Frostage

If there’s one thing princesses are good at in stories, it’s getting kidnapped all the time from the most secure fortresses in their kingdom. Thankfully, there’s always someone brave enough to go after them, even if they have to face a whole enemy faction by themselves. Starting with Mario back in the day, all the way to modern games that use the same plot, developers can still put a nice spin on the subject.

Frostage is a 2D puzzle-platformer in which you play as a brave prince going to save his beloved from danger, using his ice powers to defeat or slow down the enemies that try to stop him. The gameplay mechanics are nothing out of the ordinary, but they can be fun and challenging enough to keep you busy. However, they can also be very slow and annoying sometimes, depending on the level.

The prince is not without powers, since he is able to use the mighty ice in order to make his way across a variety of dangerous levels. On the other hand, he can only use them a couple of times per level, because too much ice can cause the prince himself to freeze over. Thus, it’s important to carefully plan your moves in order to make it out alive.

The exit from most levels require a key in order to be opened, and the keys are usually hidden somewhere throughout the stage. Sometimes there are enemies that hold them, and since you cannot kill them directly, you have to come up with a way to use the environment to your advantage, such as a carnivorous plant to eat the key-carrying enemy.

Lastly, the graphics are quite colorful and enjoyable, but also very repetitive and unimpressive in most regards. The animations are almost non-existent, which kind of ruins the mood when the characters are basically stiff images moving from side-to-side. The music gets annoying after a while as well, but at least that can be disabled from the settings menu.

All things considered, Frostage could have achieved a lot more with the ideas at its disposal, but the result is a game with almost no personality and not much of a challenge. Even so, the mechanics can be pretty fun for a few minutes, and the puzzles are quite decent as well.