Fire 'n Ice

All of this just works. ― Todd Howard

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Fire 'n ice
"Highly addictive indeed!"
Protagonist(s): Dana Genre(s): Puzzle Platform(s): NES Release Date: January 24, 1992 Developer(s): Tecmo Publisher(s): Tecmo Country: Japan Series: Solomon's Key Predecessor: Solomon's Key

Fire 'n Ice is a puzzle game made by Tecmo released in 1992 for the nes, it is also a prequel to Solomon's Key.

Plot

Taken from the game's instruction booklet:

This is a story from long ago, when the powerful wizard Dana was just a beginner. In the sea to the far north, there was a small island made of ice. This island was called "Coolmint Island". On this beautiful little island of ice, there were many Winter Fairies all living in peace.

But one day...

The wicked wizard Druidle appeared, and let flames loose on Coolmint Island! The flames scattered all over the island, and little by little, they began to melt the ice. The little island was in terrible danger!! The Winter Fairies were determined to do something to save their island, but they were not strong enough to face the flames by themselves. The Queen of the Fairies knew about the danger the Winter Fairies were facing, so she called forth a wizard to fight against the flames let loose by Druidle.

The one chosen by the Queen of the Fairies to defend the island was Dana. This was a tremendous surprise to everybody. Dana was still just an apprentice and had very little magic power of his own. But the Queen knew that Dana had intelligence and possessed more courage than anyone else. Then the Queen gave Dana some special magic that could be used to put out the wicked flames.

"And what happened after that, Grandmother?"

"Well... that's where Dana's adventure begins."

Why it rocks!

1. Great graphics for a NES game, with the game looking almost like a 16 bits game. It is also very colorful and detailled, and is overall one of the best looking NES game ever made.
2. Great soundtrack that is very catchy, and is a huge improvement over the first game.
3. Pretty cute world map.
4. You can do the worlds and sub levels in any order, which was pretty rare for the time.
5. If you can't solve or get stuck in a level you can pause, which will let you quit or reset.
6. The puzzle start pretty easy but overtime ramp up in difficulty as new elements and enemies are introduced.
7. It took the extra effort and flesh out a extremely simple premise.
8. The overworld makes everything seem more open and completable.
9. The boss stages feature some neat sprites and increased mental challenge.
10. The fire story chat makes the story seem more epic.

Bad Qualities

1. Despite the added bells and whistles, its very much still a simple puzzle game at it's core.
2. The novelty wears off real fast when you realize you still have to play the same kind of level 200 times.
3. By the fourth and fifth world you'll be scratching your head for 20 to 30 minutes on one level trying to figure it out.
4. Solving the puzzles is the only difficulty, but it's kind of a trap sometimes.

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