Ice Climber (アイスクライマー, Aisu Kuraimā) is one of the installments of the Ice Climber series, alongside the arcade expansion for the Nintendo VS. System, VS. Ice Climber. It was developed by Nintendo and released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985.
Overview
The first player controls Popo, a boy wearing a blue eskimo inuit parka, while the second player controls Nana, a girl wearing a pink one. The sole weapon the duo hoist is a wooden mallet to carve openings in the ice above and to club antagonists. Each mountain level consists of eight layers of colorful ice and a bonus stage. Standard, dull ice blocks are not threatening other than an easily disposed-of barrier and platform. Square-ice blocks with increased detail are indestructible, forcing the player to access another/an alternate path. Hatched ice functions as a conveyor belt, sliding the Ice Climbers either left or right. Finally, several mountains include unbreakable moving platforms resembling clouds. The antagonist-free bonus stage partakes at the peak of the mountains. Including a 40-second time limit, the Ice Climbers often face trickier jumps and multiple moving platforms. The peak is also the only place to recover stolen vegetables, most especially eggplants. Collecting just one piece of corn from the fifth bonus stage is the only method to achieve an extra life. At the top of the peak, the Condor flies overhead.
Enemies encountered while traveling up the mountains include the Topi, Nitpicker, and Polar Bear. Topis come in two varieties: the blue seal featured in the Japanese Famicom Ice Climber release, and the short and more fictional yeti-like creature, seen in western localizations and VS. Ice Climber. Topis have the ability to fill in holes in the floor with ice. To perform this, a Topi scouts out opening in the floor, runs back to its cave, and reemerges pushing an icicle to fill in a pair of blocks. This process repeats until no more openings on their layer of ice exist. The Nitpicker is a small, mountain-dwelling bird that swoops down from glacial caves on the mountains' 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 antagonist is the Polar Bear. This antagonist, wearing sunglasses and pink speedo swimsuit-pants, exclusively emerges when Popo and Nana take too long to advance on scaling the mountain. Pounding the ice with the force of his high weight, the Polar Bear forces the screen to scroll up. If an eskimo is forced off the screen, the player loses a life. Aside from that, other obstacles include deadly falling icicles. These can form on the bottom of any type of platform. After a few successful mountains climbed, all antagonists' behaviors dramatically become more swift.
The arcade expansion, VS. Ice Climber, has additional mechanical and aesthetic changes. Upon opening the game, the player is introduced with an animated title-opening sequence. The player must pick from an initial set of 24 mountains to conquer through a stage select. After eight are cleared in a row, the player is treated with a Super Bonus Stage, in which the player must scale a giant, vertical, glacial mountain with narrow and precise platforming under 40 seconds, and reach the summit with a flag planted on top for extra points. Afterwards, the player must choose from the second set of 24 mountains, in which the Condor is replaced by a giant butterfly, and the colorations of the mountains are altered. After the next eight stages are cleared and the Super Bonus Stage is over, the player resumes the cycle from the original set of mountains. The game retains track of whether the mountain was claimed by an Ice Climber or if it remains Topi-territory—once all of the stages are completed, the counter resets. Approximately 30 of the 48 level designs are borrowed from the NES variant. Stage setups are overall trickier in VS. Ice Climber, with a series of exclusive mechanics, such as clouds that have diagonal movement or strong gusts of wind that. In addition, a purple-orange bee with a spear flying in a horizontal pattern is included as a somewhat rare fourth antagonist.
After the bonus stage, the players' scores are tallied. Points are rewarded for each brick of ice destroyed, each Topi-pushed icicle smashed, each Nitpicker killed and each vegetable collected. Finally, a bonus score is rewarded if a player manages to climb to the top of the bonus stage and jump up and grab the Condor. The game retains track of the high score, although it cannot be saved on the NES variant.
The game can be played in single-player or cooperative multiplayer mode. The latter places Popo and Nana against each other in a race to the summit. Players can potentially prefer to play cooperatively while scaling the mountain, but during the bonus round, they must compete for the top.
Super Smash Bros. series
Popo and Nana, otherwise known as the Ice Climbers themselves, were the main protagonists of this game, and are playable in both Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. While technical issues and the Nintendo 3DS' lack of "hardware power" has resulted in the duo being scrapped from Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, the duo have made their reappearance in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. In addition, Topis and Polar Bears appear in Super Smash Bros. Melee as common enemies.
The "_target Test" stage for the Ice Climbers is also a near-exact rendering of the game set-up, including a flying Condor at the top of the mountain. Additionally, in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the duo's home stage is Summit, representing the "top" of the Icicle Mountain, confirmed by Masahiro Sakurai himself.
The game itself is also available as a Masterpiece in Brawl.
Gallery
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 Ice Climber universe
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| Character | Ice Climbers (Melee · Brawl · Ultimate) | |
| Side Characters | Enemies | Polar Bear · Topi |
| Final Smash | Condor | |
| Stages | Icicle Mountain · Summit | |
| Item | Vegetables | |
| Music | List of Music (Ice Climber) | |
| Collectibles | Trophies | Melee Trophies · Brawl Trophies |
| Stickers | List of Stickers (Ice Climber series) | |
| Spirits | List of spirits (Ice Climber series) | |
| Masterpieces | Ice Climber | |