Big K


Ice Hunter

Publisher: Anirog
Machine: Commodore 64

 
Published in Big K #7

Ice Hunter

The good thing about being an Eskimo, it would seem, is that, um, there isn't a good thing about being an Eskimo. The bad thing, on the other hand, is that it's cold enough to encourage a pretty hefty trade in spare parts for brass monkeys.

The cover depicts a passably dashing Eskimo about to sink a harpoon into the back of a cross-eyed walrus. One or the other of these is 'Thorak, Prince of Ice'. Probably the walrus.

Once you get past all the garbage they've covered the package with, you're left with that old standby the ladders and platforms game. Not only that, the elegant 'Prince of Ice' from the cover materialises on the screen with as much dash as a dead sheep and with a conk like an anteater. Don't get me wrong, it's quite a fun game. It's just that the graphics are a little, shall we say, unimaginative and the sound does little more than belch occasionally.

Anyway, instead of ladders there's icicles to slide up (??) and down between shelves of ice and thin patches of ice, which can only be trodden on once, dotted about the place. The idea is to collect blocks of ice, dropping them through the levels to the river below, while avoiding dragons (on the polar icecap?), birds and sea-lions.

These wee beasties can be brained with ice blocks dropped from above or rendered harmless for a while by eating pills that appear from time to time. Once a few blocks have been dumped in the river, you can hop onto them and float away, not to an island paradise but to Thorak's igloo, and collect bonus points. And that, folks, is all there is to it.