ICECOOL Review – Catnip for Kids and Penguin Physics

In ICECOOL, you are transformed into a naughty high school penguin. Where instead of staying in class to learn about fishing, waddling, or migrating, you’re playing hooky. The hall monitor got wind of your shenanigans and is hot on your trail, but will they be able to catch you?

Within ICECOOL, you’ll slide, spin, and roll your penguin token around the school collecting as many fish as you can.

Meanwhile, in each round, players take turns as the hall monitor, whose only goal is to enforce penguin law. Their goal is to get their token to bump into as many of the other players as possible – and take their ID cards. Then they are rewarded one fish per ID card from the principal.

Finally, after several rounds, the penguin with the most fish is declared the ice coolest.

You feel every ounce of this silly theme while playing ICECOOL. Where you can’t keep the grin off your face as four grown adults hover around a board the size of a miniature snooker table, cheering and commenting on every flick.

But it doesn’t take long for you to get dragged into the competition, and then you’ll also be doing your best impression of a professional snooker player. Joining your friends oohing and ahhing at the drama of each shot.

The Penguin Pieces Steal the Show

ICECOOL has won as many accolades as hill-billy has teeth. In fact, probably more. The most prestigious of these awards was the Kinderspiel des Jahres in 2017.

So why all the praise?

Well, it all comes down to the penguin piece, and how it consistently defies the laws of physics. Weighted down with a ball bearing at the bottom. These pieces act like those inflatable clown punching bags, where they swing back and forth taunting you to hit them.

Because of this, the penguins create an array of interesting mechanics, intended and unintended.

For example, hitting the side of the penguin causes it to move in a wide circle. While flicking the top of the penguin can cause it to jump. Then if you flick it in the middle, your penguin will slide in a straight line.

This range of movement makes the penguins exceedingly fun to play around with. Allowing you to bring your creativity and imagination into how you play ICECOOL. There’s always more than one way to move, and it feels like no move is impossible.

It’s this freedom of expression, and the feeling of pulling off the impossible with a cool shot, that keeps you coming back. You will discover new ways to exercise and improve your skills.

Training Montage

Like Men at Work and other dexterity games, ICECOOL is a game of skill. Those who practice can master the skill of flicking these flightless birds. Further, because ICECOOL is so fun and easy to set up. You’ll want to get better at a faster rate than you can get when playing in a group.

While you’ll have fun, the downside to this is the widening skill gap between you and your friends. With time, these games will become lopsided. Creating a fun experience for you, and a frustrating one for everyone else.

Not a unique problem to ICECOOL, but one to keep an eye on.

Therefore, to maximize your competitive fun with this game, you need to play with people at similar skill levels. This makes it ideal for siblings or a competitive family board game night.

While it’s still a game of hilarious penguin antiques when bringing it out once every month or two. You won’t get that full experience of penguin mastery.

For me, an improvement junkie by nature, not having that companionship, and being able to practice my penguin flicking made ICECOOL less interesting. Several games provide fun dexterity-type activities, but ICECOOL is one of the few board games that allow you to master a new skill.

Catnip for Kids

So that’s my thirty-four-year-old reviewer’s opinion on what is a fun family game that would be great for kids.

My almost-four-year-old son’s opinion on the other hand is something else entirely. In one word it’s: PENGUINS!!! Even though he doesn’t know the rules or care, he still enjoys sending the penguins around the school like an Olympic curler.

To sum up, ICECOOL is a toy similar to Hungry, Hungry Hippos where you can have fun not caring about good and bad penguin pushing. Regardless of the fish, or winning you can still enjoy the thrills and spills of these penguin pieces and how they interact. But then it’s also a game that allows for mastery and competition. So how you end up playing it will be entirely up to you.