids and even if you’re a teen it’s sure to bring out the kid in you at play. It’s got a plethora of colorful characters in a wide range of game play styles which include action, platforming, shooting and racing.

Coming back to how the game works… like in the movie even this one starts with Sid deciding to adopt a litter of baby tyrannosaurs, the mopey laggard is then attacked by the mother of the babies and it is upto you to save him from her with the assistance of the herd and my favorite character buck, the weasel. But yeah, at times the plot does get a bit baffling.

Ice age does have an astounding variety in its gameplays. Buck is the main character and both he along with Sid take  part in most of the breath takingly awesome action sequences in the game. The combat is simple button squashing at its best, but then the monotonous swarm of the dinosaurs at every step almost puts a chill on the fun. There are chances that you might get lost all thanks to the non availability of a map and you might have to back track your way on your own.

At each level you can control a particular character by taking advantage of its strengths. For example, Diego the sabre-toothed tiger chases down a gazelle in a racing level, and Manny the mammoth uses his tusks to clear tree trunks in another. Well not all the characters are actually essential to the game; it looks like they’ve just been added to the increase the number of characters in the scroll. Ahh, and how could there be no Scrat. Well he too is given a separate storyline just like the one in the movie; in the quest for the acorn and he even has scratte a female flying squirrel playing his love interest.

The platforming sections are another focal part of the gameplay. Well I personally found the jumping from platform to platform while dispatching nettlesome enemies darn exciting. The shooter levels are no less exciting with you getting the control of a pterodactyle, one which buck had lassoed as a mount to navigate while sweeping over. Well since there is only one very easy difficulty level it shouldn’t take most of the pro players much time to reach to the end of the games.

It also has eight multiplayer games for upto four players which are offline. Just to increase the difficulty levels you could also add hurdles or boosts to a running race. When I actually opted for the multiplayer options with a few of my colleagues I couldn’t help but notice that the multiplayer options are awesome but then in the end  you end up not doing like really great in any of them.

Nitty- gritty:For my part, I feel that the textures of the game are a bit too dated. Yeah, true they are vibrant and colourful, but I surely think they could have come with some real killer graphics. As far as the expressions of the characters and the voice-overs are concerned… kudos to the guys behind them. Brilliant job I must say. It is surely a fun game for the  kids around, but if I have to look at it from an experienced gamers point of view I don’t think there is anything particularly stimulating or challenging. It’s more in the line of those games which you love to play once but then don’t really wanna go back to. This game definitely tries to venture out in a lot of directions but in the end it ends up doing well in none really. This game is surely the pick for all the kids just for its enthralling experience and for anyone like me who is an ardent ice age fan.

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