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Hamster Corporation bring another classic Nintendo arcade game to the Nintendo eShop.

Hamster Corp. must be one of the most hard-working studios on the planet right now. Each week another NeoGeo or Arcade Archives classic arrives on home consoles, each game lovingly emulated with a bag of extras.

In the absence of a Virtual Console successor, the studio’s ports of the Super Mario Bros. and Donkey  Kong arcade games are currently the only way to play these classic games on Switch without a getting a subscription to Nintendo Switch Online.

Released under the VS. System banner, many of Nintendo’s arcade offerings are subtly different from their NES counterparts, and the same is true of today’s new release, VS. Ice Climber.

Ice Climber was first released for the NES in January 1985, with an arcade version following soon after. Although ostensibly the same game, there are some changes. Stage selection works differently in the arcade version, and there are some extra levels not found in the home console edition. There are also variations in enemy behaviour, and, in being designed to guzzle those quarters, it’s a trickier game all round.

Ice Climber is not one of the most beloved Nintendo franchises, but its stars, Popo and Nana, found fame again in the Super Smash Bros. series. So if you are a fan of their antics in Nintendo’s mascot fighter, this welcome release gives you another chance to experience their mallet-swinging début.

The game also remains available via the NES game library, included as part of Nintendo Switch Online.

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