So old that my old man didn't play it.
Gameplay: (1 Player 5/10 2 Players 8/10)
Ice Climber is a classic old school platformer. Player 1 controls Popo, and blue-clad mountaineer equipped with a mallet. Jump up and make a hole in the platform above you and then jump through to get you to the next platform. Pretty basic concept, but no where as easy as it seems.
The gameplay in Ice Climber is far more difficult then you would expect. Small horizontal jumping capabilities, moving platforms (clouds), slopes and enemies make the game challenging. If you make a hole and leave it long enough the Topi's (little Yeti like guys) will race into their caverns, bring out ice and fill the hole up. Nitpickers (birds) fly around between levels and add to the challenge of traversing the mountain, until you give them a good bonk on the head that is. Platforms with diagonal lines are slopes and your character will slip along them to the left or right, be careful with these because you keep traveling in that direction until you land on flat ground.
So you finally make it to the top of the mountain, then what happens? In comes the bonus round. There is a bonus round at the end of every level and they give you a truck load of extra points if you successfully complete it. There are no enemies in the bonus round and a time limit of 40 seconds before the round ends and you move onto the next level. Your goal in the bonus rounds is to gather and regain your stolen vegetables and make it to the top and fly away on a bird. Collecting all the vegetables is not compulsory. If you were unlucky enough to fall off the stage in the bonus round you won't lose a life. There are a total of 32 levels, try doing them all in a row.
I cannot stress enough how much better this game is with two players. Player 2 controls Nana. Who is basically a pink version of Popo. If you have a lot of friends to game with you'll find that this game gets played a lot more often then if you rarely play with others locally.
The controls don't seem to mix very well with the Wii-mote. I can't comment on how well they work with a Classic controller at the current point in time as I don't own one. However, using my Wavebird felt a lot more friendlier in my hands, and made playing a lot more enjoyable. Overall not the most enthralling gameplay, but when playing with friends it's pretty fun.
Graphics: (6/10)
Ice Climber's graphics are plain and simple, like most games made in the mid 80's. They have aged pretty well and don't hinder the gameplay. The sprites are nice and the backgrounds and levels clean and simple. Not a real stunner, even for a NES game from the mid '80s, but still have that nice cute arcade feel all the same.
Sound: (10/10)
The sound in Ice Climber is simply superb. Where the gameplay and graphics are just passable the sound is excellent. The tunes get stuck in your head from the moment you start playing and are by far the mort memorable thing about this game. Classic NES tunes are all you'll fine here, even if there are only two of them. It's almost worth a download just to listen to the songs as you struggle through the gameplay.
Value(Playtime): (7/10)
Overall it's pretty decent value for money, but there are other NES titles that are more fulfilling time wise. Playtime varies a lot depending on your skill. There is a huge amount of replay, which you would expect in an arcade style platformer. The fact that you can select any of the levels to begin playing from as soon as you download it does take away from the joy of the first full play through. However due to the difficulty of this game it's probably better this way as it is so that you can at least see the harder levels, even if you can't reach them by playing through the game normally.
Final Recommendation: (6.5/10)
It can be fairly enjoyable at times. I mean, it only cost 500 Wii points. Not exactly riveting in the gameplay, story and graphics, but has very catchy music. Good times with your friends are bound to come as you play through this for the first time or reminisce about all those wasted years back in the day when they made real games.