Ice AgeIf you like Chillingo’s Toki Tori, probably the best platform game for the iPhone, or are a fan of the  Ice Age movies, then their new Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs is not only a must-have app, but a GET IT NOW! app.  Originally introduced at $4.99 (and what I paid for the game), it is a downright steal right now at $0.99 sale price.  The game comes with a very Toki Tori feel to it, but you are using Scrat, the saber-toothed squirrel from the movie, to collect acorns.  You do this by climbing around, pushing and moving things, jumping, and so forth.  As the game progresses, you are introduced to new things you can do with helpful little signs.

The game comes with four different environments to explore.  Each area has nine different “chapters” to play.  This give you 36 different levels to explore.  It may not sound like much, but doing all the right things at all the right times in order to collect all the acorns on a level is not always an easy task.  It will take you hours to get though the game.  One thing that helps, which I didn’t discover early enough, is the ability to do a two-fingered pan to move around and see more of the levels and obstacles than what fit on the screen in regular resolution.  If I could suggest one thing to the developers (besides more levels), it would be a pinch/zoom feature that seems oddly lacking.

Overall, the graphics are excellent, the game-play both casual and oddly rewarding, and I give the game a big thumbs up.  It makes my my must-have list at this $0.99 price point.  You can do a whole lot worse.