ILA: A Frosty Glide Review

Game: ILA: A Frosty Glide
Genre: Action, Platformer, Adventure
System: Nintendo Switch (Also on Steam (Windows), Xbox X/S and PS5)
Developer | Publisher: Magic Rain Studios | First Break Labs
Age Rating: US Everyone | EU TBA
Price: US $19.99 | UK £TBA | EU € TBA
Release Date: October 20th, 2025

Review code used, with many thanks to So Clever Communications.

What started as a series of comics, ILA: A Frosty Glide, transformed into a game in December 2023. With funding from a Kickstarter project, the dream of reaching consoles as well as PC became a reality.

Will ILA: A Frosty Glide be smooth skating, or will it be a bumpy ride?

Heading to the Magical Island

ILA: A Frosty Glide starts with a short animation and then presents you with our young trainee witch, Ila, standing on the dock, with her boat just to the side and her trusty skatebroom on her back. The colours are quite muted, giving a magical appearance, although it does make it difficult to spot secrets.

Unusually, you’re not given the basic movement or camera controls. Although they are pretty standard across so many games, I felt a bit lost without that reassuring message. I spent several minutes studying the controls on the options menu, trying to memorise which button did what for the skatebroom movement, ready for the journey ahead.

However, I need not have panicked! As you move Ila forward, you automatically collect the picture which was near the boar, and you learn that you are looking for Coco, her adorable black cat, and as Ila approaches the end of the dock, the much-welcomed ‘how to do a thing’ pops up. Soon you’ll learn how to glide on your skatebroom, how to ground pound to collect coins and open chests, how to jump on bouncy hopshrooms, and how to climb icy walls.

The whole of the first pathway is a tutorial, and shortly after you collect a Lunar Guard Cape from a small ledge (practising the ability to climb icy walls), the magical island opens up in front of you. Now you can begin your adventure to find Coco.

So Much to Collect

For me, one of the highlights in a game is the ability to find things and complete sets. I love exploring new worlds, peering around each corner and collecting. ILA: A Frosty Glide did not disappoint me in this regard. Soon enough, Ila was bouncing and gliding, searching high, low and behind waterfalls, all in the hope of finding treasure. And there is a lot to find! Seventy chests, over 30 story segments, a handful each of crystal balls, trendy glasses and memories of Coco, as well as over 20 discarded fish bones (evidence that Coco was there!).

There are even several Swept Markets around the different areas, each selling delightful clothing, hats, capes and skatebrooms.

The Highs and Lows

Obviously, a big part of ILA: A Frosty Glide is traversing the areas on Ila’s trusty skatebroom. A lot of the secrets can be reached with simple jumps and glides, but for the main story, you’ll need to glide further. The skatebroom starts with just one boost/jump, but you’ll find permanent upgrades to your boosts as you explore. Some longer glides will be helped with recharge rings, which refill your current boosts. It takes a while to get used to the glide, boost, and dash options, but for the most part, this was a satisfying aspect of the game. Eventually, you’ll get a skatebroom upgrade, which makes getting to those tricky ledges so much easier.

However, there are a few areas which require more skill than I could muster. Platforming is not my favourite genre of gaming, and trying to jump to and then ground pound on a disappearing hopshroom needed more dexterous fingers than mine. Although I’d managed (after numerous attempts) gliding and ground pounding around a shape on the ground to unlock new areas, the added pressure of the disappearing hopshroom was too much. My Gaming Buddy succeeded where I failed, but not without a few attempts! There is no penalty for failing; Ila will respawn on the side, ready to try again.

Towards the final part of ILA: A Frosty Glide, you need to skate down the mountain and jump between land, using recharge rings to gain height and distance. There aren’t any checkpoints in this long slide and jump section – fall, and Ila respawns at the top of the mountain. Try as I and my Gaming Buddy might, we could not get enough altitude to make the final jumps and constantly restarting from the beginning of the run and failing too many times to count, just became too frustrating. Coco will have to remain lost.

I really wish the developers had thought of adding difficulty levels to the game. Bigger ground pound zones when trying to unlock new areas, longer times before the rock platforms and hopshrooms disappear and bigger boosts in gliding would make the game more accessible (and more enjoyable) for more gamers. And there is truly so much in ILA: A Frosty Glide, which is worth celebrating and sharing.

Update: Leaving Coco stuck, alone on the mountain became too much for me to bear, and after another 2 hours of trying the final jumps and exploring, I found a way to join the downhill slope closer to the end. It still took several attempts, but eventually Ila did rescue Coco. It was a little underwhelming after so much effort.

Gameplay

Once familiar with the controls, they work well. Interaction points appear when close enough to objects to examine or collect. The controls are given in the options menu as a reminder, along with audio settings, camera sensitivity and invert options and the ability to have a speedrun clock.

There is no touchscreen functionality, and the text is just about readable on the Switch Lite.

I didn’t encounter any software issues whilst playing ILA: A Frosty Glide. Occasionally, the view would be obscured by trees or rocks, but quickly correct itself. The camera is fixed at points, but at other times you can rotate the view.

The game autosaves, with a ‘save and quit’ to return to the main menu. There are three save slots, and each one consists of 6 autosave points, should you wish to load a previous time.

There is no time of day as such, but certain areas are bright and colourful, others areas are dark and gloomy. Prior to the additional time spent rescuing Coco as mentioned above, I spent 6 hours playing the game and found 85% of the collectables.

Conclusion

ILA: A Frosty Glide has some excellent gameplay – I thoroughly enjoyed exploring and collecting. There is a lot to savour and take pleasure in when roaming around, uncovering the secrets and customising Ila’s appearance. If rating the game solely on that aspect, it would score highly. However, I found some of the platforming too frustrating and too difficult to look fondly on my time with ILA: A Frosty Glide. The extreme highs and lows of emotion in trying and just not succeeding left me disheartened.

If you like challenging platforming and lots of exploring, then this game might be for you, but for me…

Final Verdict: I’m Not Sure

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