Ice Climber

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

Ice Climber
Developer(s)	R&D1
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Released	January 30, 1985 October 18, 1985 September 1, 1986
Genre	Platform
Mode(s)	Up to 2 players simultaneously
Ratings	ESRB: E (Everyone) (Wii)
Platform(s)	Arcade, NES, PC-88, FDS, Game Boy Advance, e-Reader, Virtual Console
Input methods	Joystick (8-way); 2 buttons
Arcade cabinet	Upright
Arcade system	VS. Unisystem
Arcade display	Horizontal Raster, standard resolution (Used: 256 x 240)

Ice Climber (アイスクライマー, Aisu Kuraimā^?) is a climbing platform 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.^[1][2]

Contents 1 Gameplay 2 Development staff 2.1 NES credits 2.2 e-Reader and GBA credits 3 Other versions 4 Cameo appearances 4.1 Super Smash Bros. series 4.2 WarioWare series 4.3 Other games 5 References 6 External links

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 ice-covered mountains 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 take 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. Enemies encounter on their way up the mountains include the Topi, Nitpicker, and polar bear. Toppies 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). Toppies 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, a Topi scouts out a place the player has carved through the floor, runs back to its cave, and reemerges pushing an icicle to fill in two blocks. This process repeats till no more openings on their ice level exist. After a few successful mountains climbed, their speed increases making contact with one 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. Each climber starts a new game with three lives. The only way to gain an extra life is to collect all four pieces of corn, the vegetable seen in the fifth bonus stage. 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.

Development staff

NES credits

• Executive Producer: Hiroshi Yamauchi
• Producer: Shigeru Miyamoto
• Director: Kenji Miki
• Character Design: Tadashi Sugiyama
• Music: Akito Nakatsuka

e-Reader and GBA credits

• Executive Producer: Satoru Iwata
• Producer: Satoshi Yamoto
• Director: Kenji Miki
• Main Program: Tomohiro Kawase, Hideaki Shimizu
• Sound Composition: Akito Nakatsuka
• Supervisor: Tadashi Sugiyama
• Product Debug & Testing Unit: Super Mario Club

Ice Climber was the first video game programmed by Kazuaki Morita. He considered the game his "warm-up" on the NES before his work as a main programmer on Super Mario Bros.^[3] Morita was later credited with central programming roles in numerous games including the Super Mario Bros. series, The Legend of Zelda series, and Star Fox 64.

Other versions

Ice Climber has been ported a handful of times. Note that Vs. Ice Climber is not a true port, since it includes elements not found in the original NES game, such as a stage select menu, blizzard and wind effects, new enemies, and bonus multipliers. For the release on the PC-8801, the game changes to a different and more limited color palette along with a reworked GUI.^[4] Including the releases listed below, the entire NES game is found within the 2001 Nintendo 64 release of Animal Forest and the 2002 GameCube release of Animal Crossing.

Name	Date	Platform	Notes
Vs. Ice Climber	1984	Arcade	Nintendo Vs. Series
Ice Climber	1985	NES/Famicom
Ice Climber	1985	NEC PC-8801
Ice Climber	1988	Famicom Disk System	Port of Vs. Ice Climber
Ice Climber-e	2002	e-Reader	Barcoded cards, readable with e-reader and Game Boy Advanced.
Ice Climber	2004	Game Boy Advance	Classic NES Series
Ice Climber	2007	Wii	Virtual Console

Cameo appearances

Super Smash Bros. series

Popo and Nana, the hero and heroine of Ice Climber, first appear as playable fighters in Super Smash Bros. Melee voiced by Sanae Kobayashi.^[5] The Ice Climbers' symbol is an eggplant, the first vegetable rescued from the original game. Even though they are collectively the same fighter, players only control Popo while Nana mimics his every move. Changing the fighters' colors can allow one to control Nana with Popo following. Polar bears and Toppies appear in Melee as well. Predictably, the Japanese version contains the seal Topi while western versions has the yeti. Their target test stage is a direct, 2.5D representation of the NES-style graphics. Also their stage is "Icicle Mountain", a big mountain that is somewhat based on the mountains from Ice Climbers and often scrolls up and down. The Ice Climbers are confirmed to appear as playable characters in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which will be released for the Wii on February 10, 2008 in North America.^[6] In Brawl, the Ice Climbers' Final Smash is called "Iceberg." When used, a huge iceberg appears center stage and takes up most of the area. Opponents touching the iceberg are frozen with damage dealt. Their homestage is "The Summit," an updated realization of a mountain peak in the NES game.

WarioWare series

• WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$: One of 9-Volt's classic Nintendo microgames is based on Ice Climber. It consists of Popo grabbing the condor's feet.
• WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$: This cameo is the same as the cameo in WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$.
• WarioWare: Twisted!: One of 9-Volt and 18-Volt's classic Nintendo-styled microgames is based on Ice Climber. The player smashes enemies with a hammer.
• WarioWare: Touched!: One of 9-Volt and 18-Volt's Nintendo microgames is named "8-bit-hero". Players touch the pixel that differs from a 6x7 "pixel checkerboard" in the top image. On third difficulty, the sprite is Popo.

Other games

• Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land & Kirby Air Ride: When Kirby gets the Freeze ability, he dons Popo's parka in the same manner it is worn in the Super Smash Bros. series.^[7]
• Tetris DS: An Ice Climber backdrop makes an appearance among other classic Nintendo games.^[8]
• Daigasso! Band Brothers: The bonus stage theme is featured in this DJ music game for the Nintendo DS.^[9]

References

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. Brawl website