Ice Climber

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## General Information

### Developer

Nintendo
Hudson
Hamster Corporation

### Publisher

Nintendo
Hamster Corporation

### Platform

Arcade (Vs. System), Famicom/NES, PC-8801, Sharp X1, Famicom Disk System, GameCube, Wii, Nintendo Wii U/3DS, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, Playstation

***Ice Climber*** is a platform co-op game developed and published by Nintendo, and is the initial installment of the series. This game is one of the 12 playable masterpieces in *Super Smash Bros. Brawl*. *Ice Climber* was one of the first NES games that allowed for a pair of people to play simultaneously. It can be played for 40 seconds and starts at the first level. It was released in 1985 for both the arcade VS. System and the console associated with Famicom (Nintendo Entertainment System). The characters, Popo and Nana, collectively referred as the Ice Climbers, scale 32 vertically scrolling, ice-covered mountains to recover stolen vegetables from a giant, mischievous condor. In some European countries, *Ice Climber* was bundled with the Nintendo Entertainment System, initially released in January 30, 1985.

## Gameplay

In *Ice Climber*, the player controls a child in a blue Inuit parka and wielding a mallet as the default first player, Popo, and in a two-player cooperative mode, a second feminine Ice Climber in a pink parka, Nana, becomes a simultaneous second-player character. The Ice Climbers are motivated into jumping up through vertical, platform-heavy "glacial mountain" stages when all of their vegetables are stolen by a giant condor that retreats to the top of each stage, and along their routes, they must smash blocks of ice either by jumping into them from underneath or using their mallets. In addition to forming random ice stalactites that fall down from above, several varieties of antagonists native to the mountains threaten to reduce an Ice Climber's limited stock of lives: a flying bird, titled the Nitpicker, an upright-walking Polar Bear that wears pink shorts and sunglasses, and a Topi, which undergone an infamous alteration from a seal to a rotund, yeti-like creature in the Western version, perhaps to avoid potential accusations of endorsing animal cruelty (in that the game depicts humans bludgeoning live seals for a point reward). Furthermore, the arcade version includes a pair of enemies which were omitted from the NES release: the Bee, which wields a spear and flies across the screen, and the Butterfly, which replaces the Condor in some levels. The upper half of all stages is an antagonist-free "bonus" stage in which the Ice Climbers have the opportunity to navigate a tricky set of platforms, collect vegetables for points, and potentially jump up to and grab the condor's talons (or the Butterfly's feet in some levels in *Vs. Ice Climber*) at the mountain peak, all for a massive point-bonus.

## Characters

> *Main article: Ice Climbers*
>
>

    The Ice Climbers are the superstar titular protagonists of *Ice Climber*, with these playable characters consisting of a pair of 8-year-old mountaineers wearing color-coded parkas: a male in blue christened Popo, and a female in pink christened Nana. Although hardware limitations originally limited them to simple 8-bit sprites, official artwork depicts them with chibi-esque proportions. The Ice Climbers both wield wooden mallets, which are versatile for breaking icy layers in order to further ascend each mountain, and to protect themselves by striking icicles or antagonists, like Topis and Polar Bears. On the route to the mountaintop, the duo can gain bonus points by collecting vegetables that are stolen by a condor at the beginning of each level. Ultimately, the Ice Climbers must catch the condor in order to proceed to the next mountain.

Together, Popo and Nana are playable characters in the *Super Smash Bros.* series, beginning with *Super Smash Bros. Melee*. Although the duo would be scrapped and relegated to trophies in *Super Smash Bros. 4*, the Ice Climbers would finally return to *Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*. The duo are voiced by Sanae Kobayashi.

## Legacy

Popo and Nana make their appearances in the *Super Smash Bros.* series of fighting game as a two-in-one playable fighter. However, the Ice Climbers did not return as playable characters in *Super Smash Bros. 4*, but were playable during the development of *Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo Wii U*. According to Masahiro Sakurai, their removal was the result of requiring "significant processing power" to control in *Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS*, adding that the 3DS was already being pushed to its limits and that he "couldn’t get them to work no matter how hard he tried." Possible solutions were attempted, such as removing joints from their model, as well as certain effects, such as gravity, though these did not yield results. Aside from functionality, Sakurai stated that the Ice Climbers were "lower-priority" inclusions, due to them being an example of characters whose home series had the lack of possibility of possessing a new installment in their series. While the duo could have been Wii U-exclusive characters, Sakurai wanted the rosters to be identical for both games. These issues ultimately resulted in the Ice Climbers being cut as playable characters and instead relegated to being a trophy. After so, the Ice Climbers make their reappearance in *Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*, alongside the rest of the entire roster.

