Guiding the Hatchling to the Hoard
Dragon Snack: From Ice to Ember is a cute puzzle game where players are tasked with guiding a dragon from the start of a level, to an egg awaiting it at the end. This is done by rotating and shifting the various pathways of the level until the dragon has an uninterrupted path to its goal. There are also coins placed on each level that the dragon needs to collect prior to reaching the egg, otherwise it doesn’t count as clearing the level.
After all, dragons do love hoarding gold coins.
It’s actually a bit disappointing that the coins are required to complete the level, as it is possible to get to the end of some levels without needing to collect them. The way the levels are laid out, every tile that has a road on it needs to be included in the solution to the puzzle. That means if a single road is out of place, then the player knows that they have the incorrect solution.
Once the roads are placed though, the dragon needs to be instructed to begin navigating the roadway until it reaches the end. If anything is out of place, players will realize it quickly, as the dragon reaches a dead end and fails to complete the level. This is actually the most tedious part of the game, as the dragon flies at a set pace through the level and there’s no way to increase how fast it moves, or simply skip the animation. It’s not a major inconvenience, but it becomes redundant to watch if you are binging the game in a single sitting.
From Simple Straightaways to Complex Crossroads
For the first dozen levels or so, the puzzle solutions are incredibly straightforward. Oddly enough though, there is a hard shift to more complicated layouts once you get over this point in the game. Suddenly there are many more tiles and the pathways wind and branch out more. New tiles are introduced that feature pathways that form crossroads, and even later on these crossroads expand so that they are connected to every adjacent tile.
At first glance, these puzzles seem almost like a ridiculous change in difficulty. Instead of forming roads that are mostly straight lines, suddenly the entire screen is a collection of haphazardly placed roads that don’t seem to have any structure.
Using Coins and Hazards as Reference
But things aren’t as complicated as they seem. For starters, any roadway that has a coin on it can’t be rotated, which means the solution needs to involve directing the dragon to and from that tile in predetermined directions. There are also hazards that the dragon can only bypass by collecting a power up before reaching the hazard. Like the coins, any hazard or power up tile is also in a fixed position.
And like I said before, the solution will involve ensuring every road needs to be connected in sequence, with no dead ends. So using the fixed tiles as reference points, it starts to become easier to determine which tiles need to be used to create the right path.
Tiles themselves can be moved to any point on the map, they don’t need to be shifted to adjacent blocks which is nice because each tile is placed at random on the map.
Scatter Logic and Solution Hints
At the same time, Dragon Snack: From Ice to Ember also provides two options for solving things just that little bit easier. The first is to randomly scatter the tiles throughout the map, which can help approach the puzzle from a new direction if you feel you’re going in circles on a solution.
Alternatively, the game offers a hint button, but the hint is actually just a pathway that shows the route the dragon must take to the end of the level. Less of a hint and more of a solution.
A less direct option for hints would’ve been nice as compared to other similar puzzle games, Dragon Snack: From Ice to Ember does actually have some trickier puzzles to work out. Figuring out the layout does require some thought and while it is clearly geared towards a younger audience, the later levels aren’t puzzles that can be immediately solved with a single glance.
They also have structure to them, so the solutions feel less random than other puzzle games that are geared towards children.
A Quick 2000 Gamerscore with a Twist
It’s still a game that can be easily beaten in an hour or two, so take those comments with a pinch of salt. Dragon Snack also offers players an easy 2000 Gamerscore that can be acquired without needing to play through the end of the game, so anyone looking to boost their profile’s numbers can do so without investing much time into the game.
Dragon Snack: From Ice to Ember isn’t anything substantial. Breaking it down, the core mechanic is exactly the same as you would find in any other game that has you fixing wires or rerouting plumbing. Whether that is your bag or not will depend on your gaming needs. The thing is, without introducing tons of additional rule sets or mechanics, it can all become a bit redundant.
Important Links
Dragon Snack From Ice To Ember Launches On Xbox And PC – https://www.thexboxhub.com/dragon-snack-from-ice-to-ember-launches-on-xbox-and-pc/
Buy from the Xbox Store, Optimised for Series X|S – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/dragon-snack-from-ice-to-ember-xbox-series/9nc4c8dbrgjn
Buy an Xbox One version – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/dragon-snack-from-ice-to-ember-xbox-one/9plsg5d2sqlg
Grab a Windows PC edition – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/dragon-snack-from-ice-to-ember-windows/9p5kwh9kfqkv
