Publisher: Alawar Entertainment
Developer: Alawar Melesta
Requirements: Windows Vista/XP/2000/ME/98; 700 MHz CPU; 1 GB RAM; DirectX 8.0 or later; 100 MB hard-drive space
Genre: Casual / Time Management
Release Date: Available Now

Scarlett has returned again for another Farm Frenzy adventure. This time, she leaves sunshine and warm temperatures behind and travels to the North Pole to check out a farm she has purchased through a newspaper ad. You’ll breed and care for penguins, walruses and woolly mammoths, manufacture products, and eventually meet a special guest.

Ice Age returns to the street grid that started with Farm Frenzy 2, offering you a total of 90 levels of excitement. Instead of cute names such as “Powder Street 1,” the levels are simply numbered. The game is not strictly linear; sometimes you have a choice of two or more levels to play next. For example, after Level 10 you can play either Level 63 or Level 11, but there are some levels you can’t play until you unlock certain upgrades.

Each level has one to four goals that you have to meet. You earn stars for each level you complete, with bonuses if you complete the level within a specific time limit. Sometimes the time limit for the bonus can be very tight; some levels are frustrating because, even if you do everything perfectly, you can still miss the bonus by just a second or two. The stars you earn can be used to buy upgrades at the shop. These upgrades take the form of new buildings that you’ll need for the level ahead, or an improved version of a building you already own that’s able to process more products at once. There are also trophies you can earn for achieving specific goals, such as selling 100 bears or collecting 300 products.

Gameplay is almost identical to the other games in the series. I’m going to use Level 4 as an example. You start with $300 and one penguin, and you are required to collect six powdered eggs, four cookies and two cakes. Buy another penguin so you can collect eggs faster. Send the eggs to the egg powder plant to turn them into powdered eggs. Pick up the bags of powdered eggs and send them to the bakery to turn them into cookies. Buy two bags of flour; your helicopter goes to the city and brings them back. Send the flour and cookies to the bakery to turn them into cakes. If you start to run out of space in your warehouse, you can sell some of the products; each product in the chain is worth more than the one before it. For eggs-ample (sorry, couldn’t resist), an egg is worth $10, powdered egg $50, cookie $100, and a cake $200.

Ice Age uses the same graphics engine as Farm Frenzy 3, dropping the old 2D graphics style for a 3D look with shadows and highlights. This means that the engine also has the same flaw. The improved graphics slow down rendering on some machines, especially when items are falling from the sky. This is especially noticeable on older PCs; the closer you are to the minimum requirements, the more obvious it is.

If you like casual games, and if you’re a fan of the previous games in this series, this is one that you shouldn’t miss. While most levels take about five to 10 minutes each, there are 90 of them, and you’re not going to get all of them right on the first try. You should get about 15 to 20 hours of fun from each playthrough. Farm Frenzy 3: Ice Age sells for $9.95, and it’s still a lot of fun, but this is the seventh game in the series. For me, the novelty is starting to wear thin, but your mileage may vary.

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