Icebreaker

"You Alone Can Destroy All Pyramids" boasts the cover of Icebreaker, the puzzle game for the 3DO. I've always felt a certain unfulfilled urge, a sort of yearning for a beck and call of sorts. And now I know, I am, apparently, to destroy all pyramids! As fun a prospect as that sounds, let's break down why this game really isn't all that much fun.

The graphics are so-so. I know it's only mid-90's, but they still seem dated. This is supposed to be the future of gaming ... CD-ROMs and all that! The 16-bit versions of ZOOP! looked more impressive. And having that quarter top down look, similar to Sonic 3D Blast, makes for awkward controlling.

The premise, as previously mentioned, is to destroy all pyramids. Why? I have no idea. Your character IS a pyramid, but you lose when you die! How does that work? Maybe if you were a sphere destroying all the pyramids, I would have played it more than once or twice. The pyramids, or "dudes" as the game case calls them (in a vain attempt to " Gen-X hipsterize" them) are divided into three varieties: Your Immobile dudes, mobile dudes, and seekers (VERY mobile dudes). The seekers try to kill you by running into you. Some immobile dudes can be shot to be killed, sometimes more than once, and sometimes you have to wait to until they change colors to be killed. There are too many varieties of dudes to mention here, either that or I just don't want to. Probably the latter. As mentioned before, this game really isn't that much fun.

The menus are also very confusing; add that to the lack of fun. Every level is playable from the beginning! What is the point of playing through each level if you can simply move on whenever you want? The load times are also pretty ridiculous. The simple act of changing the difficulty level takes around 30 seconds. I don't really see the point in doing this, either, as levels have pre-assigned difficulty levels.

So much of this game makes no sense. Upon playing the actual levels, though, it's really just a standard puzzle game that probably could have been better without the bells and whistles of a next-gen console. The "Destroy all Pyramids Call to Arms" will go unanswered.