ICECOOL — the Kinderspiel des Jahres 2017 penguin-flicker, sweet spot 6 to 8 (not 6+)
The 6+ on the box is optimistic — the sweet spot is 6 to 8 once the flicking-skill curve shows up. Brian Gomez's penguin-flicking dexterity game out of Brain Games Latvia; Kinderspiel des Jahres 2017, 2-4 players, ~€29.95.
Brian Gomez (designer) + Brain Games (Latvia, indie publisher). Kinderspiel des Jahres 2017 winner — the most prestigious German children's board-game award. Licensed across 17 publishers globally. Tom Vasel of The Dice Tower scores it 8.0. Zero IAP / ads / data collection (it's a physical board game). Nesting-box arena, weighted penguins, single-flick mechanic. €29.95 publisher MSRP. The contrarian seam: the 6+ age floor reads optimistically; multiple parent voices report 6- and 7-year-olds struggling with flick finesse. Actual sweet spot is 6 to 8 with adult co-play available for 5.
How we got to 79
The Play Score is a weighted average: Fun ×0.25, Learning ×0.3, Safety ×0.25, Value ×0.2. Anything below 60 on Safety caps the total at 70.
What parents wrote vs. what their kids did
Quotes are sourced from public App Store, Google Play, and Reddit reviews captured during research. Reviewer handles shown verbatim where the platform makes them public; we never invent quotes or named children.
""Dexterity games have an inherent skill factor where you are always working to get a little better. Maybe it's doing a trick shot in ICECOOL, or getting a perfect ricochet shot in Carrom.""
u/david622, r/boardgames (trick-shot ceiling appeal)· Reddit""My daughters are 8 and 6. I thought they'd really like this game but I think the flicking hurts their fingers and they find it really tricky... they still lack the ability to develop the skill quickly enough for it to be that engaging for them.""
u/oniony, r/boardgames (parent of 8 and 6yo — flick-finesse critique)· Reddit""I tried it with my 4-year-old. He did some crazy lucky flicks, but he's not too conscious of being careful around the box, so I probably won't play it again until he's a little older. I suspect by 5 it should be possible.""
u/shineuponthee, r/boardgames (parent of just-turned-4yo)· Reddit""I tried it with my 4-year-old. He did some crazy lucky flicks, but he's not too conscious of being careful around the box, so I probably won't play it again until he's a little older. I suspect by 5 it should be possible.""
u/shineuponthee, r/boardgames (parent of just-turned-4yo)· Reddit""About the game itself it was not the huge hit I was hoping for. Cube quest, and junk art are the 2 big dexterity games in the house right now (and my 5 yr old is awesome at both). She does like ice cool, she loves penguins, but she prefers cube quest or crokinole for flicking.""
u/NygardEr, r/boardgames (compares to Cube Quest, Crokinole)· RedditWhat's good, what's not
- ✓Kinderspiel des Jahres 2017 winner — the most prestigious German children's-game award. Jury verbatim: "Everything works here: Brian Gomez combines an original game story, an impressive layout, lovingly detailed illustration and the demanding learning experience of the perfect dexterity game."
- ✓Tom Vasel of The Dice Tower rates it 8.0 — high for a children's game. Licensed across 17 publishers worldwide (AMIGO, Hobby Japan, Lautapelit.fi, Origames, Korea Boardgames, Brain Games and more).
- ✓Single-mechanic dexterity game — flick a weighted penguin through doorways. Brain Games product page: "ICECOOL is a game that is easy to set up and learn creating fun times for families and parties alike." 5 boxes, 4 penguins, 16 fish, 53 cards — unfussy footprint.
- ✓Nesting-box storage — the five "school" boxes assemble into the arena, then nest flat. To Play Is Human: "The nesting rooms board make it easy to setup and teardown."
- ✓Replay value is genuinely high. The Board Game Family (Trent): "The game is very quick to play and is so fun that we always play multiple games in a row." CarpeGM (Dan Whorl): "due to the shape of its components... the replay value of this game is quite high."
