Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage is Out Now for iOS! Our First Look at this Rovio Stars Game

Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage — the first game from Rovio’s publishing initiative, Rovio Stars — is now out for iOS! The launch of Icebreaker’s, which is based of the popular Flash game, has been highly anticipated since late last year.

The gameplay is pretty simple. Your goal is to get all of the trapped and stranded Vikings back into their boat. To do so, you must cut through chunks of ice and let physics take over. Perhaps the most important part of the gameplay is the mini cutscenes (not really “important”, but pretty hilarious!)

General Info

• The initial release features 95 action-packed levels in three different lands! Most levels are clear and chronological. Occasionally you have a choice in which path to take. And sometimes….
• You can chose a side quest! These are usually three or four levels long and end in a fantastically humorous finale. Worth the time, I believe.
• Special god powers to speed through tricky levels! These are in-app purchases, but note that, like in Angry Birds, all objectives can be completed without these powers. So purchasing them is completely optional.
• Hidden secrets! We can’t say any more, otherwise they would be neither hidden nor secrets.
• Epic final bosses, including the gigantic Mountain Troll and his legendary indigestion!

Objectives

In any given level, there are multiple objectives:

• Primary Objective: You absolutely must rescue all the stranded Vikings. If any Vikings die in the water or are killed by some other means, you fail the level and must try again. Completing this objective is sufficient to pass the level and move onward.
• Coin Objective: There are either coins and/or treasure chests scattered throughout the level. Coins are collected by touching them with a Viking, while the chest must make its way into a boat. A chest contains 3 coins, and the coin objective would be to collect all coins in a single try while also completing the primary objective above. You can see the number of coins you’ve obtained and the number possible on the Level Selection screen.
• Par Objective: The “Par” objective is added a little later in the storyline, but applies retroactive to all levels. Once available, Cutting Master will determine an adequate number of “cuts”, and your goal is to complete the primary objective is at most “par” cuts. In most levels, simply ignoring the treasure chest is the biggest key to earning par. You can see if you’ve made par by noting the red flag on the Level Selection screen.
• Goat Objective: In Trollmarsh, you are introduced to a shepherd whose goats are suck on or in the ice with the Vikings. (How on earth did this happen?! Silly goats.) If a goat falls into the Viking boat, the hammer-wielding Viking gets scared and whacks the goat. If a Viking falls into the shepherd’s boat, the shepherd whacks him! So, yeah, get them into the right boat. Unfortunately, I don’t see any indicator on the Level Selection screen for this objective.
• Additional Side Objectives: These are similar to the “goat” objective, but vary by context. They are occasionally necessary to move on to the next level or open a side quest.

Our Coverage

We have decided to cover Icebreaker right here on AngryBirdsNest.com. We seriously considered covering it on RocketPond.com; however, Rovio Stars games are part of the Rovio ecosystem, so it makes sense to cover them right here. Icebreakers is a fun game and challenging enough to deserve walkthroughs.

Suggestions, Bugs, and Miscellany

• One initial observation is that the camera does not pan with action. In some levels, it would be very convenient if this were to happen, but there are a few levels where timing of slices are very key, and therefore panning may be counter-productive. Maybe panning unless you are holding a cut?
• Speech bubbles galore! The game is known for its humorous cutscenes, but they are pretty lengthy to tap through.
• Late introductions to God Powers. I mean, Gravity isn’t introduced until Level 3 of Under Dwell…. That’s far far too late. At this point, the IAP is nearly useless since you’ve competed over half the game already.

Gallery