Background
- Developer: Nichibutsu
- Publisher: Nichibutsu
- Debut: October 1980
- Platform: Arcade
- Home Ports: Atari VCS/2600 (1982), Nintendo Famicom ('86), Sharp X68000 PC ('93), PlayStation ('96), PlayStation 2 ('05), PlayStation 4 ('14)
How High Can You Get?
If you've read my manifesto about Run and Jump, you know I
stated my intention to play every platforming game ever, in chronological order
of release. Two games in, and I've already skipped ahead and doubled back—sort
of.
Unlike Space Panic, considered the "granddaddy" of
platformers, Crazy Climber shares more in common with pure climbing games than
platformers. In fact, there's not a platform to be found in Crazy Climber. It's
just you, ridiculously tall skyscrapers, and birds, monkeys, and residents
determined to knock you off.
The game's developer/publisher, Nichibutsu, is a relative
unknown today, but was hugely influential in its native country. Founded as
Nihon Bussan in October 1970, Nichibutsu was based in Osaka, Japan, as a
manufacturer and seller of coin-operated amusement games. The company entered
the video arcade market in 1978 with Table Attacker, a clone of Atari's
Breakout. Blatant clones—pejoratively dubbed rip-offs or copycats,
especially by the creators who came up with the original concept—were common through
the '70s, '80s, and even '90s. Many amateur developers taught themselves how to
code by writing their own versions of coin-op games, then sold the fruits of their
labor to publishers.
Nichibutsu released its first original hits, Moon Cresta, a
shoot-em-up, and Crazy Climber in July and October of 1980, respectively. Released
one month before Space Panic, Crazy Climber became Nichibutsu's first original hit.
The premise is simple. You play a decidedly crazy climber who got it in his crazy
head to scale a skyscraper. Like climbing Mount Everest, this guy's doing it
because it's there, I suppose.
On your way up, you'll have to shimmy back and forth to
avoid the atomic bird droppings (okay, they're probably fruit, but "atomic
bird droppings" is funnier) launched by condors that fly back and forth
across the screen, residents that drop flower pots and other heavy objects from
their windows, windows shutting on your fingers, and bosses such as a giant,
King Kong-like ape. Playing involves more forethought than the average arcade
game of the time, making the game appealing for players looking to spend yen or
quarters on a more strategic experience.
There are four skyscrapers to climb. At the top of each is a
helicopter that sticks around for 30 seconds before flying off. If you manage
to board the 'copter, you're taken to another building. Once you've ascended
all four—if you can make it that far—you're taken back to the first building,
and the game repeats until you run out of lives or quarters.
So, as stated, there are no platforms in Crazy Climber. That's
why I decided to write about it after Space Panic. It is, however, a climbing
game, and climbing is an integral mechanic of the genre, so it warrants
discussion here.
Arcades are a dying breed, and what I miss the most about
them is the experimental nature of games—the sorts of cabinet builds and
control apparatuses that couldn't be easily ported to computers and home
consoles. Crazy Climber is an early example of such design. There are no
buttons. You climb using two joysticks: one that controls your left hand, and
another that controls your right hand. Pulling left or right on both sticks
moves your character in either direction, which is how you dodge projectiles as
you make your way to the top.
Climbing is a multi-step process. First, you have to reach for
the next part of the building by pushing up on each joystick. Next, you lift
yourself up by pulling down on the sticks. You can operate both hands at once,
or one at a time.
It's an incredibly tactile process that takes some getting
used to; my first few attempts at playing were spent getting a handle on
movement. Once it clicks, it's exciting and engaging, much more so than tapping
buttons. I controlled my crazy climber like I was cross-country skiing, opting
to reach and lift with one hand, then the other, back and forth. This has the
added benefit of letting you climb faster if you're able to fall into a rhythm;
your climber is quite strong, and is able to lift himself up with a single
hand.
Crazy Climber's control scheme is the game's greatest
strength, and its weakness. Because you have to control your arms independently,
your character can wind up in positions that leave you unable to control your movement,
such as one arm raised or lowered too much or too little. Depending on your
position, you'll try to sidle left or right to dodge projectiles, only to scoot
an inch, or not move at all. I lost many rounds by hanging in place while flower
pots and atomic poop sailed downward, knocking me loose and leaving me
frustrated. Fortunately, you reappear where you fell, assuming you still have
lives. Inserting more quarters doesn't buy extra lives, so you've got to make
the three you have count.
Climbing is also problematic. I got into a groove using my
cross-country style of climbing, but every now and then, my character's body
fell out of sync, causing him to raise an arm but refuse to pull himself up when
I pulled down on a stick. On other occasions, he'd lower himself to where he
was a moment earlier. Aside from maneuvering yourself to either side of long,
vertical windows which cannot be scaled, there's no reason to descend in Crazy Climber.
There were times when I spent more time trying to figure out why my avatar
wouldn't climb than I did climbing.
Crazy Climber deserves recognition for introducing the
climbing mechanic that would go on to define countless platformers to follow,
and for implementing a control scheme almost perfectly suited to the experience
it aspires to provide. It also deserves recognition for one specific technical achievement:
scrolling. The screen scrolls upward as you near the top edge. This was an era
when most games took place on a single screen, or playfield, like Space
Panic. Skyscrapers appear more or less identical, but a game "world"
that couldn't be contained on a single screen was novel for the time.
Crazy Climber is fun for a few rounds, but you're more
likely to move on to another platformer out of frustration with its finicky
controls than out of boredom with its gameplay loop.
Score
Graphics: 2/5. Rudimentary, but cartoonish in a
charming way. The squiggly grin of residents who have nothing better to do than
rack up a murder charge always make me giggle.
Gameplay: 3/5. I love the controls, I hate the
controls.
Sound: 1/5. Beeps for sound effects, beeps for music.
It's just enough to be immersive.
Overall: 2/5. The often-inexplicable circumstance of
getting stuck and being unable to move or climb became maddening. That's too
bad, because the game is fun, if a bit too simplistic to play for more than a
few minutes at a time.
No comments:
Post a Comment