Ice Climber

The first player controls Popo, a boy wearing a blue parka, while the second player controls Nana, a girl wearing a pink one. The only tool they carry is a wooden mallet to carve openings in the ice above and to club enemies. Each mountain level consists of eight layers of colorful ice and a bonus stage. Standard, dull ice blocks pose no threat other than an easily disposed-of barrier and platform.

Square ice blocks with higher detail are indestructible, forcing the player to take another path. Hatched ice acts as a conveyor belt sliding Popo or Nana either left or right. Finally, many mountains include unbreakable moving platforms resembling clouds. The bonus stage takes place at the peak.

Ice Climber and NES Open Tournament Golf were directed by longtime Nintendo producer Kenji Miki. Ice Climber is the first video game programmed by Kazuaki Morita. He considered this a "warm-up" before becoming a main programmer on Super Mario Bros.. Morita was later credited with central programming roles in numerous games within the Super Mario series, The Legend of Zelda series, and in Star Fox 64.

The Ice Climber franchise has received generally positive reviews from critics. In Japan, Game Machine listed VS. Ice Climber in its April 1, 1985, issue as the eighth most-successful table arcade unit of the month. Former President of Finland Mauno Koivisto was reportedly keen on Nintendo games and his son-in-law has reported that Ice Climber was his favorite game.

Reviewing the American release, Computer Entertainer magazine called it "addictive" for fans of climbing games. The reviewer awarded 3.5 out of 4 stars, for both categories of graphics and gameplay, adding that it provide "hours of challenging play."

Popo and Nana appear in the Super Smash Bros. series of fighting games as a two-in-one playable fighter under the name, Ice Climbers, voiced by Sanae Kobayashi. Appearing in 2001's Melee and 2008's Brawl, their return was planned for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U but technical issues with the 3DS version required game director Masahiro Sakurai to scrap development on them to maintain parity between the two versions.

He said that their inclusion in said game was low-priority because the Ice Climber series was "unlikely to have another installment" at the time. The Ice Climbers returned in 2018's Ultimate.