Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago

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If you remember my gameplay of Hunter (watch it here: youtube.com/watch?v=tvrjgKZPPbA), you will recognize several musics. Well, they’re not borrowed from that game, it’s just the opposite. The developers of that NES version of Ice Hunter for C64 borrowed the musics from this game for their game. For example, the developers of the NES version of Ice Hunter used the Formica City theme as their title screen music.

Well, to be honest, I never liked this game until I discovered the European Version (the one of this video). What’s different from the american version (Linus Spacehead’s Cosmic Crusade) is that here, when you jump, you can change direction or stop while in mid-air, unlike in the american version that once jumped, you cannot change direction and you cannot stop. Don’t you think it is awkward?

This is a logic adventure just like a normal Dizzy game (both Dizzy and Linus franchises are developed by Codemasters, so it is obvious that they resemble each other). It is a mix of Platform and Point-n-Click, in which you select an action with B and you press A to execute it.
You need the “Select” button only in Formica city to switch between Cosmic and its clone.
The main goal of Linus (or in the European version: Cosmic) is to leave his main planet Linoleum in order to take a trip to planet Earth and he has to do several tasks to do so.

The European version is close to the Sega Master System one, since it shares the same graphics and the same playability, but I have to tell the music of the way across Dodgey City gives me less anxiety in the Sega Master System version. Same for the Dodgey City music. LOL

What doesn’t make any sense in this game is that developers called Formica one of the cities of planet Linoleum. Formica means “ant” in Italian, a language not available among the other ones you can choose to play (English, French, German and Spanish).
Someone may believe Formica is a Spanish word, but in Spanish "ant" is "hormiga", so it's not.

Curiosity about this game: the NES version of this game 95% lacks the noise channel due to a programming error and these sounds act as music percussions or in other musics as natural element noises such as water, wind or thunders. The only exception is the “Splat” sound effect in the 2UP pie slap game, that one is the only noise you can listen to.
However, it is possible to enable the noise channel in four different ways:
1) Changing a single instruction in the ROM from BEQ to BNE;
2) At NES File Address 21AD9, change byte F0 to D0;
3) Use game genie “ESKOOZEY” or
4) Download an online patch of this game with the music issue fixed.
The first two ways sound greek to me, better the 3rd and 4th alternatives.
I played the game with the music issue fixed and what’s strange is that the missile explosion in Linograd city still lacks sound. Developers worked more on music than on sound effects for some reason.

Since it is the European version, it should be played in PAL coding, but I still preferred the NTSC one.

Enjoy my video and see you next time!