Ice Climber

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This article is about the arcade game. For the activity in general, see Ice climbing.

Ice Climber
Developer(s)	Nintendo
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Release date(s)	1985
Genre(s)	Platform
Mode(s)	Up to 2 players simultaneously
Platform(s)	Arcade, NES, PC-88, Game Boy Advance, e-Reader, Virtual Console
Input	Joystick (8-way); 2 buttons
Arcade cabinet	Upright
Arcade system(s)	VS. Unisystem
Arcade display	HorizontalRaster, standard resolution (Used: 256 x 240)

Ice Climber (アイスクライマー, Aisu Kuraimā^?) is a climbing platforming video game developed and published by Nintendo for the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985. A year earlier, a slightly different and lesser known version was released as part of the Vs. arcade series called Vs. Ice Climber. In some countries of Europe, the console game was bundled with the NES, increasing the game's familiarity outside Japan.

Contents 1 Gameplay 2 Super Smash Bros. Melee 3 Trivia 4 Ports 5 Other appearances 5.1 WarioWare series 6 External links

[edit] Gameplay

In the game, player 1 controls Popo (ポポ) (a boy dressed in a blue Eskimo parka) while player 2 controls Nana (ナナ) (a girl dressed in a pink Eskimo parka). Their challenge is to venture up an ice-covered mountain and recover their stolen vegetables from a giant condor. The only tool a player has is a hammer to make openings on the ice layer above and to club enemies. Each mountain consists of eight levels of colorful ice and a bonus stage. Standard, dull ice blocks pose no threat other than an easily disposed of barrier. Ice blocks that appear more square and detailed are indestructible forcing the player to take another path. The darker ice with diagonal lines act as a conveyor belt sliding the Eskimo either to the left or right. Finally, many mountains include cloud-shaped, moving platforms as an additional hurdle. The bonus stage takes place at the peak. With a time limit of 40 seconds and no enemies, the Ice Climbers often face trickier jumps and multiple moving platforms. It is also the only place they can snag back their stolen vegetables, most notably eggplants. At the top of the peak, the condor flies overhead. Grabbing its talons before time runs out gives the player a large bonus.

The enemies they encounter on their way up the mountain include Topis, Nitpickers, and polar bears. Topis come in two varieties: the seal featured in the Japanese version and the small yeti seen in western copies. While early U.S. releases featured the seal design, they were redone as a more imaginary creature over concerns of animal cruelty (seal clubbing). Topis are the least threatening of the Ice Climbers' adversaries. Their aim is to keep the duo from reaching further up the peak by filling in gaps in the ice. To do this, Topis scout out places the player has carved through the floor, run back to their cave, and reemerge pushing an icicle to fill in two ice blocks. This process repeats till they find no more openings on their level of the mountain. Topis become increasingly more of a threat with each successful mountain climbed. Not only does their speed increase but with more complex ice platforms to scale, coming in contact with one is all the more likely. The Nitpicker is a small, mountain-dwelling bird that swoops down from icy caves on the edges. Unlike the Topi which is confined to one floor of the mountain, Nitpickers can cross over multiple ice layers. Taking them into account along with moving platforms and sliding ice, timing jumps can be more difficult. The final enemy is the pink-shorts-wearing, sunglass-sporting, upright-walking polar bear. Rarely seen, this enemy can be a big headache if Popo or Nana is hanging too low on the screen and taking too long to advance. Pounding the ice, this enemy forces the screen to move up. If an Eskimo is forced off the screen as well, the player loses a life. Other obstacles include deadly falling icicles. These can form on the bottom of any type of ice or platform.

The game can be played in one or two player mode. The latter places Popo and Nana against each other in a race to the summit. Players can cooperate together on the way up, but during the bonus round they compete for the top.

