Icebreaker (video game)

"Icebreaker" is a 1995 strategy/action video game developed by Magnet Interactive Studios for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer console. Despite the critical acclaim, the game did not sell well (mostly because of 3DO's failure on the 32-bit video game market). Later, the game was also ported to Mac and PC, where it found a similar fate. Icebreaker 2 was created but never released and, until recently, could only be played at creator Andrew Looney's house in a custom built arcade style machine.

Andrew Looney's Icebreaker 2 was made available for the 3DO by Older Games as of August 3, 2007. By December 2007, Older Games had been purchased and is no longer selling the game.

Gameplay

The gameplay consists of the player controlling a sliding white pyramid (named "Dudemeyer" on the readme of the computer version) on an isometric/diametric projection level. The goal of the game is to eliminate the several other types of pyramids (called "dudes" on the readme), some that move and others that don't. Each kind of enemy pyramid has its own weakness and specific form to be destroyed, and a great part of the game's challenge comes from this aspect.

The game consists of 150 different levels. A demo version was created which contains 5 representative levels from various parts of the game, and as of early 2008, either still is or recently was available from the website of Andrew Looney's game company Looney Labs.

Features present in the game include:

* White Pyramid - The "character" controlled by the player, which can move in one of eight directions and shoots little fireballs from its point (there is no limit on the number of these shots it can make, but they cannot be fired faster than about two per second). When "killed" by a game effect, the white pyramid says "uh-oh!" and sprouts a transparent duplicate of itself which flies away on little angel wings, a la a cartoon "soul".

* Blue Pyramid - Upright stationary pyramids which are unaffected by fireballs. When touched by the white pyramid, they shatter with an exaggerated breaking-ice sound (hence the game's name). Blue pyramids are the most common stationary pyramids in the game, especially in early levels.

* Red Pyramid - When shot with a fireball, the red pyramids vaporize with a "heat" sound. If the player's white pyramid touches a red pyramid, it "dies".

* Green Pyramid - Unaffected by the white pyramid's movements and fireballs, green pyramids must usually be destroyed by luring the mobile enemy pyramids, which mindlessly follow the white pyramid but are somewhat slower, to plow through the green pyramid while in pursuit.

:* Changing Pyramid - Most red, green and blue pyramids actually change into each other over the course of the game, with early levels being an exception as they "teach" the concepts of the pyramid types separately. A changing pyramid may start out any color, and randomly shifts from red to blue to green to red (potentially causing the player to waste shots firing at a red pyramid which turns blue before the projectile hits, or to "die" by moving too close to a green pyramid which suddenly turns red).

* Seekers - Many types of upright pyramids called "seekers" will emerge from the edges of the game board (which is infinite in size, though only a small area contains stationary pyramids) and stalk the white pyramid. Touching or being touched by these is death, but they can be killed with fireball shots, and in some cases by luring them into hazards. The types are differentiated by color (in ascending difficulty order: yellow, pink, light blue, and light green), speed and skill of movement, and various "death" animations. Some levels feature light purple seekers (which move faster than the player, but periodically pause to catch their breath), large orange seekers (which split into faster halves and quarters when shot), and even zombie seekers, which can regenerate by coming out of the ground and take 3 shots to destroy.

* Stone Pyramids - These are gray in color with a rough texture, and are "chipped" when shot with the fireball, taking a total of 10 shots to destroy.

* Hazards - Bottomless pits, pools of lava, and pools of carnivorous green slime appear as board hazards in later levels; they may or may not affect the moving enemy pyramids. There are also purple upright pyramids which open into pits when shot. On rare occasions, a mobile pyramid which is "smart" enough to walk around pits without falling into them can be dropped into a purple-pyramid pit if it was standing close enough to the pyramid when it opened. Pyramids (player or enemy) which fall into pits make a "Woaaaaaaa...." scream as they fall.

The game has a "peppy" soundtrack of simple electronic music, including a track entitled "Platypus Jack".

External links

* [http://www.wunderland.com/WTS/Andy/Icebreaker/Icebreaker.html Icebreaker page at Wunderland.com] — Site of the creator of the game. Includes download links for the demo versions (PC & Mac)