## Reception

In January 1985, one of the various original video games developed by Nintendo's Research and Development division for the Japanese Famicom was *Ice Climber*, as part of a stream of comparatively "one-shot" games released in rapid succession in late 1984 and early 1985 (other games included *Clu Clu Land*, *Excitebike*, and *Balloon Fight*, which incidentally was released just a week earlier). It was the first game programmed by Kazuaki Morita, who went on to become the main programmer of the industry-defining *Super Mario Bros.* later that year, and became a prolific programmer for multiple titles in the *Mario* and *The Legend of Zelda* series, as well as for *Star Fox 64*. Like the other aforementioned Famicom games released before the world famous debuts of the *Mario* and *Zelda* series, *Ice Climber* was not necessarily any kind of breakout hit, and was never chosen as a recipient for sequels or follow-ups. The game was also arguably overshadowed by the *Super Mario Bros.* series when both games were among the fairly extensive launch library for the Famicom's Western equivalent, the NES. Nonetheless, the game can be said to have an especially significant background role in Nintendo's early release timeline because Morita described his work on the game as a "warm-up" before becoming a main programmer on the *Super Mario Bros.* series.

A little-known arcade version of *Ice Climber*, entitled *VS. Ice Climber*, was released in North America in the October of the previous year, which included some different stages; exclusive level hazards and enemies; and other mechanic changes, but otherwise, *Ice Climber* remained an isolated, historical relic from the early years of the Famicom/NES. Sixteen years later, however, Nintendo's *Super Smash Bros.* crossover fighting-game series selectively picked its superstar protagonists, the Ice Climbers, as playable characters choice representing an exclusively "retro" game series among a sea of Nintendo characters well-known in Nintendo's modern lineup of IPs. The appearance of the Ice Climbers in 2001's *Super Smash Bros. Melee* - which developer HAL Laboratory chose over other retro NES games such as *Balloon Fight* and *Kid Icarus* - spurred on multiple re-releases of their game in a variety of formats, such as for the e-Reader, a Game Boy Advance cartridge, the Virtual Console featured on the Wii; the 3DS; and the Wii U, and as part of the Switch's online service. The arcade version has also seen a re-release as part of the *Arcade Archives* series. Despite the Ice Climbers reappearing in *Super Smash Bros. Brawl* and *Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*, though, there have never been a single announced plan to produce some kind of modern-day follow-up.

## Trivia

* In Japanese, the Ice Climbers' collective names (アイスクライマー, *Ice Climber*) relegate back to "Ice Climber," referencing the title of their original game.
	+ The game's official title ceremonially references the infamous ice climbing sport that chronologically originated from 1970, then transitioned into a competition in 2002 by the UIAA. However, the differences between the game and the sport is that Popo and Nana climb mountaineers by jumping, removing icy layers and using their hammers. In addition, various antagonists, like Polar Bears, Topis and Nitpickers, are featured in the game's mountains, and the duo climb mountains in order to reach a condor stealing vegetables.
		- The sport, on the other hand, is revolved in competitions rather than collecting vegetables and reaching a condor. In addition, mountaineers do not have to deal with threatening species in reality.
* *Ice Climber* is one of the only universes to have more trophies than stickers.
* *Ice Climber* and *Metal Gear* are the only universes to have their only playable characters become scrapped in terms of availability in *Super Smash Bros. 4*. Both Snake and the Ice Climbers would later return in *Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*.
* Despite possessing a maximum of 2 tracks, the *Ice Climber* universe does not have its own category in *Ultimate*'s music section. This distinction also holds true for Duck Hunt and R.O.B.'s universes, despite the latter possessing a maximum of 20 tracks.
	+ Oddly, Mr. Game & Watch's universe has its own category despite possessing the same amount of maximum music tracks (2).

## References

1. ↑ Cool Box Art on Twitter: "Ice Climber / Arcade flyer / Nintendo / 1985"
2. ↑ Ice Climber (1985) cover art MobyGames
3. ↑ "I Answer Some Questions" Sakurai Famitsu column vol. 461-464, on Ice Climbers, clones, and Smash Run
4. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice\_climbing
5. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International\_Climbing\_and\_Mountaineering\_Federation