#228 – Fire ‘N Ice

The Eternal Element and the Supreme Compound duke it out for Supremacy!

PLAYERS: 1

PUBLISHER: Tecmo

DEVELOPER: Tecmo

GENRE: Puzzle

RELEASE DATE: March 1993

Who would have thought nature’s original odd couple would work out their differences in order to craft a superb puzzler? The story: fire has invaded Ice World, something about a dreidel and a grandma or… something, I dunno, it doesn’t really matter. You’re a cute wizard who has to eliminate the intruding fire from taking over the ice realm. Much like Lolo, the first few levels are there to teach you the mechanics: ice cubes destroy fire. Simple as pie… OR IS IT. Yes, the goal is to direct the ice in the level to make the fire disappear. You have a wand that can both generate ice and take it away. Ice can only be created diagonally below you, so basically, you must be standing on a block in order to create an ice cube to the left or right of you. Create a row of ice then break it off into small chunks. Take out your glass of sweet tea, place it diagonally below you, and give it some ice cold lovin’. Every ice block in the level is placed for a reason, so always be aware of your surroundings. Later levels involve pipes, different types of ice, monsters that don’t respond directly to your ice weaponry. It’s a rich tapestry, to be sure. If you accidentally screw up (as I did several times, even on the earlier levels), you can hit ‘select’ and retry without losing a life (unlike Lolo). I’ve mentioned Lolo a couple times because this is essentially Lolo’s spiritual successor. Fire ‘N Ice may not have quite as much charm, but the mechanics are SOLID and gameplay is RED-HOT fantastic. If you love putting large amounts of joy in your life, please partake of Fire ‘N Ice.

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