[edit] Super Smash Bros. Melee

The Ice Climbers appeared in Super Smash Bros. Melee for GameCube as playable fighters. Popo and Nana are connected as a single character. If the player selects the Ice Climbers, he or she will control Popo; Nana is computer-controlled (unless in the costume change, you choose Nana instead), and will mimic what Popo does unless separated by a considerable distance. Expert players can take advantage of this by purposely separating them to use two separate attacks at once, making them hard to defend against in one-on-one matches. Although the two characters work as a unit (especially if they have the same item; or if one is charging, the other can block), the computer-controlled player can be defeated without the player's character being defeated. However, the effectiveness of the Ice Climbers' attacks are reduced, as Popo can no longer use his third jump when he is alone, and the player can no longer use two smash attacks at once. However, players may still be deadly without the computer-controlled player. The symbol for the Ice Climbers is an eggplant, one of the vegetables rescued in the original game.

One of the stages, Icicle Mountain, is based on the mountain stages in the original game. Polar bears wearing their pink shorts and Topis both appear in the stage in Adventure mode, as well as randomly coming out of crates and barrels. Lastly, the "target test" stage for the Ice Climbers is a direct representation of a standard NES-style Ice Climber stage. Predictably, the Japanese version contains the seal Topis while the western version has yetis.

In addition to Icicle Mountain, there are a few other references. There are two music tracks in Icicle Mountain; "Icicle Mountain" is the title theme and stage music from Ice Climber, and "Ice Climbers's Victory" is the stage complete music. There are also five Ice Climber trophies: Ice Climbers, Ice Climbers (Smash 1), Ice Climbers (Smash 2), Polar Bear, Topi. The Ice Climbers's Target Test stage borrows graphics from the original Ice Climbers. The final target is carried by the condor (rendered in 8-bit form).

In the game, Popo and Nana are both voiced by Sanae Kobayashi. It is unknown if The Ice Climbers will appear in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, despite several rumors that they had been confirmed to have been taken out.

[edit] Trivia

• Ice Climber was the first video game Kazuaki Morita programmed. He considered the game his "warm-up" on the NES before his work as a Main Programmer on Super Mario Bros.[1] Morita later would be credited with central programming roles in numerous games including the Super Mario Bros. series, the Legend of Zelda series, and Star Fox 64.
• In the fifth bonus stage, the next vegetable to take back is corn. Collecting all four pieces is the only way to gain an extra life.
• On rare occasions, falling onto the head of the other player will cause the player to be forced through the floor of the level. If this happens on the bottom floor, the player will lose a life.

[edit] Ports

Ice Climber has been ported a handful of times. Note that Vs. Ice Climber in many was can be considered its own game and not a true port. Different elements including a stage select menu, blizzard and wind effects, new enemies, and bonus multipliers can separate it from the original NES game. Also the release on the PC-8801 uses a different and more limited color palette along with a reworked GUI.

• Vs. Ice Climber (arcade) 1984 (Nintendo Vs. Series)
• Ice Climber (Nintendo Entertainment System) 1985
• Ice Climber (NEC PC-8801) 1985[2]
• Ice Climber (Famicom Disk System) 1988 (port of Vs. Ice Climber)
• Ice Climber-e (e-Reader) 2000/2001
• Ice Climber (Nintendo GameCube) 2002 (found within the game Animal Crossing)
• Ice Climber (Game Boy Advance) 2004 (Classic NES Series)
• Ice Climber (Wii) 2007 (Virtual Console)

[edit] Other appearances

• Tetris DS: An Ice Climber backdrop makes an appearance among other classic Nintendo games.
• Daigasso! Band Brothers: The bonus stage theme is featured in this DJ music game for the Nintendo DS.

[edit] WarioWare series

• WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$: One of 9-Volt's classic Nintendo microgames is based on the original Ice Climber. Grab the Condor's feet.
• WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$: This cameo is also same as the cameo in the original WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$ (above)
• WarioWare: Twisted!: One of 9-Volt and 18-Volt's classic Nintendo-styled microgames is based on Ice Climber. Smash enemies with a hammer.
• WarioWare: Touched!: One of 9-Volt and 18-Volt's Nintendo microgames is named "8-bit-hero". Touch the pixel that's different from on a 6x7 "pixel checkerboard" from the top image, and on third difficulty, the sprite is of Popo.

[edit] External links

• Ice Climber guide at StrategyWiki
• Ice Climber at MobyGames
• Ice Climber at GameFAQs
• N-Philes Retro Revival feature for Ice Climber
• Profile of Popo and Nana on the Super Smash Bros. Melee website (Japanese)