First marketed by Schaper Toys in 1968, the game was sold to Hasbro subsidiary Milton Bradley in 1986. To find out more about cookies, including how you can disable/enable them in your browser, visit www. The game does not last for more than five minutes, so if you have 30 minutes to play the game, plan on setting up the game at least twelve times. If you want to be fancy, you could even add an additional bit indicating whether the position is 'already lost' (i. If there are sufficient amounts of interest, I can try and put something together to find the final value, but it'll take me a day or two; it's also eminently possible that it could be solved with a quick case analysis, since 90% of the connectivity feels like a 'red herring' and (aside from the 'interior corner' cells) the problem is almost entirely a matter of knocking out either an interior cell or both the adjacent exterior and adjacent interior-corner cells.

There are a lot of games that I have in my closet that have gotten a “face lift” since I was a kid, but Don’t Break the Ice looks almost exactly as I remember it. If the second player ensures the corner squares are removed within the first eight moves then the game must last an odd number of turns, and so the second player wins. Google Tag Manager: We use Google Tag Manager to track user behaviour, traffic analysis and marketing optimisation.

Game includes 2 mallets, ice tray frame, 4 ice tray legs,1 large ice block, 32 small ice blocks, and Phillip the Penguin figure. All audio, visual and textual content on this site (including all names, characters, images, trademarks and logos) are protected by trademarks, copyrights and other Intellectual Property rights owned by Hasbro or its subsidiaries, licensors, licensees, suppliers and accounts. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. This game for preschoolers and kids ages 3 and up is filled with suspense as players take turns tapping out the blocks of ice. I agree with your review but would add that it’s unfortunate the kids who most want to play it are too young to set up the game.

You can choose what style fits your kid's personality, from frozen-themed to the original polar bear ice skater. Our policy requires consent for cookies that are used for measurement purposes and consent for the use of personal data for personalised ads. What's more, since the game is symmetric, if it's to one player's strategic advantage to pass then it's to the other player's as well; thus, a pass should always be followed by another pass. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. I had such fond memories of the game that I decided to borrow the game from the library for my kids.All the cells on outer 6x6 ring are, of course, always connected, and all of the rest but those four cells are connected to the inner 2x2 block. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. If an odd number of blocks fall, then the player going last will be the one to make the last move in the first setting. But, if you have kids and are looking for a game that is straight forward, fun, and very interactive, then Don’t Break the Ice is for you.

By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. My two oldest boys love playing this game and think it’s ridiculously entertaining to smack the bejesus out of the thing. Physics is irrelevant, the blocks are known to be sticky, and the bear only falls when there is no path through orthogonal adjacency, this can occur despite situations your answer suggests would lead to a collapse and therefore loss. One ice block is larger than the rest, and has a plastic character standing on it - this varies from edition to edition, being either Phillip the Penguin, a man referred to as "Ice Man", or a polar bear. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance and make improvements.

The game ends when the center 2x2 square has been disconnected from the exterior of the 6x6 square; that is, when there is no orthogonal (connected along the edges) path from any cell outside the 6x6 square to a cell in the interior of the central 2x2. The only difference that I have found is my game involved saving a polar bear from his inevitable dunk in the icy water, and the new game has an adorable penguin named Phillip. He now plays board games with anyone and everyone he can, but enjoys playing with his children the most. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners who may combine it with other information that you’ve provided to them or that they’ve collected from your use of their services. We use cookies to personalise content and ads to you, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic.