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This all starts...with a story.
...But today, they've gained an extra life.
Today, Sakurai showed that DLC is possible. Mewtwo will be joining the battle in Spring of 2015.
But what does this mean for the Ice Climbers? Only good things. Allow me to explain.
So it's time to join in and climb one last mountain together as Ice Climber fans. Let's join our Arctic Amigos, our Blizzard-bound Buddies, our Frozen friends...and bring them home once again. Smash is all they have, after all. Let's not let them lose that.
This was written the day the final roster was revealed. As expected, the 3DS version kept them out. And they were so close. A crowd chant, a Polar Bear, and being able to run on the Wii U...all for naught. Game over.Some people really don't know what they've had until it's gone. Many feel the same way about this adorable duo. I, though, had a much stronger personal connection to them. Unlike most, I knew them before Smash Bros. I had played their game when I was very young. A friend of my father had a few old arcade machines, and let me play them sometimes. I remember he had three: Mario Bros., Pac-Man, and Ice Climber. I was drawn to the latter. I'd completely forgotten about this until years later when I discovered Smash Bros. I saw them, and suddenly I was drowned by nostalgia. They'd been brought back.
I had hoped that someday they'd get a new game. A mountain-climbing adventure game with side quests, weather conditions, and scary wildlife. That day never came, sadly. They'd been forgotten, but at least not by Smash Bros. There, they'd live on. Forever.
Brawl came out, and it was an exciting time. To my surprise, quite a number of people were calling for the Climbers to be cut. "Irrelevant!" they'd say. "Unknown!" they'd chant. But I never let it get me down. Sakurai cared enough to bring them back from obscurity once, so I was sure he'd do it again. And he did! Sure, they were revealed much later than most characters. In fact, if I remember correctly, they were the third to last character revealed pre-release, with only Sheik and Olimar following. They looked beautiful, too. Brawl was quite the graphical update.
I never could effectively chain grab or wobble, but I never let that get me down. I just enjoyed playing as them. I started speculating for Smash 4 hardcore around early 2011, joining Smashboards in August. The 3DS came out, and on its Virtual Console, the first thing I did was download Ice Climber. It was the perfect game on the go. Life was good again. These days, those who called for the Climbers to be cut were near impossible to find. Many loved these little mountaineers. I was overjoyed to see others feel the way I did. I started speculating new Ice Climber stages, how some moves could be improved, thoughts to fix the chaingrab issue, and many other things. I was overjoyed to hear that soon their little fuzzy parkas would shine in brilliant HD.
The first trailer was shown, and everyone was blown away. Slowly, more and more characters were revealed. The Ice Climbers weren't shown right away, but hey, we still had time. They'd make it. They were guaranteed. Even if several anniversaries were missed, along with NES Remix.
The April Direct brought about the announcement of Smash Run. In it, I was overjoyed to see the Polar Bear take part in Smash Run as an enemy. This virtually confirmed the Ice Climbers! Why else would they bring back the Polar Bear?
Months pass. Still no Ice Climbers. I figure they'll again be among the last revealed. It happened in Brawl, I told myself. Late in the summer, a cryptic leak came about. You all know the one. It was text based. In it, they claimed the Ice Climbers were cut. While the information seemed believable, I didn't buy it. It was simply because they weren't in the build they saw. They likely still had some of those pesky "technical issues" to take care of on the 3DS. Sakurai wouldn't forsake them...would he?
Next comes late August. The leak now had picture evidence from the ESRB. It showed the roster. The Ice Climbers were nowhere to be found. Filled with despair, there was one last bit of hope I held on to. The lock. As a moderator, locks were part of my daily life. Now things just got meta. The lock meant some characters weren't unlocked!
Shulk was then shown to be exactly as the leak showed. This wasn't good. Eventually, we come to September 11th. The street date for Smash 3DS in Japan is broken. Tension stirs. Sadly, when the "All Characters Unlocked" message appears, the Ice Climbers are nowhere to be found. The Polar Bear's trophy has the Smash Bros. Symbol, instead of an eggplant. Hope was gone.
The Ice Climbers are without a doubt the most tragic loss. They had been reborn through Smash. They had been a staple in the series for thirteen long years. Now they're gone, likely through the 3DS limitations. They lost the only thing they had keeping them alive: Smash Bros.
Their only hope, no matter how slim now, is if they are on the Wii U version's starting roster, and are free 3DS DLC when Sakurai and his team figure out how to solve their issues. They'd do that for them. Sakurai wouldn't abandon them, would he? Right?
I'll preface by saying that I cannot draw. Given the circumstances, however, I doodled a thing.
Pardon my awful drawing and handwriting.
Rest in peace, Nana and Popo. Yours was truly the most devastating loss.
...But today, they've gained an extra life.
Today, Sakurai showed that DLC is possible. Mewtwo will be joining the battle in Spring of 2015.
But what does this mean for the Ice Climbers? Only good things. Allow me to explain.
- They are likely the most completed characters not in the final game. Based on what we know, these guys were FAR in development. Sakurai said they ran completely fine on the Wii U (guess 8 Player wasn't an issue :D ).
- They now have time. Going by what Sakurai said, he didn't work around their issue with a lot of effort due to them being irrelevant and not worth it, essentially. Other characters had to be made first. But now those characters are made. There is now a team working on Mewtwo until Spring. In some of the spare time, they can allocate resources to finding a fix for the Ice Climbers. There's no one else, barring Mewtwo, ahead of them after all. And the groundwork is already laid.
- Somewhat minor, but Mewtwo shows that veterans with only trophies can indeed be DLC.
So it's time to join in and climb one last mountain together as Ice Climber fans. Let's join our Arctic Amigos, our Blizzard-bound Buddies, our Frozen friends...and bring them home once again. Smash is all they have, after all. Let's not let them lose that.
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