- ✓Active, body-engaged play — Dad Suggests (Ryan Billingsley): "Most kids are more engaged when they don't have to sit still." Boardgame-workshop teacher u/nonalignedgamer: "IceCool is modern kids games classic... allows for some crazy tricks if one bothers to train."
- ✓Trick-shot ceiling rewards practice. To Play Is Human: "Getting awesome shots that put your penguin through multiple doors or make them jump over walls is exciting." u/david622: dexterity games have "an inherent skill factor where you are always working to get a little better."
- ✓Zero IAP, zero ads, zero data collection — this is a physical board game. Cardboard, plastic figures, paper cards. No screen, no battery, no privacy footprint. Buy-once at €29.95 publisher MSRP, $25-$35 USD general retail.
- ✓Successful across mixed ages when supervised. u/VillainousDaisy: "my 3 1/2 and 5 year old loved this game, with close supervision." u/Atlanticexplorer: "my nephews, aged from 8-13, had a great time with Ice Cool."
- —CONTRARIAN: the published 6+ age floor is optimistic. u/oniony with 8 and 6 yo daughters: "the flicking hurts their fingers and they find it really tricky... they still lack the ability to develop the skill quickly enough for it to be that engaging." u/Poshporcupine: "IceCool requires far too much finesse for kids to play at all, let alone by a 4-year-old."
- —Even 6- and 7-year-olds may struggle. u/Poshporcupine (cont.): the kids "had problems not slamming their hands into the boxes and really couldn't figure out to hit the penguin to not just have it go in random directions."
- —Box durability is a real concern. Just Simple Reviews: "the boxes could be slightly thicker or denser or both... it could ruin the gameplay." Cardboard arena + 30g puck + kid hand = non-zero damage risk by year two of weekly play.
- —Limited replay variability. Geeks Under Grace (Chris Hecox): "one gripe I have is no room for variability. Playing by regular scoring rules, the only variability offered was which cards you'd draw." Same school every game.
- —Not the best first dexterity buy for under-5s. u/shineuponthee on a just-turned-4yo: "I probably won't play it again until he's a little older. I suspect by 5 it should be possible." u/NygardEr's 5yo "prefers cube quest or crokinole for flicking."
- —Demands clear table space and a no-elbows-up vibe — flick games need clearance, and the cardboard arena is bigger than the box suggests once assembled (5 nested boxes unfold into a roughly square play area).
What your kid is actually practising
2D-on-3D spatial planning. The kid lines up a flick angle, predicts ricochet behavior off cardboard walls, and routes the penguin through specific doorways. Brain Games' own description and Dice Tower commentary both highlight that "the penguins can be flicked in a straight line, make curves and even jump over the walls" — every flick is a planned spatial trajectory.
The entire mechanic is finger-flicking a weighted plastic penguin with the precision and force to make it curve, jump doorways, or ricochet. This is fine-motor training at the level of a fingertip strike-force control task. The Spiel des Jahres jury named it "the demanding learning experience of the perfect dexterity game". For 5-year-olds the demand exceeds developmental ability for many kids.
Each flick is a small puzzle: which angle, how much force, which doorway, route around or through. Light vs heavy strategy compared to abstract puzzlers like Outfoxed or Ticket to Ride: First Journey already in the catalog — ICECOOL is closer to a physical puzzle than a strategic one. Geeks Under Grace flags the structural ceiling: "no room for variability" outside which cards you draw.
The Hall Monitor role plus the 2-4 player count plus the very public success/failure of every flick make this an intensely social game — kids watch each other's shots, react to lucky curves, and learn turn-taking around a shared arena. Boardgame-workshop teacher u/nonalignedgamer puts it: dexterity games "bring the entirety of a player in the game - body, emotions, reasoning."
Per-flick attention is sustained but short-cycle; sessions are ~30 minutes per published time. The trick-shot ceiling rewards repeated attentional focus on a single mechanic. Several reviewers note the loop holds adult attention as much as kid attention because the per-flick decision is genuinely interesting.
A healthy way to play it
About 30 minutes per session
Where to buy — and where it's actually cheapest
| Store | Platform | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
• Web Browser | Browser | $29.95 | Buy → |
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