Ice Age

 

At the Zero Refrigeration Co., Mr. Zero calls his secretary to turn the heat up and to get the report on the "Super Freeze research". Outside, a crazy woman comes up to the security guide, says she's there because people have been catching colds, and then proceeds to freeze all but his head. Because it's Ice Man in disguise. He and Air Man enter the building and freeze another guard with a quip.
 

After being delivered the report, Ice Man comes in through the window, and Mr. Zero calls for the guards, instead just getting an ice cube with a head hopping in. They want his Super Freeze technology, which he claims is impossible, but after threatening to turn him into "a bucket of ice cubes", he complies. Ice Man reports this to Doctor Wily, who's using a Skull blimp instead of his usual Skullker.

Elsewhere, at the aptly named High School, Mega Man and Roll are introduced to three punks, Bobby, Ramone and Janet. Our robot heroes are there to help them become better students and citizens, but the kids express some teen angst by complaining about life and that robots can't help them since their actions are just pre-programmed.
 

Mega Man, Roll and Rush take them out for a spin in their fancy wheels (that aren't made of Rush), with their first bit of community service being to plant some trees, but Light contacts them, telling them of Wily's bots being sighted at the Refrigeration Corporation, so their tree planting is postponed. "Oh, I'm so disappointed," says one of the kids.

At the place I just mentioned, the Skull blimp is there and stealing the liquid nitrogen, which Mega Man considers "attacking". He goes to sort things out while Roll is left with the kids, who simply can't accept that and leaves the robot dog to look after them. They decide to check the place out, and Rush's barking and paw motions don't stop them.
 

Mega Man runs up to Air Man, and is promptly blown into some barrels and mocked by the kids. Roll gives it a shot, but instead of doing something useful, she simply just uses a hairdryer against Air Man. He retorts by shooting a tornado in her face. Rush simply decides not to bother him, and drills into the pipe leading to the blimp, but Ice Man notices and takes advantage of the sawn-off pipe to freeze the mutt and send him crashing into a wall.

The blimp is stocked full, but before the villains can leave, Mega Man gives the fight another shot. He manages to stick the pipe on Air Man's head, which is the only good he does; he gets his feet frozen by Ice Man, and Air Man goes through the laborious way of killing him by blowtorching down a water tank at him.

 

Mega Man simply melts the ice with his Buster and jumps out of the way, but isn't quick enough to prevent Ice Man and Air Man escaping with Mr. Zero. After scolding the kids for not doing anything and being ignored, he further proves he knows nothing by trusting the kids to return to school as he, Roll and Rush get back into the car and fly after Wily.

At the polar ice caps somehow, Wily's blimp is already there, and after threatening to turn Mr. Zero into a popsicle, he finishes the Super Freeze technology. Wily then explains that he plans to use it, aided by Air Man's fan, to freeze the greatest cities in the world, chase out the world leaders, and replace them with his robots. They set to work, and the two robots bicker over who should be making the glaciers, although Wily settles on Air Man, for his fan makes everything quicker.
 

Somehow again, they're already reaching some towns and freezing them, sending the citizens fleeing. Mega Man and company arrive, Rush and Roll evacuate the people while Mega Man is macho and tries to stop a growing glacier with a frigging plasma cannon. He flees, and after adding some plasma power to someone's car engine, stands around feeling proud too long and gets trapped in the ice. Wily and his robots laugh very briefly about this before moving on to another city.

After some over exaggerating, Roll and Rush cut Mega Man out, and claim they can't stop the glacier without Doctor Light's help, so they return to his lab. He states it will be difficult, and expresses doubt at even accomplishing it at all, but suddenly, emergency message! A robot tells them the glacier is at the "city limit" (how delightfully vague!), and everyone is being evacuated, and right after that, he's conveniently frozen.
 

Wily broadcasts a messages to the citizens, telling everyone to evacuate and to relinquish power to him, or else be frozen. He then sends Ice Man to parachute down and see that Light isn't going to rain on their parade.

The kids, coming out of hiding, see that their school has just been frozen over, and decide to beat it back to Light's lab (which they haven't actually seen but somehow know their way). Light, piling on the doubt, notes there's no chemical he has that can melt the ice, just as the kids rush in and tell them what happened, informing them of Ice Man's approach, and finally realising that this is serious business. Light then gets a brain storm on how to stop the glacier and put Ice Man out of the picture.

 

The kids leave the lab and have a fake conversation over Light having everything under control, and Ice Man threatens them to spill the beans. They claim he's got a spy camera sent up to the blimp to find out the weakness, and Ice Man shows up there just as they've finished their "spy camera".

They let it loose before he can freeze it, so he settles on hitting Mega Man with a big ice hammer, supposedly killing him. He reports this to Wily, who congratulates him and tells him to return to the blimp, but right after he finishes the transmission, another message is broadcast, which is from the spy camera. Air Man tells Wily he worries Ice Man is too powerful, having destroyed Mega Man, and Wily agrees that he must be stopped. Ice Man claims he knew it all along, so he commands Dr. Light to make him robots to work for him in his fight against Wily. After moving out, Mega Man smashes himself out of the ice, Light reveals the spy camera transmission was just a robot puppet act, so they've just got Ice Man to fight Wily for them.
 

Wily lands the blimp in a car park, and claims he has a bonus for Ice Man's destruction of the blue bomber, but Ice Man sics his ice bots on them, making Wily believe he's gone mad. The Robot Masters start destroying some of the ice bots, although Proto Man is the only one who actually succeeds; Guts Man lets the shattered ice and robot beneath fall on him, while Cut Man merely strips off the ice and lets it throw him into the side of a van. Ice Man tries to claim leadership away from Wily, until Mega Man shows up, making ol' Icy feel quite the fool, and sending his ice bots against him. Mega Man simply uses a command override, telling them to get Ice Man instead, and he runs and hides behind with Wily.
 

Air Man, still with the pipe of liquid nitrogen stuck in him, goes to take care of Mega Man, only for Roll to cut the Super Freeze mechanism and flee with Mr. Zero. Ice Man makes an exit, but is tripped by a destroyed lamp post and has his weapon stolen; Air Man enters the scene, only to be tripped up by a tire rolled by the kids and propelled into the air by his fan, sent crashing into the ground, and his weapon stolen as well. He sends the remaining robots into a tornado and freezes them, and freezes Ice Man as well before he can flee.
 

Dr. Wily makes off in his blimp, sucking up what's left of his robots. Mr. Zero explains that the liquid nitrogen evaporates if it's not kept cold, so the glacier problem is out of the way. The kids then realise fighting crazy old German people with themed fighting robots is a serious matter, and if they come back to give them a call. High five.


Ice Age doesn't really start off well. Whiny angsty kids? A plot that's just plain baffling? Thankfully, it then dawns that it isn't actually that bad at all. The kids do round about nothing, and the general idiocy of Ice Man and Air Man is humourous, plus they have awesome voices, so overall it's pretty good.

4 out of 5 spy cameras.


Someone took some serious liberties with Air Man's design.

Image from Atomic Fire

Then again, I'm not sure if I can blame them.

 

When Mega Man is cut out of the ice, he comments "my circuits are freezing! How long have I been in there?", and Roll replies with "about half an hour". I don't know why, but I just find this so out of place. I guess I was just expecting a typical "no time to explain" like you see in everything, but an estimated amount of time just isn't right.

 

Thankfully, you never see the punk kids again, although I think that goes without saying.