Kombo's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.

What the Game's About
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is the game for the new 3D animated movie of the same name. For the game, you play as members of the herd of now extinct animals. The game is told through a bed time story of the time right before the birth of Manny and Ellie's daughter Peaches. You play as Sid, Manny (briefly), Scratt and the newest member to the gang, Buck the weasel. With a variety fun pack of gameplay styles Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.

What's Hot
When describing the gameplay in Ice Age, there is a cornucopia of gameplay styles at work in the same game. Ice Age is in direct opposition to other games that try and squeeze the death out of mini-game compilations and call it an entire game. To list off the styles of gameplay would be to list off a who's who of gaming greats. Crash Bandicoot, God of War, Marble Madness, Ratchet and Clank, Gradius, Star Fox, Donkey Kong and more of these recognizable names all have their influence on Ice Age. It is evident in the way that each level seemingly feels different than the last. Even when the gameplay style repeats itself it is properly spaced from the previous time that it doesn't give the game a sense that the developers ran out of ideas or time.

For the first couple of levels you play as Sid in the first couple of stages. You hop and jump in standard platforming fare until you get to the dinosaur world where you change main characters to the much more interesting and new character, Buck. He is more action oriented and can wield weapons and sling his whip with the best. The writing is genuinely good. You get the witty and staple humor from the members of the herd and the story clips along at a quick pace. The voice acting is good and features Ray Romano as Manny.

What's Not
The game is unfortunately short. It might last a handful of hours for a skilled player to blast right through. The missions are straightforward and don't offer a lot of challenge. The level design will take you from point A to point B without much exploration or discovery. Some levels it works fine but for the platforming levels you'll feel like you are on a linear path for most of the game.

As far as visuals go, compared to the movie, they aren't anywhere near what flick looks like. That doesn't mean it is bad, just not stunningly beautiful. The problems do start in the later levels when you notice things like framerate issues and glitches in the animation marring up a relatively decent visual display.

Final Word
Ice Age goes to show that you don't always need to toss in some throw away mini-games to string together a video game. It is just as easy to switch up gameplay styles but not goes as deep as a game that specializes in one area. The result of the combined styles makes Ice Age an enjoyable romp in prehistory with a silly cast of characters. While it might not turn hardcore heads, youngsters will get plenty of mileage out of Ice Age.