To begin with, Scrat is only armed with a basic jump, some melee attacks (because fighting is the first thing you think of when you think of Ice Age movies), and a ranged attack which amounts to throwing snowballs. Outside of the visual themes, there’s actually very little difference in the various locations, as all contain almost identical hazards to negotiate. This does offer some variety, but they’re also the stereotypical zones and worlds that you’d find in a retro platformer. Scrat’s travels take him across the main iconic locations of the Ice Age movies, so alongside the obvious icy wastes, he traverses ancient ruins and volcanic hazards. The levels are linear and relatively short, but do contain some well hidden secret collectables for the more curious players.

This structure itself feels more like an old 8-bit Mario game than the open world 3D platformer that screenshots might suggest. The result of this prophecy is a series of 20 3D platforming levels in which Scrat must make it to the end and find the magical crystal nuts. To be honest, the plot is so flimsy I can barely remember the details. He accidentally activates a message that reveals the location of three magical nuts that will bestow magical powers upon the clumsy Scrat and enable him to do something… or prevent something. Scrat’s latest quest for a nut takes him to a mysterious temple that was the ancient home of the Scratazon race (bear with me here).

In fact, there is very little story at all, and what’s there feels like a very old fashioned excuse for the platforming that follows. This has the odd effect of making the game feel only very loosely connected to the movies themselves, perhaps a symptom of there being no current new release to base the story on. Nutty Adventure moves him firmly into the foreground, with none of the other movie characters appearing. Whether he is responsible for the cracking of glacial walls or the meteor that wipes out the dinosaurs, his single minded quest for the nut that continually eludes him sees him constantly in the background of the movies. The titular squirrel-thing, Scrat, is well known within the Ice Age Universe as the unintentional catalyst to all manner of planetary disasters.

Ice age scrat's nutty adventure