Alright, I may be going overboard with “conspiracy” but at the very least, there seems to be an issue out there of contradictory information to the first ever appearance of Popo and Nana. You may think this is an easy answer, but if you look online, things are a little messy. The NES version of Ice Climber was indeed released in **1985**. However, there was also an Arcade version of the game called “Vs. Ice Climber” supposedly first released at some point in **1984**. Let’s look a bit deeper.
If you do a quick Google search of when Ice Climber was first released, it will tell you that it was first released in 1984, not 1985. This is ripped from Wikipedia, which has Ice Climber noted down as having first ever released as “Vs. Ice Climber” in **October 1984**. Looking around on multiple sites, you will find this same information, or in some cases, this information just completely omitted.
That means to say that the North American Arcade version of Ice Climber was released before both the Japanese Arcade version (1985), and the Japanese NES version of Ice Climber (also 1985). Well now, that doesn’t make much sense, given that Nintendo is a Japanese company and all. Is it possible they decided to release it in Arcades in North America before everywhere else? Well, looking at the release dates of every other game Nintendo released in Arcades would show that there’s only one other time this ever happened: VS. Balloon Fight.
Now supposedly, VS. Balloon Fight released in North America on September 1984, and *then* released in Japan in October 1984. So, given they have done this before, it’s not unlikely they did the same with Ice Climber right? Well, maybe… but where’s the source of this information?
After looking for the source of this information for both VS. Ice Climber and VS. Balloon Fight, they both seem to point directly at the same Japanese book which details Arcade Game release dates. You can see them listed in this book [here](https://archive.org/details/ArcadeGameList1971-2005/page/n129/mode/2up).
It turns out that this book has been noted for having several errors that have been verified separately in the past. Thus, it’s not exactly the most trusted source on determining if both VS. Ice Climber and VS. Balloon Fight released in North America before they did in Japan.
With VS. Balloon Fight, at the very least, we know that it did indeed first release, at least in Japan, in 1984. There are Japanese ads for VS. Balloon Fight that Nintendo ran which show a Copyright Date for “1984”, however, I cannot find a single ad for VS. Ice Climber that doesn’t say “1985” instead, further indicating that VS. Ice Climber was not released in 1984.
And that’s about where I am with looking into this topic. I tried looking on Nintendo’s website, but I could only find word on the NES version, which definitely first came out in 1985 (today, January 30th, in fact). I also tried to take a look at Super Smash Bros, as I recall the All-Star mode in one of the games had you fight enemies in order of their first ever appearance. However, this turned out to be Smash for Wii U and 3DS, which unfortunately, do not feature Ice Climbers as playable characters.
As I said, there’s a lot of places online that say the arcade version was first released in 1984, so it would be great if anyone could find any further information so we can put this to rest.
(*Edit: [Someone](https://www.reddit.com/r/nintendo/comments/10p5sqo/the_ice_climber_conspiracy_what_year_did_the_ice/j6ihq4h/) pointed out that Smash Ultimate’s All-Star mode also has the enemies fight in order of their first appearance, however it doesn’t show exact dates, and since the two characters that Ice Climbers are inbetween are from mid 1984 to mid 1985, it doesn’t help. Also of note is that the Ice Climbers trophy in SSB Melee states the Ice Climbers were first introduced in October 1985, but this is purely the NES release in North America. The PAL version of the game does not show dates whatsoever.*)
by 2Dement3D
12 Comments
This might be of interest to some people over at r/nonmurdermysteries
I’m old. And I’m going to let you in on a secret about video game release dates. Before the mid 90s, they didn’t really exist. Games would ship when the factories were don’t making them and warehouses would push them to stores whenever they got them in stock. Until video games caught on to the hype that big record releases got at the time (the first huge one in my memory was Guns N’ Roses use your illusion) it just wasn’t a thing and they weren’t tracked in the way they are now.
The vs arcade system was released in 1984, and the NES officially launched in October of 1985 but only in NYC. Everyone else got it officially in 1986. Wikipedia will tell you it was in September but I know for a fact my best friend got one at a jc penny in the DC area that summer for his 10th birthday.
