Ice Climber: Endless Challenge
One genre that is missing in modern games is the endless challenge games, or score-attack games. The game keeps going until you lose all your lives, achieve a score you’re happy with, or you get frustrated and toss the controller. The only thing close that comes to mind is deathmatch-style first-person-shooter games, but even then you’re challenging another person, not the mechanics or rules of the game itself.
Ice Climber, one of the earlies NES titles, is an excellent example of a score-attack game. Your goal in each level is to ascend to the top of an icy mountain, keeping clear of polar bears and other animals along the way, in an effort to take back your precious eggplant from a bird who is perched at the top. The clock is constantly ticking away, pushing at your back to keep you rushing towards the top. One wrong step and you fall off the mountain. You also have to be careful to not damage the platforms too much as you ascend – knock away too many blocks and you’ll be stuck! As far as I know there is no final level, but I could be mistaken…
Ice Climber
The challenge Ice Climber poses becomes even greater in cooperative mode, where two players SHOULD cooperate to get through the vertical maze, dodging icicles, riding clouds, collecting eggplants, and clubbing seals, birds and yetis and reduce them to a pulp. Yes, Popo and Nana SHOULD cooperate. Most of the time, however, coordination between two players, such as me and my cousin Keegan, is iffy.