Ice Climber: Classic NES Series
by Nintendo
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Category: Video Games
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Product Summary
Brand: NintendoPlatform: Game Boy Advance
Publisher: Nintendo
Product features:
- Perfect re-creation of the beloved original!
- Scale 32 mountains.
- One- and two-player action.
Video Game Reviews of Ice Climber: Classic NES Series
Customer Review: Is it REALLY a "cult-classic"? Eh...
Summary: 3 Stars
Alright, for those of you who are big fans of the Super Smash Bros. series, you should know about the Ice Climbers. They are 2 eskimo kids who are paired up together as one fighter to kick the butts of anyone in the arena.
With their introduction in Melee, several people wondered where they were from in the first place. This is the Gameboy Advance port of their very first NES game, part of the NES Classics series. It is title, what else? Ice Climber.
The basis of the game is simple: You control Popo, a little boy (or adolescent midget, give or take) in a eskimo parka, (Or in the case of player 2, Nana, Popo's GF in the pink parka) as he climbs several mountains (32 to be exact) to reach the top to catch the infamous condor, and along the way, he collects vegetables... magic vegetables with EYES (I'm not joking, why do you think the IC's Emblem, an EGGPLANT looks weird in Melee/Brawl?)
To be blunt, the port of the NES game to the GBA is rather faithful. The graphics and music are proof of that, but unfortunately, that isn't saying much for the gameplay. Each level is breaken up into 8 rows that you must climb to reach the top. You must jump up and hit the cieling to take a chunk of it off and jump up to the next row, and so on and so forth. As you do so, icicles form on certain parts of the cieling, and you must avoid them, and you also run into several enemies, a red bird called the "Nitpicker," the infamous Topi (A yeti thing in the US version, a blue seal in the JP), and a polar bear. The nitpicker, being a bird, flies towards you to collide into you, but it isn't that much trouble; you can also take it down while jumping under it. The topis can walk into you, and sometimes bring Icicles to rebuild broken parts of the floor that an either impede your progress or help you out. The polar bears, when they show up, you better pray that you're not at the bottom of the screen, because they can jump and cause the screen to move upward, and if you're at the bottom when that happens, you DIE. So anyway, if you clear all 8 rows, you're taken to a bonus segment, where you must climb to the top on clouds while getting vegetables, and at the top, there is the condor. If you manage to grab onto the condor, you finish the level with a bonus. If you fall down before doing so during the segment, you just go onto the next level with no bonus.
Now, the controls. Aside from the D-Pad, which controls the Ice Climber, There are 4 buttons. Start, which starts the game at the menu and pauses it; Select, which I believe is only useful for selecting 1/2 player at the menu (meaning, unless you can connect with a player on the GBA with an accessory, it's practically useless); A which is used to jump, and B with is used to club enemies with your mallet. The B button is responsive, and so are the D-Pad, however, the game's true downfall is the JUMPING. Oh god, the JUMPING. Everything else is fine, but it's the JUMPING that's the most abysmal. What to know what I mean? When Popo jumps, he gets great vertical height, in other words, he jumps REALLY high, but at the cost of a GREAT deal of horizontal length. I understand that he's supposed to be climbing mountains, but come on! The awful jumping in this game doesn't really cover that much distance at all, and if you're not that careful in the later levels, there is a great chance that you're gonna fall to the bottom and die. And that is ESPECIALLY a problem when you try to jump on clouds, and in the bonus levels if you try to reach the top. And also, there are more problems besides that. If you jump and happen to hit a wall, Popo goes to the OTHER direction. And there are times where Popo goes through the EDGE of a platform while jumping. This is also just as wack when Popo can jump through the edge of a cloud, but he can't jump on the cloud from DIRECTLY UNDER IT. I defies logic in of itself, and I don't know why clouds are SOLID object when they're not supposed to be, even in real life! I know it may sound crazy, but play it and see for yourself!
Overall, it's a decent game, just not actually enough to get the "cult status" that is claimed to have. It's a good port of the original NES game, and the gameplay and controls are faithful, but it's the JUMPING that carried over from the NES game that brought the score down.
There is one thing that we should be grateful for, is the fact that this game introduces these cute little parka-wearing kids into the world, and that the producers brought them back in Melee and Brawl.
Description of Ice Climber: Classic NES Series
Ice Climber - Classic NES Series lets players enjoy the arcade hit, complete with original graphics. An annoying condor has stolen your vegetables and left them on 32 different mountain peaks. If you want them back, you'll have to climb them al. Fun challenge is waiting for you in this classic platform adventure!All Games
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