Nitrome's latest teeny-weeny (literally, at just 50x50 pixels!) game is the ice-blasting action title Ice Beak, where you control a frost-spewing bird able to freeze its enemies in their tracks. Fly with the [arrow] or [WASD] keys, and fire with the [spacebar]. The bar at the bottom-left displays how much ice-shooting energy you have left, and since you're both defenseless and unable to trigger switches without it, you don't want to be too frivolous with your freezing. The blue beams will both act as checkpoints on a level and recharge you, but they're not always placed in a way that makes flying back and forth between them an option if you need to charge up. So that's where a little bit of strategy comes in, since enemies that have been frozen will immediately drop to the ground, also freezing and taking out any baddies below them. Screen too shrimpy? Just click the play area and the bottom-left icon to expand it until it suits you.
Ice Beak is a simple little game on the surface, but the bit of thought it requires you to put into using your frosty abilities sparingly also makes it a clever one. The downside is that it's also sort of slow to start and challenge. It isn't until the third level or so that the game really ups the ante with respawning enemies, intimidating gauntlets of danger, and switches that need to be triggered in creative ways. Considering the game's one-hit KO policy, being booted all the way back to your last checkpoint in some of the bigger, more densely packed levels is sort of a bitter pill to swallow if you managed to just flit by on the skin of your beak. As cute and unassuming as it may seem, Ice Beak will need an eagle-eye (if playing in micro-vision), a steady hand, and fast reflexes to make it through unscathed, but is a clever, challenging little game that makes a great addition to Nitrome's stable of small titles.
Inventory at moment:
An orange
A small, yellow...horn? Vuvuzela? I have no idea.
Status at moment:
Stuck.
Updated inventory:
Found and used door handle.
Found and used what looked like a snowman body.
Used orange.
Got green marble.
Still have vuvuzela-horn-thing.
Found clue for lock on bottom shelf door:
Note the size of the e's on the blue scroll.
Status:
Not quite as stuck anymore.
Uh. This game doesn't have an inventory.
And it's possible to enlarge the game. Click off-screen and then select the four arrows pointing out option.
And if you close the tab, you're sent back to the beginning of the game. Annoying because I'd beaten level 8 and then had to restart.
Very fun. I love that they don't punish you unnecessarily—if a fireball grazes your tailfeather, it's OK.
I have no idea how to
inflict any damage on the level 10 boss. I've clogged up all four of his spouts at the same time, even tried to push him into the lava floor/ceiling, to no avail.
Thoughts?
Level 10 boss is too hard for me. Strafe him top to bottom to freeze 3 jets, rush to the remaining jet and blast all your remaining frost at it. I took off half his points doing this once, but I lost patience after a few dozen attempts. Best Nitrome game so far, though.
To hurt the boss you simply need to hit him after all his spots are frozen, so spam him when you freeze the last spout, then recharge.
Sigh, that's what I tried to do, thought I'd been successful doing. I'll try again since I'm a dang COMPLETIONIST.
Level 9, I'm stuck. I'm lower down in the level, and have to move a fire gate but can't actually shoot the jets to get it to move. Help?
Update