Ice-Cream Machine: a Guide

So, let's begin!

Basics

The premise of this game is relatively simple; you guide Adee the Chia with your mouse, your goal being to dodge the oncoming ice-cream scoops. Each level has a certain amount of scoops you need to dodge in order to pass, advancing through different flavours of ice-cream. As the levels progress, you need to dodge more scoops and the frosty treats come towards you at increasing speeds. You begin with only three lives, so stay sharp!

Levels

Here is a guide to each level, and the corresponding number of scoops that you need to dodge in order to pass.

Strawberry - 25
Vanilla - 50
Chocolate - 75
Mint - 100
Blueberry - 125
Vanilla Chocolate Chip - 150
Strawberry Vanilla Chocolate - 175
Peach - 200
Vanilla Chocolate Swirl - 225
Double Chocolate - 250
Tigersquash - 275
Rainbow - 300
Garlicky Bratwurst - 325

Power ups

There are power ups available to help you out along the game. You collect (most of) these power ups by guiding Adee to touch them, the opposite of what you do with the normal scoops. Here's a list of them, and what each of them do:

Syrup-covered Scoops (dodge these) - These scoops appear in all levels, and are like regular scoops but covered in different flavoured syrups, caramel, chocolate and strawberry. They're not power ups essentially, because you don't "collect" them; however, you are awarded double points for dodging them (10 points instead of the normal 5).

Pink Heart - additional life. Get on all accounts, except when getting them wastes a life... since that's rather pointless. In a lucky game, one can rack up 9, 10 plus lives, and this is very good for later levels.

Green Plus - speeds up the scoops. I would advise maybe getting these in the first few levels, to get you used to the increasing speed of the later levels. However, as the game progresses, avoid these at all costs, short of losing a life, since it will become impossible to keep up if you get more than two.

Red Minus - slows down the scoops. Get these in the later levels, but only sparingly; one or two will do. If the scoops get too slow, it actually becomes harder to dodge them. They might move at a snail's pace like they did in the first level, but there are so many of them that they will cluster and gather in clumps, making it much harder to dodge the scoops.

* The speed changing power ups are cumulative. There is not simply three speeds of fast normal and slow, but if you get more green plus scoops, for example, the ice-cream scoops will continue to increase in speed.

Grey Shield - scoop shield. This gives you immunity to all scoops for a few seconds. You can tell the shield's effect is ending when it changes colour from blue to red. There is no set time for the scoop's effect, so it's rather ambivalent. My advice would be to take this, but when the shield turns red, start avoiding scoops like normal again.

Purple Chia - decreases your size. Good power up, since the smaller you get, the easier it is to dodge scoops. Not infrequently, Adee will get small enough that your cursor can obscure you, which gives a strange sense of self-achievement.

Blue Chia - increases your size. This is a pretty horrible power up, since it makes you bigger and therefore harder for you to avoid the scoops. There is literally no merit in this, so avoid at all costs, short of losing a life.

* Like the speed changers, the size ones are also cumulative.

Fish Bonus - +250 points; this blue Fish Negg-like scoop gives the highest bonus of the game, so don't miss these!

Cherry Bonus - +100 points; while not as much as the Fish bonus, it helps rack up the points as well. Bottom line: get them!

Strawberry Bomb - resets the scoops. It doesn't reset the level, but what happens is that the scoops go back to their starting positions, while your scoops dodged number remains the same. These are very useful in the later levels, as many a time will they save you from "cave ins", explained later.

Note: if you get splattered by a scoop, some power ups reset, such as your size power ups (and obviously you lose a life). However, your speed doesn't reset when splattered, and only does so when you either get a Fish/ Cherry Bonus or a Strawberry Bomb, all three of which will reset everything.

Game tactics

In this game, you only use your mouse (there are no keyboard controls). This game requires fast reflexes and good hand eye co-ordination, so stretch your hands a bit before you play, and take a break between each level if your wrist is feeling sore/ tired.

In dodging scoops, you need to watch out for scoops that "cave" you in, i.e. scoops that surround you so that no matter where you guide Adee, you get splattered with ice-cream. The trick is to spot these early, and move left or right, or even underneath the cluster of scoops to avoid them. To bypass these scoops, it helps if you have the Small power up, since you'll be able to squeeze through the gaps that will appear due to the different speeds of each independent scoop. If you're lucky, there will either be a Scoop Shield or Strawberry Bomb power up among the cluster, in which case you can avoid losing a life without dodging the scoops.

Sometimes, you will need to get a not-so-good scoop (like speed up or increase size) because it's in the only opening in a cave in. You should go for the scoop in this case, because at least you have a chance of dodging the other scoops and keeping a life.

Similarly, with a lot of flash games, if you have a slow computer, select a lower quality so the game doesn't run as slow. It might seem advantageous to have a slow game, but by experience, the game doesn't get slower, but instead it lags, the effect being that the scoops freeze and jump ahead, making it harder to dodge.

If you find it easier, choose a bigger resolution for the game. The bigger the screen, the clearer you'll see the game. However, as a personal preference, I don't find much of an advantage in this and simply play on regular size.

With quality and size, you should find the combination that suit you best, so experiment with them before you start a game for the avatar/ trophy.

As with most things, practice makes perfect. While some people might have a knack for these games, many people get the avatar/ trophy by working hard at it.

NB: If you should accidentally right-click on the screen while playing, the game automatically ends. This is good when you want to quickly quit a game, but it's put in to stop you using a cheat that existed in the old game Ice-Cream Factory, where when you right clicked, and then left clicked at another space, your Chia would reappear there. This doesn't work anymore - you have been warned!

Tips

strawberryvanillachocolate - type this in and you get an extra life. Best do this at the beginning before you start the game, or at least in-between levels. It might take some time to get used to typing this in, so check that the life count has gone up from 3 to 4.

Finally, if you're really lucky, you might see another appearance of the Orange Shirt bloke, in scoop form or otherwise; that guy must get around a bit to be seen in so many games...