Title: Bad Ice Cream
Developer: Nitrome
Genre: Arcade
Platforms: Browser
With the winter months soon approaching, it’ll soon be time to eat up the last of our tasty summer treats. However, ice cream isn’t going to be forgotten so easily. This tasty soft serve is on a rampage to destroy all other desserts and reclaim its spot as the season’s favorite dish in Bad Ice Cream.
We’ve seen some pretty strange characters in video and computer games, but we can’t recall playing an ice cream scoop before. As the player, your mission is to guide your dear dairy friend through maze levels and a horde of enemies lying in wait, eager to melt you with red hot flames or squish you under their behemoth weight.
Players have the option to choose to be vanilla, strawberry or chocolate. Unfortunately, combining them for a delicious Neopolitan character isn’t an option. The flavors don’t have different abilities, so it’s only a matter of which is your favorite. You can play Bad Ice Cream by yourself or have a buddy join you in your quest.
You’re tasked with making it through a series of levels with your icy powers, namely the ability to blow out walls of ice blocks which you can also take away by blowing again. This helps you block off any enemies that are chasing you or open up new pathways to make it through the maze. In order to keep your powers strong, you must collect fruit to gobble up, which can easily be found throughout the level. Just be warned: the higher levels don’t have fruit in such prevalence, and they’ve been known to whip around at speeds your little ice cream hero finds difficult to keep up with.
Enemies such as horned monsters and floating balls of flame are out to get you, and they’ll stop at nothing to keep cookies and pie as the number one holiday treat. There are also squids that can destroy your ice blocks, angry bulls and rolling logs ready to squish you at every turn. Bonus points can be earned when you beat the timer in the upper corner of the screen, but you can still beat the level even if it runs out.
It’s hard not to get behind this little ice cream scoop’s cause. After all, shouldn’t we be able to enjoy our favorite frozen dairy treat any time of the year? Although the game’s levels can get a little repetitive, the increase in difficulty holds the player’s interest. You’ll soon find yourself more challenged than you thought an ice cream scoop was capable of. The controls are easy, and the enemies are tough, so don’t wait! Reclaim what is rightfully yours from the Christmas fruitcakes and Thanksgiving pecan pies in Bad Ice Cream!