When comparing The Enchanted Tower vs Ice Cool, the Slant community recommends Ice Cool for most people. In the question“What are the best board games for kids?” Ice Cool is ranked 1st while The Enchanted Tower is ranked 2nd. The most important reason people chose Ice Cool is:
The game can lead to some awesome moments because of the little penguins. Depending on where you hit the penguin, it will move differently. For example, if you flick the head of it, it will make the penguin jump. This can lead to some crazy trick-shots where someone manages to jump over walls. You can also flick them on the side, which will make the penguin spin. By doing this you could spin through multiple rooms and gather a lot of points or catch several penguins on the same turn.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Wonderful components
The components of The Enchanted Tower are top-notch in terms of quality, creativity, and uniqueness. Moreover, the art looks magnificent – it’s colorful and highly detailed.
The game is played on many levels on the game’s box - under the colorful gameboard there is not only storage for the components, but also sixteen slots in which the sorcerer hides the key that unlocks the enchanted tower. There’s also a little circular section that must be placed on the corner of the box with eight extra steps on which the wizard must start the game. The tower itself is an actual tower in the corner of the gameboard that has the princess figure placed in the middle.
The player pieces (the wizard and Robin) are minimalistic figures that have magnets on the bottom, which are used to grab the key when you step over the correct tile. After you’ve received the key, you can place it in one of the six locks on the enchanted tower to see if the lock triggers the spring-loaded mechanism in the tower that causes the princess to jump out.
Pro Can be played in teams
If you have more than two people wanting to play, then you can split up in two teams where one player is the wizard and the others play Robin. This is especially good if you’re playing with younger players and want to team up to help them learn the game.
Pro Easy to learn
The basics of The Enchanted Tower can be understood very quickly even by the youngest players. One player takes on the role of the sorcerer who hides the key to the princess’ tower under one of the 16 spaces on the gameboard. The other player is Robin who must try to find the key. Players take turns rolling dice, one die indicates who moves first, whereas the other one shows how many steps can be taken.
Once the key has been found, the player who found it can try to place it in one of the six locks on the princess’ tower. If it works, then the princess will pop out and the player who did it wins. If the tower doesn’t unlock, then the game is reset, and the sorcerer hides the key again.
Pro Immersive
The game can be very engaging, and it also has a light roleplay element. Gameplay-wise there are some intense moments, for example, when the wizard sees Robin near the location of the key, or when the Robin player sees the wizard catching up.
The game has a nice little story in the official rulebook, which can help with the immersion. Also, sometimes playing the wizard leads to people changing their voice and doing evil laughs, which can be great fun for everyone around.
Pro Often leads to memorable moments
The game can lead to some awesome moments because of the little penguins. Depending on where you hit the penguin, it will move differently. For example, if you flick the head of it, it will make the penguin jump. This can lead to some crazy trick-shots where someone manages to jump over walls. You can also flick them on the side, which will make the penguin spin. By doing this you could spin through multiple rooms and gather a lot of points or catch several penguins on the same turn.
Pro Easy to set up
The gameboard of Ice Cool is big, but it’s quite simple to set up. The playing surface consists of five boxes that all fit in the game’s box. You connect them in the correct places, all of which are marked with colored dots on the edges of the boxes. After that you take the little beige colored fish tokens and place them in the marked spots to keep the gameboard in place, and you’re good to go.
Pro Easy to learn
Ice Cool is very straightforward, it all revolves around flicking little penguin pawns. Doorways will have fish pegs attached to them, when you flick a penguin through it, then you’ll receive the fish and get to draw a fish card that gives you victory points. Each round one player will be the hall monitor who will try to catch other penguins and gather their student ID’s by hitting them instead of gathering fish.
The round ends either when the hall monitor has gathered all ID’s or when someone has gathered all three fish tokens. The game ends when everyone has been the hall monitor. The player with the most points on their fish cards wins.
Pro Beautiful design
Aesthetically Ice Cool looks very impressive. The playing surface is a 3D school consisting of five different rooms that feature many little details all over the walls – maps, fish, basketball hoops, etc. Everything has a blue, cold-looking color scheme, which kind of mimics an igloo.
The cards also have some great artwork on them. The ID’s are two-sided for boys and girls. Each colored penguin has a different look and style. The fish cards depict, you guessed it, fish. The bigger the point value, the bigger the meal.
Pro High quality components
The components of Ice Cool are very interesting and well-made. The game’s playing surface is made of five 3D boxes that all fit in the game’s box. The player tokens are four penguins made of hard plastic that are weighted in the base so that they keep wobbling when hit. Throughout the game players gather fish tokens, which are nice and small wooden pieces similar to pegs. There are also some cards in the game – ID cards and fish cards, which are all made of durable cardstock.
Cons
Con The helpless princess is rescued by the male hero? Yawn
Con Team gameplay can be fiddly
In a game where there are more than two players, everyone other than the wizard player takes turns controlling Robin, which could lead to quarterbacking, downtime, and younger children losing interest.
Con Has a learning curve
Ice Cool is quite skill-based and requires practice on flicking the penguin pawns to get them to go where you want to. The rulebook has some tips, but the techniques can only be learned by playing the game. A new player won’t do well against a player who has already played a bit.
Con Luck-based scoring
Catching penguins and gathering fish to get victory points in Ice Cool requires skill, but the values on the fish cards you get range from 1 to 3, which means that even if you’re good at the game, you can lose because of pure chance. Someone could potentially score the same amount out of one card as you with three cards.
Con Only one layout
The gameboard can only be arranged in one way, so the game can get quite repetitive in this aspect.