Ice Age 4: Continental Drift

Mobile gaming is sometimes a strange reflection of its younger but bigger brothers. It doesn't follow the rules that we've all come to expect, throwing surprises around like they're going out of style.

Take movie tie-ins, for example. They're supposed to be horrible, but more often than not the mobile adaptations of blockbuster films are actually enjoyable fare.

The same goes for Ice Age 4: Continental Drift, which makes the jump from the biggest to the smallest screen with a decent amount of style.

Drift would

The game casts you as one of the stars of the movie -Manny, Scrat, Diego and Sid - and leads you through a variety of platforming levels comprising frozen tundra, roasting jungles, and a bunch of other settings from the film.

Each of the characters plays differently. Scrat's levels plays a bit like Sonic, for example, whereas Manny can't jump but barges through things and stamps around to change the environment to his advantage.

It keeps the game fresh, and each of the characters is interesting enough that you're never sad to swap from one to the next.

Collecting nuts is the order of the day as you make your way through the game, and there are medals to win on each level for collecting enough, as well as finishing within a time limit.

Content-inental

The cartoon graphics are reasonably impressive, and the controls are simple enough that you're never bogged down by multiple button-presses. There's even time for the odd QTE, bashing buttons to hang onto things, or to dodge out of the way.

The levels all follow pretty standard platform formulas, but they do it well, and while you're never struck by any original ideas you'll never find yourself too frustrated by the lack of anything new. The pacing of the game is pretty much spot on, and the levels are just the right length to fit into a few minutes of snatched gaming time. .

Ice Age 4: Continental Drift is an enjoyable, well-made diversion. While it might not change the shape of the mobile platformer, it'll still keep you entertained while you're playing, and sometimes that's really all that you need.

Ice Age 4: Continental Drift

A decent platform game with a few tricks up its sleeve to keep you interested, Ice Age 4: Continental Drift is a reasonable way to kill a few minutes
Score
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.