Monday, September 7, 2009

So it's like Q*Bert but with blocks of ice.












Okay, in actuality Frostbite from Activision for the Atari 2600 isn't exactly a Q*Bert clone, but on a first play through one can't help but make the comparison. You take on the role of Frostbite Bailey who is merely trying to survive in the Arctic by hoping on the floating blocks of ice...all the while trying to avoid snow geese, clams, Alaskan king crabs, a polar bear, and the dropping temperature.


Steve Cartwright designed the game along with some other Activision's classics like Barnstorming, Megamania, Seaquest and Plaque Attack.

By changing the color of the ice blocks a single block is added to Bailey's igloo. The point of the game is changing the color of the white blocks to blue, assuming you are not knocked into the freezing water by snow geese while you are hopping around. The Alaskan king crab will change an ice block's color back to white when he climbs up on it and even if you get your igloo completed you still have to hop back to the top of the screen and get inside it before the wandering polar bear takes a bite out of you. Also, if the temperature hits zero degrees you freeze to death.


Luckily to help avoid a harmful critter you can reverse the flow of the ice blocks by hitting the button on the joystick but unfortunately when you do it removes one block from your igloo. Assuming you could score 40,000 points you were rewarded the Arctic Architects badge...I wasn't able to obtain this score until the game was released in a PS2 collection.

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