![]() ![]() It doesn't take a master of Mad Gab to discern the phonetically equivalent true title Konami was going for with this one, especially after you realize that the setting is a Soviet stronghold and all of the enemies are Communists. Do you need anything else? It's no Blades of Steel (hell EA's NHL09 isn't Blades of Steel), but growing up in Minnesota and playing on a hockey team ensured that this one was in the NES as much as Super Mario 3. I think I've got the same fond memory for this one as everyone else does: skinny dude, medium dude, and fat dude. The only game that ended up rivaling this excellent design was Konami's Blades of Steel, but the two were different enough to own and enjoy both (which is why you'll find Blades on this countdown). Every Ice Hockey player discovered their own perfect combination of men, and then it was on to the ice. You could choose from three different player body types, and outfit your team with any combination of them fast but weak Skinny Guys, brawny but slow Fat Guys, or well-balanced, middle-ground Normal Guys. This game of skating and slap shots was perfectly balanced, simple fun with just the right touch of planning and strategy to keep things interesting match after match. None of those games ended up having the lasting appeal and addictiveness of one of its other contemporaries, though – the first-party Nintendo sports sim known simply as Ice Hockey. Nintendo had a fairly diverse lineup of sports titles introduced for the NES early on in the system's life cycle, including 8-bit interpretations of soccer, tennis, volleyball and even downhill slalom skiing. Jeremy Dunham, IGN Games Editorial Manager But in reality, the games were different enough, and Ice Climber so much better to me when I finally played it, that I felt silly for ever thinking that. "It's just the same game with a bunch of white," I thought. I always thought Ice Climber was just another way to repackage Mario Bros. Ice Climber's biggest claim to fame for its time, however, was the ability for two players to play the game simultaneously. Fast moving platforms, icy terrain and blocks that couldn't be broken by your mallet ruled the day, and Ice Climber got excruciatingly hard in the latter stages. Popo and Nana are equipped with mallets to fend off enemies on any given mountain they're climbing, but it's usually hazards of a different variety that stymie the advance of even the most ardent of Ice Climber players. As the name of the game suggests, the idea of Ice Climber is to climb, climb, climb. The Ice Climbers, as the two starring characters are popularly known, are relentless lovers of the alpine trek, and they'll stop at nothing to climb mountain after mountain just to reach its apex, where untold valuable items can be found. ![]() But one has to travel back to the fall of 1985 to find the origin of these two arctic explorers, who first appeared in one of the launch titles on the NES, Ice Climber. Many gamers of today's generation know Popo and Nana best for their recurring role in the Super Smash Bros. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game Skate or Die 2: The Search for Double Troubleīattletoads & Double Dragon: The Ultimate TeamĪ Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia ![]()
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