Ice Climber
Ice Climber is a 1985 platform video game developed and published by Nintendo. It was released for both the arcade VS. System and the Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System console. The main protagonists, Popo and Nana, collectively known as the Ice Climbers, scale 32 vertically scrolling, ice-covered mountains to recover stolen vegetables from a giant condor. In some European countries, Ice Climber was bundled with the Nintendo Entertainment System.
Summary from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA, read 5 September 2026.
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- Released
- 1985
- Developer
- Nintendo Research & Development 1
- Platforms
- 2 systems
- Critics
- Not scored
- Steam Deck
- Unknown
- Download
- Not stated
The record
| First released | 30 January 1985 |
|---|---|
| Developer | Nintendo Research & Development 1 |
| Publisher | Nintendo |
| Platforms | Nintendo Entertainment System, Arcade |
| Genres | platformer |
Source. Catalogue facts from Wikidata Q1066657, seeded 30 August 2026.
How long is Ice Climber? How long to beat it
Total play time for Ice Climber is about 3.1 hours to do everything, and around 2.2 hours to reach the end of the main story. These are player-submitted times from HowLongToBeat, not our own, shown with the number of players behind each.
| How you play | Hours | Players logged |
|---|---|---|
| Just the main story: straight through the critical path | 2.2h | 88 |
| Main + the extras: story plus the side content most people do | 3.1h | 9 |
| Completionist: everything: 100% the game | 3.1h | 14 |
Source: HowLongToBeat community submissions, read 2026-10-19.
Where Ice Climber sits on the grid
The grid places every game in the catalogue on measured axes rather than on an opinion. This is where Ice Climber lands on each map it has the data for, with the share of the catalogue it beats on each axis.
- Year
- 36ahead of 2% of the catalogue
- Reach
- 50ahead of 88% of the catalogue
Percentiles are against the games that carry a reading on that axis, not the whole catalogue: counting a game with no figure as a zero would flatter everything that has one. How the grid works.
What readers say about Ice Climber
Reviews written by people who have played it. These are separate from the GamingPickz Score and are never averaged into it: that score comes from thousands of Steam reviews with a sample-size correction, and a handful of unverified ratings would distort it rather than improve it.
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Where Ice Climber appears
The ranked lists and finder pages Ice Climber qualifies for, from its own genre and platform to what it takes to run.
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Common questions about Ice Climber
What platforms is Ice Climber on?
Ice Climber is available on Nintendo Entertainment System, Arcade. It first released in 1985.
Who made Ice Climber?
Ice Climber was developed by Nintendo Research & Development 1 and published by Nintendo.
How long does it take to beat Ice Climber?
about 2.2 hours for the main story, 3.1 hours with the main extras, 3.1 hours to complete everything, from HowLongToBeat's player-submitted times. These are community medians, so your own run may be shorter or longer.