Blue Ice - Psygnosis

                  A PC Graphic Experience
                  Reviewed by Jenny Perry

You may have noticed I haven't been too specific on what sort of
experience this is - well it's one for the seriously weird. You
could imagine Dylan, the rabbit from the Magic Roundabout,
excitedly failing to get to grips with this. Having said all that,
I reveled in delighted exasperation while playing it.

This is a non-animated graphic game. You must help the 12 year old
newly-crowned King Edward disentangle himself and his 3 staff from
the suffocating laws of the land. They are in a large house in the
middle of nowhere - you begin just outside the building and your
first task is to enter the frozen door. If I say this involves
taking the sun from the sky to melt the lock ( and later, the moon
to cut leaves ) you will begin to get a rough idea of the sort of
obscure wonders you will face in the course of the adventure.

You have to solve 5 basic puzzles, one of which is to produce the
King's breakfast. I got held up for a long time because I didn't
realise what I thought was a dirty mark was in fact a loaf of
bread.  Whoops!  You can solve the puzzles in any order, and must
thoroughly examine the rooms in order to progress as you can enter
unexpected places, such as inside someone's mouth. You must look
at Edward in each location too, as this gives you access to other
rooms. The 3 members of staff are quite surreal - but you still
get a glow of satisfaction when you make their dreams come true.

During the game you will find 6 pieces of paper with strange
looking letters on them - which of course you must burn in the
fireplace ?! When you have completed the 5 tasks you can enter a
star at the top of the chimney - and here's where my troubles
really started. All your bits of paper are nicely put together in
the star location, even though the letters make no sense. Also,
when you return to the house there are what I can only describe as
black holes in some of the walls. You can enter these, only to
find 1/2 a screen full of the sort of gobbledygook you get when
the PC crashes, with a key ( kindly marked "key" ) in the bottom
half of the screen. You can type in something on the key, but
unsurprisingly nothing I try makes any sense.

There's also a room full of TVs with backward numbers written on
them, which you're supposed to press in order ( I'm stuck here too
). No problem, I thought, and phoned Psygnosis for help. They
quickly sent a solution - but the fiendish programmer obviously
hadn't told Psygnosis the full extent of the game ; all they know
is how to solve the 5 tasks. If anyone, especially the writer, is
out there please, PLEASE, PLEASE come to my aid as I would love to
finish this and see what happens in the end.








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