Ice Climber

Ice Climber
Developer	Nintendo R&D1
Publisher	Nintendo
System	Nintendo Entertainment System, Arcade, e-Reader, Game Boy Advance, Virtual Console (Wii, 3DS, Wii U)
Release Date	Nintendo Entertainment System JP October 30, 1985 US October 1985 EU September 1, 1986 JP November 18, 1988 (FDS) Arcade US 1988< br />e-Reader US November 12, 2002 Game Boy Advance JP February 14, 2004 US June 2, 2004 EU July 9, 2004 Wii Virtual Console JP January 16, 2007 US February 12, 2007 EU March 16, 2007 3DS Virtual Console August 31, 2011 (Ambassador) JP July 4, 2012 US January 31, 2013 EU May 2, 2013 SK March 2, 2016Wii U Virtual Console US April 26, 2013 JP/PAL April 27, 2013
Rating	ESRB: E

This article is about the game. For the characters starring in this game, see Ice Climbers.

Ice Climber is a platforming game for the NES that stars a pair of heroes in parkas within an arctic setting. Despite its obscurity, the game later received more exposure due to the game's heroes appearing in several of the Super Smash Bros. games.

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 Climber never received any sequel, the characters have appeared in various Nintendo games since then. Most prominently, Popo and Nana have been featured as playable characters in several games of the Super Smash Bros. series, starting in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Some of 9-Volt's microgames in the WarioWare series are based on Ice Clmber or feature Popo and Nana. Tetris DS and Daigasso! Band Brothers also feature references to Ice Climber, and it is one of the games featured in NES Remix.

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

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 playable in Animal Crossing.
• In 2004, Ice Climber was released for the Game Boy Advance as part of the Classic NES series.
• Ice Climber was made available for download on other Nintendo systems through each iteration of the Virtual Console: the Wii Virtual Console in 2007, the 3DS Virtual Console in 2012 and the Wii U Virtual Console in 2013. Before its original 3DS Virtual Console release, the game was among those offered for free for participants in the Ambassador Program. A demo version of the game was included in Super Smash Bros. Brawl as a Masterpiece.
• In 2016, it was among the games included in the NES Classic Edition.
• In 2018, it was among the NES games made available to play as part of the Nintendo Switch Online service. It was part of the first wave of games that were made available with the launch of the service in September 2018. This version included cooperative and competitive online multiplayer options.