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Xbox 360 Game Review


Ice Age 3
Dawn of the Dinosaurs

 

Format: Xbox 360
Activision
RRP: £39.99
5 030917 067099
Age Restrictions: 7+
Available 26 June 2009


Sid, Manny, Diego, Scrat and the rest of the Ice Age gang are back in an all-new quest based on the upcoming film from Twentieth Century Fox. As the unlikely herd travels across the tundra and beyond, they stumble upon another world - a lush Dinosaur World teeming with jungles, mysterious plants, fierce dinosaurs, wild new adventures and several new friends. Taking on the role of more than six playable characters, players master their unique skills and abilities across more than 15 action-packed levels...

As a game for the young they don't come much better than Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. It's got everything fans of the movie could wish for - and then some... In fact it's almost a great game for adults too - although hardcore gamers will find it a little too easy to complete.

The story and game play just goes on and on. And just as you start to tire of the format it changes to look and feel very different. While most people will be able to finish this in a weekend, there is so much replay value that it hardly matters. There are also plenty of unlockable items. Simply trade the fruit you collect throughout the game at one of the many stores dotted around the game to increase your ammo and health, or you can chose to unlock minigames as well as concept art, music from the game, vocal tracks from the game and movie clips.

Throughout the game you play various characters. You start as Sid, then move onto Scrat and finally you get to play as Buck. However, every couple of levels you switch back and forth, but as a rule the first half of the game sees you playing as Sid, while the second half has you mainly play as Buck. The Scrat levels are thrown in here and there and you also get brief levels as other characters including Manny and Diego.

The majority of levels are your average platform fare, but there's enough variety to keep you playing - and the amusing link segments (with Sid retelling the story to a group of youngsters) helps to bind everything together. Mind you, there are a couple of times where the action shifts for no good reason to something different - which is a little odd. There is also one level where if you like to flip your up and down controls it doesn't work (it's the level where you have to shoot dinosaurs, with a large plant which fires sap, so that they don't wake up the baby dinosaurs). But otherwise there are no notable bugs in this game.

There's the odd boss to deal with (not a problem once you find the exploding mushroom canon) and the whole thing ends with an interesting boss level which is great because for once it's almost impossible for the boss to kill you. Instead of having to dodge and shoot at the final boss, you have to do a bit of running around and use your brain a little (although to be honest it's not overly hard to work out what you need to do).

Fans of the movie will absolutely love this well crafted game.

8

Darren Rea

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