REVIEW – Ice Age: Scrat’s Nutty Adventure PS4
#AD- Gifted for review
We are big fans of the Ice Age movies in this household, having enjoyed watching them as they were released in the early naughties. Throughout the movies, there has been one character who was always sure to raise a laugh – Scrat. Becoming almost the star of the Ice Age series, the teaser clips showing Scrat on his adventures to retrieve his beloved acorn became almost iconic, and when the girls were introduced to the humour of poor Scrat’s bad luck, they found it absolutely hilarious, literally howling with laughter as he got so close, yet so far from his ultimate goal!
When I heard that a fun Ice Age platform game was coming out on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC that featured Scrat as the main character, I knew that this would be a great choice for the whole family. We were very kindly sent a copy of Ice Age: Scrat’s Nutty Adventure on PS4 to put through it’s paces and here’s what we thought…
What is Ice Age: Scrat’s Nutty Adventure
Ice Age: Scrat’s Nutty Adventure is a 3D platform game featuring Ice Age’s Scrat – the loveable yet incredibly unlucky sabre tooth squirrel as the star. Scrat is on an epic quest across a whole host of Ice Age locations for his prized goal – the Crystal Nuts, with four scattered across the land that he must hunt out and recover in order to return the relics to their rightful home. As with any Ice Age Scrat adventure, Scrat’s journey isn’t straightforward, with icicles to leap between, geysers to ride, lava to leap over and some slapstick acrobatic moves mixed in for good measure!
With 3D action adventure, epic graphic landscapes and a whole heap of surprises, Ice Age: Scrat’s Nutty Adventure is aimed at ages 7 and above.
As you might expect, exploring prehistoric ice age landscapes can be dangerous too! During Scrat’s mission to find the crystal nuts, you’ll face fierce prehistoric creatures including wolves, insects and giant boss levels and unlock special powers to help Scrat to jump higher, lift heavier objects and find every last crystal nut on his list.
Ice Age: Scrat’s Nutty Adventure is available to purchase from the 18th October 2019 and has an RRP of £34.99. It is available on PS4, Xbox One, PC and Nintendo Switch, and is available on Amazon here
Our Experience of Ice Age: Scrat’s Nutty Adventure
Erin was VERY excited when Ice Age: Scrat’s Nutty Adventure arrived. She hasn’t played on the PS4 a lot (normally because Daddy hogs it with his football games), so on the rare occasion that we offer an age appropriate game she gets very chuffed. It makes a nice change from playing alone on the iPad and is something we can all do together as a family, knowing that inevitably at some point she will want our help or panic when a bit gets a little bit tricky!
First impressions of the game were very positive. The graphics are pretty impressive, with the Ice Age landscapes in 3D having quite an impact during game play. The attention to detail in the scenes is pretty impressive, making them really fun to look around and explore.
Ice Age: Scrat’s Nutty Adventure is completely 3D meaning that you do have duel controls to think about.
The left hand control button is used for the normal navigation (moving backwards, forwards and side to side) and the second button can be used to rotate and turn the view – turning to see a full 360 degrees around Scrat. This can take a little while to get used to if you aren’t already familiar with this set up (we weren’t), but the impact of being able to change the view and even see from above was really helpful during some of the trickier parts.
Sometimes Erin found herself a bit stuck behind a tree where everything seemed very close up, and it can take a while to navigate yourself out of those situations. It was also at times hard to get an idea of depth, so sometimes jumping across platforms it was easy to misjudge and miss or jump too far. I guess practice will make perfect!
The game play itself is really fun. Scrat is obviously really funny to watch, and even the way he moves and the sounds he makes are pretty amusing. The game is interactive, and there are lots of different obstacles to tackle, whilst collecting gems, bashing boxes open to collect hearts, jumping from platform to platform and following paths, all whilst avoiding critters along the way that can hurt you.
Whilst you can die (if you fall in water or accidentally drop off the side of a cliff), you don’t run out of lives, and simply return to the last check point you passed, which are fairly frequent so you don’t have to start right from the beginning of each level.
Some of the baddies include beetles and mere cats, and depending on the type of creature and their ‘weak spots’, Scrat can throw rocks at them or kick out with his leg. Erin (and I!) found the controls for throwing can be a little tricky to master as you have to control, aim and then fire, which involves using both elements of the controller and the L1, R1, L2, R2 buttons, but again, more regular PS4 users may find this slightly easier to master.
The game isn’t a repeat of the movie story, but a whole new adventure, which meant we didn’t know what to expect or know what was coming next. The boss levels are a little bit stressful (even for me!) but knowing that you’ve successfully retrieved one of the Crystal Nuts is always worth a celebration.
Ice Age: Scrat’s Nutty Adventure has been fun for the whole family and an inclusive way to play together, solving puzzles and celebrating successes – was a really fun way to spend the afternoon together. Even Neve who is 3, enjoyed watching us play, as the graphics panned out almost like a little mini movie!
The game states it is suitable for ages 7 and above, however I would caveat this with a “depending on how confident they are with the controls”. The game does require more than just the basic moving and jumping controls and as such, Erin did find it a bit tricky at times.
Overall, I would class the game as a hit, and we have only scratched the surface of finding the hidden relics. I have a feeling this will be a Sunday afternoon playtime for quite some time yet!
You can learn more about Ice Age: Scrat’s Nutty Adventure here.
*We were sent a copy of Ice Age: Scrat’s Nutty Adevnture on PS4 prior to release. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own*
