Ice Climber NES

Ice Climber is Nintendo’s 1985 platformer, starring Popo and Nana, the Ice Climbers, as they hammer their way up a series of vertically-scrolling ice mountains to reclaim vegetables stolen by a condor. Two players can play simultaneously, competing to climb faster rather than cooperating on a shared screen.

Its vertical, always-scrolling-upward structure — the screen pushes climbers forward regardless of their progress, punishing hesitation — set it apart from the horizontally-scrolling platformers that dominated the era. The Ice Climbers themselves went on to a longer life as playable characters in Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. series, decades after this game’s original release.