Ice Cream Surfer – Review

Ice Cream Surfer is the brand new side-scrolling shooter from Spanish game studio Delores Entertainment. A quaint, fun little shooter that has its roots firmly planted in nostalgia. From the gameplay to the graphics everything about Ice Cream Surfer screams 8-bit side-scrolling shooter. Whilst the ice cream based heroes remind you so much of your favourite treats from the ice cream man so much that before I sat down to write this review I went and bought a cider lolly.
Story
There isn’t much of a story to Ice Cream Surfer more of a set up really. Even the games Steam page description admits as such:
The evil Broccoli, irritated by the fact that kids hate vegetables and love ice creams, has created an army of vegetables to destroy the flavour galaxy. Only the Ice Cream Surfer with the help of his 4 super tasty friends can prevent that.
Straight to the action, we aren’t here to tell stories, but for button-mashing. Are you ready to shoot Ice Cream balls filled with pure cooling energy?
Even the games story doesn’t make sense as the premise is that the evil broccoli as created an army of vegetables yet throughout the levels you will shoot, polar bears riding ice lollies, sushi, noodles and more.

Gameplay
The mechanics in Ice Cream Surfer are the simplest you will ever find in a game.  Scrolling left to right you shoot down all manner of food-related enemies whilst avoiding the bullets until you reach the boss.
The game consisting of 6 levels is a short affair and can be completed on it’s hardest difficulty in around 30 mins.
With a choice of 5 heroes, each with their own style of shooting and power-ups adds a bit of variety to the game but offers no real playability. Each hero rides their own ice cream so you have the choice of a kid on an ice cream cone, a Yeti riding a funny foot lolly, an ice cream sandwich wearing Superman, An anime teen girl on a Twister lolly and a Ninja riding a double stick ice pop.
Two player couch co-op is a much-needed addition to the game, although there is no difficulty increase so, in fact, it makes the game easier.
A sure sign of the size of this game is its trophy list. Consisting of a total of 14 trophies with the highest of which is a silver should tell you all you need to know about the length and depth of Ice Cream Surfer.

Graphics
The graphics in Ice Cream surfer are reminiscent of the 8-bit era, whilst been colourful and cheerful they are extremley nostalgic. To the point that I swear the ice lolly riding polar bears are from James Pond 2: Codename Robocod.
Overall
Ice Cream Surfer is a nostalgic side-scrolling shooter and at £1.99 is incredibly well priced. It is a fun game that whilst without any real substance and extremley short is pretty much without flaw.
It sets out to do what it does and does it well. I can’t recommend this game for serious gamers but for a child around 6 or 7 years old who is just getting into the gaming then this is a perfect introduction.
It is colourful, fun, short and simple to play.  If you have younglings it is a perfect way to share your hobby with them and welcome them into the world of gaming. Also, couch co-op means you can pick up a pad and enjoy some good old-fashioned, innocent parent and child gaming time.
Overal Score – 5/10
 
 

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