Genre: Arcade
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo

As the player's well-animated eskimo progresses up Ice Climber's stages, the sharp tile graphics go from a gentle verdant green, to an eye-pleasing tan, to an icy blue, simulating the climb up a mountain without the need for complex, screen real-estate hogging art work. Falling icicles and oddly charming abominable snow monsters are easily identifiable with the game's clean and functional look.

Ice Climber's main theme is a parlor-like tune, and once past the title screen it gives way to a looping melody which is like a bloopy riff on the Jeopardy theme song. It's sort of curious, uncertain, yet optimistic sounding, which seems to fit the game's premise. There are a handful of sound effects which work well enough, including an all-too-frequently heard "death spazz out" noise.

Ice Climber involves smashing through layers of ceilings by utilizing scrolling cloud platforms, while dodging birds and other enemies. As the player progresses, furry snow monsters plug the player's hard-earned holes with fresh ice. The jumping physics are bizarre, in that the player doesn't travel very far horizontally. And the simple task of landing on a platform is perilous, as the platform hit boxes don't seem to match the sprite.

Some consider Ice Climber to be a classic for Nintendo's venerable platform, but it's difficult to understand how. A good arcade game hooks the player in with fun core mechanics, and then ramps up the difficulty. Ice Climber's bonkers physics and atrocious hit detection mean that the game is infuriatingly difficult right from the first stage. Ice Climber is an 80s Nintendo arcade game not designed by Miyamoto, and it shows.