My climber runs like a maniac and jumps like he has a broken leg, but I had fun, regardless.
But, fortunately, that's really all as far as major flaws go. Sure visuals and audio are unremarkable, but hey, this is an early NES game, where most of the early games looked practically identical in graphical quality. There's also some more forgettable tunes, though they are kinda catchy.
The amount of content is pretty remarkable also. 32 mountains, and you can choose which one you start at. I've rarely seen as big a difference in difficulty in the beginning and the end of a game as much as Ice Climber. Play the first mountain. Simple jumping up 8 layers, no obstacles other than an occasional enemy popping out from the sides. Then the 32nd mountain. Insanely fast and small moving clouds blocking the only way up through the layers. Enemies pop out pretty fast and repair the ice that you break. Your timing needs to be literally mastered to get past this. Not to mention the polar bears that smash layers down. If you're on the bottom when this happens, goodbye!
Ice Climber's actually pretty fun, even after all these years. It's no 'NES Classic' dud like the original Donkey Kong. It's also not a tear-jerking, moving, epic adventure either. As far as mere timewasters go, you can't do much better.