Crazy Climber was possibly the first video game I ever called “my all-time favorite game”. It came out in the arcade in in the early 80s, and was notable for its unusual control scheme. Instead of having buttons, you just had two joysticks, once controlling each arm. The controls took some getting used to, but I loved it.
The game has you climbing up the side of a skyscraper, using windows as handholds. I never really thought about it before, but your character must have some really odd body proportions to make this possible (or the building has really small, closely clustered windows). You face hazards such as falling flowerpots, birds, closing windows, electric wires, tumbling girders, and giant gorillas.
It’s not an easy game. There are four buildings. I think I reached the fourth building one time as a kid, but I didn’t get very far. I always wanted a home version of the game, but it was never released for any system I owned at the time. Well, Wikipedia says it was released for the Atari 2600, but I never saw it in stores.
Which is probably just as well, because game consoles at the time wouldn’t have been able to replicate the dual-joystick configuration in any way I would have found satisfactory. It’s just like me to pick a favorite game that is so hard to port. Seriously, my next “all-time favorite game” was “Discs of Tron”, which also had an unusual control scheme making it difficult to replicate on home consoles.
Crazy Climber did get a sequel and a few enhanced remakes, but for the most part they exclusive to Japan. The original game is available on the PS4, which is great because the PS4 controllers are perfect for it. When I got my PS4 last year, I got to play Crazy Climber again for the first time in more than 35 years. I also got to play Crazy Climber 2, which I didn’t even know existed.
So, do they hold up today?
Ehhhh… I still enjoy them, partly because of nostalgia, and partly because the controls are still unique today. There really aren’t any other games like them. However, they suffer from the same issues as a lot of older arcade games. They didn’t have the resources to make the games longer, so they settled on making them harder. These are games designed to eat as many quarters as it can, as quickly as possible.
If Crazy Climber were designed for today’s consoles, it would have 30 buildings, and you could save after each one. The buildings would start out extremely easy and wouldn’t really get difficult until building 10 or so. You would be able to choose from six different climbers, including an unlockable spider monkey. There would be no score, but you would get achievements after each building. There would also be an annoying unskippable tutorial level and about $20 worth of DLC, but maybe I’m just being cynical.
So is that better or worse? Personally I’d like to see this one updated. The original still has its charm, but it could really benefit from a modern touch.
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