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Fire 'n Ice

Fire 'n Ice
Fire 'n Ice
North American cover art
Developer(s) Tecmo
Publisher(s) Tecmo
Composer(s) Ryuichi Nitta
Platform(s) NES, ZX Spectrum, Amiga
Release
  • JP: January 24, 1992
  • NA: March 11, 1993
  • EU: March 18, 1993
Genre(s) Puzzle game
Mode(s) Single-player

Fire 'n Ice is a puzzle game released by Tecmo for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the prequel to Solomon's Key, and is known as Solomon's Key 2 in Europe and Solomon no Kagi 2: Coolmintou Kyuushutsu Sakusen (Solomon's Key 2: Coolmint Rescue Mission) in Japan. The aim of the game involves players extinguishing all fires in a level in order to proceed. They do this by creating and melting ice or kicking ice onto the fires. This game also has a level editor (which may expose some bugs that substantially affect the game mechanics), but only the Japanese version permits saving the levels one creates. An unofficial conversion for Russian ZX Spectrum clones was made in 2003. It uses the plot and levels from the original game, but with remade graphics that adhere to platform limitations and completely new music. In 2015, another unofficial conversion was released, for the Commodore Amiga.

In this game, players control Dana. The goal of each stage is to put out all the fires. The fires are extinguished by either kicking an ice block into the flame, or dropping one from above. Dana's moveset includes the abilities to walk left and right across level ground. He can also climb on top of a solid block to his left or right, provided it is only one block tall and there is nothing on top of it. Dana can also push blocks of ice, which will then slide until they fall or hit a wall. Dana's most important ability is his ice magic. He can create and destroy blocks of ice. As the gameplay is grid-based, Dana's ice magic affects the squares beneath him and to the left and right, similar to Lode Runner. If the ice block is placed horizontally adjacent to a wall, pipe, jar, or another ice block, it will freeze to the adjacent surface.

There are also other elements that are introduced as the player progresses, including pipes (which Dana can travel through) and jars. Dana can walk across normal jars, but once a jar comes in contact with a flame, it begins to burn. Dana cannot walk across the top of burning jars, and any ice that is created in, or enters the square above a burning jar is destroyed. As players progress, the puzzles get more complicated and difficult. The simple gameplay must be used in new ways by players who wish to complete the game.

The following is taken from the video game's instruction booklet:


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