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  • Christmas.

  • The time of year that always seems to have me digging up somewhat obscure 8-bit computer

  • games like Icicle Works, developed by Mr. Doug Turner and distributed by Statesoft in

  • the UK in 1985.

  • Or at least this ZX Spectrum cassette tape release was.

  • Commodore distributed it for the Plus/4, 64, and 128 machines in the US, where it had this

  • magnificent superhero cover art.

  • Quite the contrast to this goofy-looking bloke on the Spectrum release.

  • Regardless of the version though, there is a distinct lack of screenshots on the packaging,

  • or any description at all,

  • making it a mystery to the consumer as to what the game looks like

  • or even what the genre is!

  • How helpful.

  • The insert inside the case describes Icicle Works as an arcade adventure, which could

  • mean literally anything when it comes to 8-bit computer games.

  • And then there’s the description of the gameplay and hehe, yeah apparently it features

  • exploding polar bears and penguins that kill you on contact.

  • I’m sure this text is making it sound more violent than it actually is, but man, this

  • kind of vague absurdity with ‘80s games is one reason

  • I will always love collecting them.

  • Plop in the tape to start the loading process, and youre greeted with the usual kind of

  • Spectrum light show and loading screen imagery slowly drawing itself line by line.

  • Some time later you get a menu screen letting you change your preferred control method from

  • among the usual suspects, and well, here we are!

  • Icicle Works!

  • It’s... not what I was expecting.

  • In fact I wasn’t sure if this was even the right game initially.

  • Y'see, when I was looking for Christmas games to cover this year, I chose Icicle Works

  • because I saw some screenshots of a little guy in a Santa hat wandering through snow

  • that looked cute.

  • But this is, uh.

  • Well it’s not quite that.

  • Hrm.

  • Screw it, let’s hop on over to the Commodore 64 version, and instantly this is way better!

  • *way betterness ensues, with chiptune music*

  • Bouncy SID chip music, animated menu graphics, and just an overall

  • more pleasing presentation all-around.

  • Ahhh, this is what I was hoping for.

  • My bad for not looking up how different the Spectrum version was before I bought it, I

  • guess. I probably should've expected that being that the Speccy is what it is, but yeah

  • Anyway, Icicle Works!

  • Turns out it’s a Boulderdash clone, more or less.

  • But this one is not so linear in the way you progress through it.

  • In Icicle Works, you wander around the North Pole collecting presents that have been mysteriously

  • scattered throughout the snowy landscape.

  • And for some reason, that landscape includes tons of deadly falling rocks.

  • Anyway, each one of the packages you find contains a piece of one of Santa’s toys,

  • and your goal is to collect enough of the pieces to complete the toy in each level

  • because Santa sucks and he can't do it himself!

  • Once youve done that, you can collect more of them for bonus points, or finish the level

  • by using one of several exit doors.

  • These doors will bring you to various levels depending on which one you pick, so you aren’t

  • necessarily following a strict linear path through the game.

  • Instead you can hop around from level to level in the order of your choosing, which helps

  • the replayability factor.

  • However, you can’t just lollygag your way through them, since each level has a strict

  • timer that is constantly counting down to your impending death.

  • And naturally, there are hazards that will instantly kill you for daring to come close

  • to them, like the previously mentioned exploding polar bears and deadly penguins.

  • But like Boulderdash, your most frequent foes are the falling boulders, or snowballs in

  • this particular case.

  • Thankfully this is one Boulderdash-like that is somewhat forgiving with the physics,

  • giving you a split second to maneuver out of the way of a boulder

  • instead of it smashing you without warning every time.

  • Icicle Works also includes something a little more interesting in the form of icy water.

  • Once this is let loose, itll flow throughout the level and gradually limit where you can

  • walk since you can’t step over it.

  • So yeah, as if the stingy timer and Santa’s potential wrath wasn’t enough pressure,

  • you also have to worry about being trapped by rapidly-moving bodies of water.

  • Mix this in with all the physics puzzles and fast-moving evil penguins and such, and

  • Icicle Works becomes a tricky game indeed.

  • Compounded further by the way that the screen moves around,

  • it can be little tricky going from edge to edge for each part of the level.

  • Sometimes it gets a little out of hand. But yeah,

  • even though there are only 13 total maps, you will be hard-pressed to get through them

  • in one go since you have so few lives to start out with, and you have to restart the whole

  • game once you run out of them.

  • Eerghghgh.

  • Not that I recommend using a trainer, but I totally used a trainer to get this footage

  • because ain’t nobody got time for that!

  • I mean it though, I didn’t have the time, because Icicle Works gives you practically

  • none to icicle work with.

  • And so that’s the game: an experience of dashing and boulders, except the boulders aren’t

  • boulders and the dashing is cut short by polar bears and penguins filled with TNT.

  • Straightforward stuff this Icicle Works, and it's not that bad of a game really for 1985,

  • if youre into this type of thing.

  • However, I’m left with one big question though: why is Icicle Works

  • called

  • Icicle Works?

  • There are no icicles to speak of throughout the game, unless you count small elements of the user interface.

  • So what is Icicle Works! Is it the name of Santa’s compound?

  • Is it the name of the company you work for, who’s presumably been hired to collect his

  • lost toy fragments?

  • Heck this was 1985, maybe it inspired by the Liverpool-based band The Icicle Works.

  • They had some hits at the time, so maybe they were just on the mind and it just

  • sounded like a good name for a Christmas game.

  • Or maybe it was based on 1960 short story, "The Day the Icicle Works Closed,”

  • by Frederick Pohl?

  • I think that’s where the band got their name too, but whatever

  • if that was the case, I’d expect this game to be about the economic collapse of

  • the world of Altair Nine.

  • Dang, now I wish it was, that’s a far more fascinating theme than yet another Christmas

  • cash-in that relies on the ineptitude of Santa ClausNorth Pole operations.

  • Oh well, Icicle Works!

  • It’s icy and it works, so that’s good enough for the holidays, I guess.

  • *jazzy musical interlude*

  • And if you enjoyed this icicle-y work of LGR then perhaps you would

  • like to see some of my others.

  • There are other Christmas game reviews this month and every December, as well as plenty

  • of other things every Monday and Friday throughout the year.

  • And as always, thank you very much for watching!

Christmas.

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