Ice Climber (1985)

Beat 6 or 7 stages before getting sick of it. I am surprised this piece of crap was not on my 31 in 1 cartridge back in the day, and I never even knew about it back then. The game played like an evolution from the original Mario Bros, even including awful jumping mechanics, though not quite as bad. There was very little horizontal movement while jumping and the guy often clipped through the platform I was jumping to. Many good platformers have forgiving platform detection where the character can have just a toe on solid ground and still be ok. This game felt like the opposite where if just 1 toe was sticking off the platform then it was a fall. All this made the game more frustrating than necessary and made me check out once more difficult mechanics were introduced, like having to break blocks from fast moving platforms and conveyors. I would not call it a bad game but it is not even close to good either.

5.0/10

I want to give this game a two. The controls are atrocious and jumping is extremely difficult.

However, for some odd reason, the game can be quite addictive, and even after you want to chuck the controller across the room because it's so frustrating, you likely will say to yourself "one more time."

I know games have grown a lot since the early arcade days, but there's something about those golden age arcade like titles that just make you want to play them and play them again. And while Ice Climber was not an arcade title, it's an NES game with a lot of arcade traits that make you want to give it one more try.

This game is flawed Big Time.

Jumping feels like a heavy task, and the Controls (to put it politely) Sucks. Love the Arcade-style gameplay but the game gets Too annoying Too quick when playing solo.

Playing with a Friend however is another story. Practically, I find this game better suited to be a Great Co-op Experience for the NES on Launch. It's just fun and can get very chaotic.

I've always loved ice levels and ice worlds in games. I remember as a kid I was stoked on the cover art for Ice Climber before I even played it. The European version was sick, with the polar bear and the little snow gnome or whatever. It is a really fun platformer where you break ice blocks above you with a hammer and you advance up until you get a bonus stage and advance to the next level, while dodging big birds, polar bears, ice shards, seals and other cool creatures.

Most of us that had the NES either owned or played Ice Climber at some point I feel like. Even if the jumping could have been programmed better, it adds to the difficulty, although it being frustrating just completely falling through blocks at times, when you should have landed on it. It may not have aged well, but at the time it was great fun to play multiplayer on the couch and try to reach the top first, while sabotaging for the other player! Great, sadistic fun! Ice Climber is a classic black box NES game that you should give a shot if you're in to video game history. I have it on my Game Boy Advance too, and it's a great little time waster.

Ice Climber may seem fairly tricky and difficult due to the player's movement and dangerous enemy placement, but offers a variety of well-designed challenges that will give the player plenty to chew on.

The player controls either Popo or Nana as they carry a wooden mallet up eight stages of a mountain plus a bonus stage to grab onto a Condor overhead. The player jumps forward in an arc and can hit enemies with the mallet. This seems unintuitive at first but the player can move in either direction and can scroll across edges to the other side of the stage, offering flexible enough movement among the conveyor belts, moving clouds, and slippery ice blocks.

With no time limit on the main stage, the game is surprisingly merciful and gives the player enough time to strategize out their approach before leaning into a 40 second timed stage with trickier jumps but no life penalty if the player loses there. Enemies build platforms with deadly ice blocks (that can be used to one's advantage) as well as fly across the stage and force the player upwards by forcing the screen to move up.

The game has 32 official stages before it starts speeding the game's enemies up. It's a decent chunk of a game even to get the character through all the way, so either with a second player or single the player'll have plenty of challenge and some good fun trekking up each mountain.

Everyone hates on Ice Climber and its terrible controls...

And it's true, the game does not control well at all. But still, I have a soft spot for it. It's one of those games I can jump into and play for a bit and inevitably Game Over by stage 12 (out of 32 total). It's simple arcade-style gameplay, and has a unique feel to it thanks to its vertical levels (the goal being to jump up platforms to reach the very top). I think the most fun to be had is in the two-player mode. It's so dumb, but so funny.

I think it'd be great to get a new Ice Climber game one day. Maybe have it be a 3D puzzle platformer or something, have it be co-op with the two little mountaineers. You climb the mountain, finding veggie collectibles along the way, clubbing all the wildlife -- and once you and your friend reach the top, you can have a sled race back down the mountain, why not. Come on Nintendo, forget this whole Breath of the Wild 2 nonsense and give your fans what they really want... Ice Climber 2