Matt's take:

Ice Climbers is a somewhat untapped Nintendo resource. Whereas many other games have spawned sequel after sequel, the nearest thing the mountain climbing duo got to a remake was an appearance in Super Smash Brothers Melee on the beloved ‘Cube. Even this inclusion was deemed an odd choice by some, who might have preferred something more recognisable, like Kid Icarus (speaking of which, why isn’t this in the collection?).

Despite the lack of new adventures, there have been re-releases. This very game was a collectable item in Animal Crossing and has also been released on Nintendo’s e-reader cards.

Nevertheless, here they are again, in all their pixelated glory. The game from 1984 revolves around the task of climbing an icy mountain. Mountains are (rather inaccurately) made up of a series of floating platforms, and the tool of the trade is a large mallet. Well, obviously. This is actually used to smash through ice walls and ceilings, allowing you to progress through the holes that you make. The tool is also a weapon, giving a good deal of whackage to those enemies foolish enough to get in the climber’s way. Some of these bad guys walk, others fly, and all take the form of animals.

Once you’ve climbed an appropriate distance, a bonus stage appears. A giant condor seems to have been carrying a load of aubergines (or eggplants) up to the top of the mountain. Why is a mystery. I can only assume it’s part of an evil masterplan too complicated for my feeble mind to grasp. Anyway, grabbing the veggies scattered around the bonus level gets you extra points, and making it to the condor at the very top gets you even more. And this is a bonus round, so dying merely takes you to the next level.

This is one of the few games of the time that had a true two-player mode, rather than a take-it-in-turns approach. So in this mode two climbers get to battle the mountain in a frantic race to the top. The screen is constantly scrolling upwards in this mode. Get left behind and it’s instant game over for that player. Happily, the new cartridge will include support for the wireless adapter, and a handy high score save.

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Stephen's Review:

This happens to be one of the few NES games I missed back when it was released. Unlike some first generation NES games like Excitebike and Donkey Kong; Ice Climber fell by the wayside and by the time I bought my Nintendo Entertainment System in late 1989, it was already out of production.

The heroes of Ice Climber are a couple of parka wearing mountaineers. These Climbers busts ice blocks to jump up to higher level with his trusty hammer, it also has a dual purpose of inflicting damage to any enemy that just happens to get in the way. All the time searching for -- yeah you guessed it -- eggplants.

This is a very tough game, its premise may seem simple, but busting ice blocks, avoiding enemies, and jumping on platforms gets very tricky as you progress through the more than thirty mountains. Add to this the jumping is somewhat awkward, you can make a fairly high standing jump, but the distance you can jump is decreased sharply if you try to make a movement to the left, or right.

The Classic NES version of Ice Climber features single player, and multiplayer support. The two player game is really fun, racing up the mountain, and just like games from this generation if you get caught on a ledge when the screen scrolls you loose a life. The two player support was missing from the other versions on the e-reader, and animal crossing in case you were wondering. The game also features the battery backup for scores. Just like all the other games in the Classic NES series.