Ice Climber

Ice Climber
Developer	Nintendo R&D1
Publisher	Nintendo
System	Nintendo Entertainment System, Gameboy Advance, Virtual Console, Various Others
Release Date	Nintendo Entertainment System JP October 30, 1985 US October 1985 EU September 1, 1986 Gameboy Advance JP February 14, 2004 US June 2, 2004 EU July 9, 2004 Virtual Console JP January 16, 2007 US February 12, 2007 EU March 16, 2007
Rating	ESRB: E

Ice Climber is a game for the NES. Though it had fallen into obscurity, the game has recently come back into the spotlight due to the game's heroes appearing in Super Smash Bros. Melee.

The game was the first game programmed by Kazuaki Morita. He considered the game a "warm up" before working on Super Mario Bros.

Story

All of the village's vegetables have been stolen by a giant condor. It's up to Popo and Nana to get them back.

Gameplay

The goal of Ice Climbers is to get to the top of the mountain. To get to the top, the player has to chip their way through the ice, defeat enemies, and avoid deadly icicles. After the first eight stories of the mountain, the player comes to a bonus area. They then have 40 seconds to grab as many vegetables as they can and try to defeat the condor. After completing a mountain, the player moves on to a new one.

The enemies include polar bears, Nitpickers, and Topis. In the Japanese version of the game, the Topis were seals, but were changed in the American version of the game due to concerns about animal cruelty, specifically seal clubbing.

In two player mode, both players try to advance up the mountain. For most of the level, players may cooperate to get up the mountain. However, once they get to the bonus area, the players must compete for vegetables and to reach the condor.

Legacy

Though Ice Climbers never had a sequel, they have appeared in various Nintendo games. Some of 9-Volt's microgames in the WarioWare series are based on Ice Clmber or feature Popo and Nana. In Super Smash Bros. Melee, Popo and Nana are playable characters. In Animal Crossing, Ice Climber is playable within the game. Tetris DS and Daigasso! Band Brothers also feature references to Ice Climber.

Ports and Remakes

• In 1988, Nintendo released an arcade version of Ice Climber as part of the Vs. series.
• Nintendo allowed Hudson Soft to port Ice Climbers to the NEC PC-8801.
• In 2002, Ice Climber was released as an E-Reader game.
• In 2004, Ice Climber was released for the Gameboy Advance as part of the Classic NES series.
• In 2007, Ice Climber was made available for the Virtual Console.