Ice Cool

Ice Cool (2016), and the follow-up Ice Cool 2, is an action game where you flick plastic Penguins around cardboard school rooms to collect points and avoid the Catcher. Like a cross between Subbuteo and Cluedo, you slide, jump and barrel your penguin through each door to collect fish. It's simple fun that gets more skill-based as you learn how to jump walls and curl around corners.

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Each round starts by deciding who will be the Penguins and who will be the Catcher. You take turns to flick a penguin from the starting point. Each door you go through awards you a Fish card for points or special abilities, such as extra goes.

As play progresses, the Catcher takes turns to try and hit the Penguins to eliminate them from the game and to collect fish cards to add to their score. The round ends if a Penguin gets through each door and collects all the fish or the Catcher eliminates all the Penguins. The rounds continue until each player has taken a turn to be the Catcher, whereupon you total up your points to find out who is the winner.

The result is a game about how skilfully you can flick your Penguin. This, combined with the decision of what to spend your hard-earned cards on, makes for an approachable game with some real shout-out-loud moments.

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Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Ice Cool 2 years ago. It was re-examined by Thom Robertson and updated 12 days ago.