Game:

Ice Climber (1984)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 1:48:55

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2

Released 1/30/1985, Ice Climber for Famicom consists of scaling 32 mountains as an Inuit in the Arctic. A level selector on the title screen allows for "infinite continues," but the controls of this game are awkward and getting to the top of a mountain with only a few lives can be challenging. This game is unique in the Nintendo catalog, and like other largely abandoned IP's from early Nintendo, one wonders if the characters will ever be featured in their own game again.

As was mentioned in my commentary on Balloon Fight, Ice Climber includes images of graphic violence that were largely abandoned by Nintendo as it shifted its focus to a younger target audience. You club birds, seals, and even polar bears by hitting them with your wooden mallet. Apparently whacking seals was deemed too controversial for American audiences (even though the Ice Climbers can claim self-defense), so they were substituted with Yeti in the NES version. This is largely due to the fact that sealing, the (still current) practice of hunting seals by bashing them on the skull, is abhorrent to the majority of people who learn of its existence!

I am considering a playthrough to be completion of each mountain. I played on an original NES with a Game Genie adapter (see Shorts) to allow for playing a Famicom cartridge. I am using a NES Advantage controller, RCA cables, and a Sharp X-Flat 27" CRT TV.

#crt #famicom #asmr #iceclimber

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