Puzzle Ice Push

We've got to be honest; we were initially rather baffled by Puzzle Ice Push. Fans of classic arcade games will immediately see a link between this game and the far too old to be remembered by anyone under 35 game Pengu, which should not to be confused with Pingu, as that's something altogether different.

Having said that, they are both penguins… but we digress.

Going back to the baffling beginnings of our experience with Puzzle Ice Push, this was caused by the fact that although there are some basic instructions supplied with the game, they make very little sense. What you do at least find out, though, is that you can control one of three characters, each of which has their own special ability.

The main character, Pengky, earns her money by delivering fish; her specialty is 'pushing'. Her friend is called Koa. He starts the game on stage eight and he's rather fond of 'crashing'. Finally, making up this troubled trilogy is Shia, who looks vaguely human, has supernatural powers and can 'draw' bricks near her.

Realising that this is pretty much all the help you're going to get, we recommend that you do what we did and just dive straight into the game. Thankfully, the mist clears rather quickly, revealing the gameplay.

The clue is in Pengky's job as a fish deliverer. Each stage is based around a 2D grid, with blocks dotted around seemingly randomly, a fish (or several) and an igloo for the base. The object of the game is straightforward: to push the fish around the grid until it arrives at the igloo.

On the first stage, this is simply a case of standing behind the fish and pressing '5' to send it spinning up the grid and into the igloo. Get further into the game, though, and all manner of tricks are laid out to try and confuse you. It's not long before you're moving blocks out of the way, destroying sticky clam shells and working out a correct path to the igloo before the time limit runs out. And doing it well, too.

When new characters are introduced, their roles quickly become apparent. As previously mentioned (and the instructions cleverly hint at), each character has a special skill and using those skills, and knowing when to switch between characters, is the only way you'll conquer the later stages.

Puzzle Ice Push is a simple game, there's little doubt, but that's not really a criticism. What it is, also, is a respectful nod back to a time when games were all about the gameplay. Unable to rely on graphical cut-scenes, custom soundtracks, online play and 3D bitmapped levels, it leans on an enjoyable and entertaining game premise. And that's snow joke.