Found 6 ratings (with comment) on this game

Just picked up the game and so far pretty pleased with it: The theme and sound effects work well together (organ music, goal buzzer, whistle, crowd noises) the art work cracks me up, the ball flow is usually pretty good but does slow down time to time. The spinner shot people complain about having to much point value is fairly difficult to pull off consistently in my opinion, at least for my wife and I. My only complaint would be that the game has no separate scoring indicators for goal totals like my Williams Olympic Hockey.

Edit- Just installed fresh elastics and WOW does the game pop! Best score jumped from 750k to 980k!

the ruleset makes a great layout wasted. light the spinner, hit the spinner, score huge points. fun sound effects.

In college, we had a Ice Fever in the arcade next to a Williams Comet. Ice Fever hardly ever got played.

I found this game to be slow, plodding, really not a ton of fun to play when compared with a Bally or Williams game from the same era. Some of the shots are fun to hit, but the points are in the spinner. Spinner, spinner, spinner...

Fast forward to 2010, and now I'm repairing an Ice Fever for a customer. It was still wrought with the same problems I had with it as an eighteen year-old! I appreciate the game for what it was, an under-powered Gottlieb (Premiere) product in an era when Gottlieb was no longer number one! It's not the worst game out there, but I won't be getting one any time soon!

Great game to walk up and play a couple times, not as good for owning. The spinner shot is the only shot worth making if you want points. The goal is fun and challenging but the reward for scoring is small compared to the spinner when lit. The back glass animation is fun.

Ice Fever is a straightforward game with its' own character.

The Pros:
Considering the theme, the art package is perfect. The PF is laid out well and the 4 pops are placed very nicely to keep gameplay fast and random. Considering how open the PF is... it's great to have the pops strong and sensitive. The captive ball through the drop targets is one of the best accuracy shots I have ever seen. The left orbit to the top of the PF requires an accurate and strong shot as well. The spinner is incredibly satisfying. The goalie masks on the sides of the PF are touch shots. BG animation is always a good thing in my book.

The Cons:
This game is not easy to find and when you do find it... hope that it is tuned well. Dead pops kill the playability of this deck.

The Takeaway:
A good design with solid play but unbalanced scoring. Ice Fever features pinball portraits of the squarest jaws ever! Even the refs on the pop bumper caps are burly men who look like they can take a punch and walk away with a (toothless) smile. A deceptively good design from John Trudeau and his team.

Update: I went to a friend's home who had recently bought the game and he told me he was bored with the gameplay after having it for a week. I asked him to show me what he was talking about and he just lit the spinner with an inlane shot from the opposing flipper (which I though was pretty cool in itself with the nubby gottlieb flippers, I had real trouble making these shots) and just ripped the spinner non-stop, over and over for millions of points. This effectively negated shooting for anything else on the PF. Play rating adjusted accordingly (Calling mystery programmer!)

Played this for the first time at my friends house. Never seen one before and then another pops up on C-list that same day. Not bad for a late 70s solid state pin. Problem is it was made in 85. Artwork is not great but tons better than the crappy translite photos Gottlieb is known for. Can be had cheap. Good for Hockey fans.