THE HUB

OMG!!!

FEATURED GAME

FEATURED MEMBER

DoctorIrish

DoctorIrish

The Doctor is in.

QUICK POLL

Grand Theft Auto IV: does it live up to the hype?

ASK THE PROS

THE GAMEPROS

FREE NEWSLETTERS

Sign up now to receive weekly or daily updates on your favorite games, stories, and more!



GBA | Action | Classic NES Series: Ice Climber

Boxart for Classic NES Series: Ice Climber
Classic NES Series: Ice Climber 9 screen shots
  • GRAPHICS: 3.0
  • SOUND: 3.0
  • CONTROL: 3.5
  • FUN FACTOR 3.5
  • AVG USER SCORE n/a
  • AVG CRITIC SCORE 3.3

Review: Classic NES Series: Ice Climber

Review by STARDINGO | 08/02/2004 | 14:45:36 PM PST

It?s not as classic as Zelda or Mario, but it?s still a challenging take on the old Donkey Kong?style ?jump up to the top? game.

The concept is old-school arcade-simple: Guide a hammer-wielding Eskimo to the top of a mountain, then to the top of another mountain, and then another and another. Much like a modern office building, each mountain has eight ?floors? filled with various perils for the climber to avoid: white fuzzy things, high winds, birds, falling icicles, and the like. To reach the next floor, the climber often has to use his head to chip away at the ceiling, while workers above toil to seal the gaps. Beyond the top floor lies a large, timed ?bonus course? worth tons of bonus points if you?re really, really good with that jump button.

If it sounds repetitive, it is, but Nintendo finds a way to make a lot of sinister challenges out of the sparse building blocks. The controls are weird and tough?slippery by design and not by way of sickly programming; the momentum-based jumping is particularly challenging, certain to infuriate platform haters. Ice Climber may not be the Zeus of the classic NES pantheon?heck, it?s not even the Hephaestus or Demeter?but those who want to test their reflexive skills will find something to latch onto.