Climbers
Popo
With his blue parka, trusty hammer, and impressive jumping skills, Popo is more than a match for any mountain. Popo is the only hero who appears in a 1-Player game. In a 2-Player game, the player using Controller 1 controls Popo.
Nana
Apart from her signature pink parka, Nana possesses all the same skills and equipment as her climbing partner. Nana appears only in 2-Player games, and is always controlled by the player using Controller 2.
Creatures
Topi
These shaggy creatures are often found on numbered floors. Toppies aren’t inherently aggressive, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t dangerous—colliding with a roaming Topi will cost you a climber. Strike a Topi with your hammer (rendering it temporarily harmless), or simply keep your distance from these troublesome critters.
Toppies also tend to repair and maintain their habitats. Each time a patrolling Topi encounters a gap, it races to the nearest cave and emerges with a large chunk of ice. If left to its own devices, a Topi will use chunks of ice to patch each and every hole on its floor.
Nitpicker
These troublesome birds are fiercely territorial and surprisingly persistent. Colliding with a Nitpicker will cost you a climber, and dodging a Nitpicker usually results in the enemy circling back around for another pass. Use a well-timed hammer strike to knock a Nitpicker out of the air, or move directly under a Nitpicker and jump straight up to hit the bird with an upward attack.
Polar Bear
The Polar Bear enjoys nothing more than pestering struggling climbers. This meddling bear shows itself only after you’ve spent a significant amount of time on a mountain—the longer you linger on a mountain’s numbered floors, the more likely it is you’ll encounter a Polar Bear. Soon after it appears, the Polar Bear leaps into the air and crashes down with enough force to push the lowest visible floor off the screen. Move quickly to reach safe ground before that happens.
If you’re fast enough, you can interrupt a Polar Bear’s attack by striking it with your climber’s hammer. A successful hit stuns the creature, forcing it to leave the mountain. However, this retreat is temporary. Given enough time, a foiled Polar Bear will return and attempt another attack.
Condor
This massive bird not only keeps bonus stages stocked with vegetables, it also circles the peak of each mountain you climb. Once you reach the top of a mountain, jump up and grab on to the Condor to earn some serious bonus points.
Hazards
Topi Ice
Toppies use chunks of ice to fill any holes in their respective floors. Upon reaching a gap, a single chunk of Topi ice can fill a gap up to two blocks wide. Colliding with one of these jagged bits of ice before it’s converted into terrain costs you a climber. You can simply keep your distance—allowing a Topi to complete its repairs—or you can destroy an ice chunk by striking it with your climber’s hammer.
Icicle
Icicles sometimes form below clouds or blocks of terrain. Soon after it appears, an icicle breaks loose and falls straight down. Although it’s possible to destroy a falling icicle, it’s generally easier (and much safer) to simply move out of its path. If you spot water accumulating overhead, step aside—it won’t be long until that water freezes into a fully formed icicle.
Vegetables
Each bonus stage contains four vegetables that you can collect for extra points. Your starting mountain (the mountain you selected on the Main menu) always features eggplants. Subsequent mountains offer carrots, cabbages, cucumbers, corn, turnips, pumpkins, Chinese cabbages, potatoes, and mushrooms—in that order. Once you’ve successfully completed 10 mountains, eggplants reappear and the cycle repeats.