Ice Cool Wizards
- Michael Harrowing
- 13 minutes ago
- 2 min read
The Ice Cool universe has expanded again in a third stand-alone instalment to the very popular penguin-flicking dexterity game. Ice Cool Wizards, designed by Brian Gomez and published by Brain Games, is smaller in box size and footprint than the original Ice Cool games; it retains the original component size and material quality tho', whilst adding a strategic twist to the original game play.
Stay cool
The original Ice Cool game brought together several quality ideas which made it stand out from the crowd and be a genuinely enjoyable tactile experience, and these elements have been successfully carried over into this game. In particular, the distinctive weighted, dome-bottomed, penguin figures – reminiscent of the soccer-team figures in Subbuteo (University Games) – are a delight to play with and master. Additionally, Brain Games have retained the super ‘box in a box’ design, where layers of the box slide out and fit together to create multiple 3D rooms. Basic game play is turn based and involves players flicking their penguins around the rooms, through doors or hopping walls, in order to reach check points to collect cards.
The icing on top
My favourite element of Wizards is the illustrations by Reinis Petersons. The whole thing is gorgeous; the entire board is fully illustrated top and bottom with a consistent and delightful depiction of a penguin wizarding school.
The addition of set collection cards is the real new aspect of Wizards that adds a strategic layer that Ice Cool did not have; although if we’re all being honest, the original set a low-to-non-existent strategy bar to hop. In doing so Wizards elevates the Ice Cool franchise from great gimmicks (terrain boxes and lovely penguins) to a genuine game which mixes skill luck and strategy.
Young penguin wizards must pass through doors to collect ‘lesson’ cards, which may then be used to either perform spells (ie: additional actions) or pay the requirements for any number of ‘exam’ cards they passed over. Exam cards score ‘magical points’ which determine the winner. Additionally, if your penguin manages to touch another, you may ‘exchange knowledge’ (ie: force a lesson card swap).
Frozen out
Disappointingly there is no way to add the boards or cards to the original Ice Cool game, which was the key appeal for Ice Cool 2.
Ice Cool Wizards is branded to sit in the developing universe of Ice Cool games, and it's a fun 30 minutes that can be played in a smaller space than the original. That said, it's not entirely clear where Wizards is meant to sit in this distinct franchise as the added light strategy seems to detract from the core gimmicks of the franchise rather than build on them, and may well hold children's attention less than the original. Ice Cool was a fun gimmick which would keep children occupied because of its dextrous pull, or rather its dextrous flick. In Wizards, the dextrous arena has been reduced and the strategy is implemented through luck-based card draws.
(Review by Michael Harrowing)