Things just weren’t organized or tracked that well back them because companies just wanted things out for Christmas, if it was early that was fine. So I can’t imagine there’s a lot of solid data out there that is verifiable unless you get shipping manifests from Nintendo of Japan from that year
>I also tried to take a look at Super Smash Bros, as I recall the All-Star mode in one of the games had you fight enemies in order of their first ever appearance. However, this turned out to be Smash for Wii U and 3DS, which unfortunately, do not feature Ice Climbers as playable characters.
fwiw, the Smash Wiki says that [Ultimate also has characters “appear from oldest to newest based on their first appearance within their home series in Japan”.](https://www.ssbwiki.com/All-Star_Mode#Super_Smash_Bros._Ultimate) And Ice Climbers are in that one.
They apparently come in between Duck Hunt (April 21, 1984) and ROB (July 26, 1985), which unfortunately doesn’t seem like it’d help to clear anything up for you.
The official full release was January 30th, 1985. However, as others have mentioned, back then games did hit the streets sooner than the intended release date.
Edit: My previous research found random sources confirming the arcade came out in 1984 and the famicom/nes received in 1985. I’ll see if I still have the sources saved somewhere.
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Can tell you the date of the VS release is the earliest release of Ice Climbers. Problem is that noone can tell you when that was with any certainty.
Nintendo is pretty infamously bad at keeping records of release dates back in the day. The release date of the North American version of Super Mario Bros. is actually thought to be wrong from what Nintendo says it was.
https://themushroomkingdom.net/smb_release.shtml
By all accounts, these games were made first for the Famicon, then made for the Vs. System to introduce to USA for 1) cheap swaps of old DK systems with the new Vs. System and 2) to gain a foothold in America with new properties to prepare for the launch of the NES. The dates might be messy, and the development history might be messy, but it seems they all go Develop for Famicom -> Develop for Vs. -> Release Famicom game in USA.
[https://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page=flyer&db=videodb&id=3194&image=2](https://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page=flyer&db=videodb&id=3194&image=2)
The flyer’s have an 85 copyright date for the US, and that is what KLOV lists as it’s release year as well.
[https://www.ebay.com/itm/165719228013?mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&siteid=0&campid=5335943016&customid=db__2002__arcademuseum.com__item&toolid=10001&mkevt=1](https://www.ebay.com/itm/165719228013?mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&siteid=0&campid=5335943016&customid=db__2002__arcademuseum.com__item&toolid=10001&mkevt=1)
As does this preview flyer for the VS system in general.
Unless that book knows something about undocumented location tests in the US for VS cabs with Ice Clumber and Balloon Fight, I would assume it’s incorrect since basically every primary source says 1985.
[https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/DfkAAOSw8gleL3Yu/s-l1600.jpg](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/DfkAAOSw8gleL3Yu/s-l1600.jpg)
This flyer doesn’t give a date, but it does look like it was released pre-summer of 1985 (copyright at the bottom still states 1985 as the copyright date for the ad).
​
However the arcade archives release of VS Ice Climbers lists 1984 (but official release dates from this era are also commonly wrong and it wouldn’t surprise me if they pulled it from that same book).
There is this great book called “Game Over: How Nintendo Conquered The World” by David Sheff. Covers the history of Nintendo from 1800’s till 1994. Lots of good stuff about the NYC release of the NES and all the original games. I’ve read it quite a few times over the years.
The Japanese Wikipedia for the VS system uses a Japanese industry publication from March 1985 to substantiate an early February 1985 Japanese release date for Ice Climbers. (“Early February” is not an estimate; it’s a translation of a fairly normal way to state a release period in Japanese, which was more normal at the time)
Given publication timelines, it’s possible the date is inaccurate, but it’s almost certain that Ice Climbers for VS did not release significantly before then in Japan. It’s not unusual for release dates to be earlier in the US than Japan. The arcade industry was very different at the time, as were the markets. Nintendo may have thought the game would perform better in the US than Japan.
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