ICEY presents itself as a side-scrolling beat-em-up in the vein of Dust: An Elysian Tail or the Shank series. However, side exploration quickly reveals that the game is also a commentary on the expectations placed on the player, in the style of The Stanley Parable.

Unfortunately, the game has serious flaws in both of these aspects. While ICEY's moves have all the speed and fluidity one expects from modern beat-em-ups, they are entirely lacking in hitstun -- meaning that you will get suckerpunched out of your attack string far too often, by attacks you couldn't see coming due to the game's flashy particle effects. The dash-to-counterattack system is also unintuitive, since there's no clear telegraph when or which direction you should dash in order to enable the counterattack prompt. In addition, ICEY is still vulnerable during these dashes, so you can get hit out of a counterattack attempt by the attack you are countering.

Meanwhile, the English VO for the TSP side of things is absolutely cringe-worthy -- the Narrator's monologue is imperious, condescending, and narcissistic, with a grating voice to match. Take the smallest step off the path laid out for you and the Narrator will immediately start berating you for not playing the game the "right" way ... but follow that path and he'll continually rub your face in the fact that you're just here to follow the arrows and kill some bosses.

AND YET despite these flaws, I still enjoyed the game enough to 100% it, even if I can't honestly recommend others buy it. I blame the King in Yellow. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

ICEY presents itself as a side-scrolling beat-em-up in the vein of Dust: An Elysian Tail or the Shank series. However, side exploration quickly reveals that the game is [i]also[/i] a commentary on the expectations placed on the player, in the style of The Stanley Parable. Unfortunately, the game has serious flaws in both of these aspects. While ICEY's moves have all the speed and fluidity one expects from modern beat-em-ups, they are entirely lacking in hitstun -- meaning that you will get suckerpunched out of your attack string far too often, by attacks you couldn't see coming due to the game's flashy particle effects. The dash-to-counterattack system is also unintuitive, since there's no clear telegraph when or which direction you should dash in order to enable the counterattack prompt. In addition, ICEY is still vulnerable during these dashes, so you can get hit out of a counterattack attempt [i]by the attack you are countering[/i]. Meanwhile, the English VO for the TSP side of things is absolutely cringe-worthy -- the Narrator's monologue is imperious, condescending, and narcissistic, with a grating voice to match. Take the smallest step off the path laid out for you and the Narrator will immediately start berating you for not playing the game the "right" way ... but follow that path and he'll continually rub your face in the fact that you're just here to follow the arrows and kill some bosses. AND YET despite these flaws, I still enjoyed the game enough to 100% it, even if I can't honestly recommend others buy it. I blame the King in Yellow. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