Ice Climbers (SSBB)

The Ice Climbers (, Ice Climber) are veteran playable characters in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The duo were officially confirmed on the Smash Bros. DOJO!! website on September 14, 2007, alongside the rest of the returning veterans. As in Super Smash Bros. Melee, the Ice Climbers are the archetypical tag-team fighters in Brawl, although the leading climber is fundamentally controllable by the player, the following climberis controlled by a CPU, in a manner mimicking the player.

The Ice Climbers are once again voiced by, with a combination of recycled voice-clips from Super Smash Bros. Melee and new ones for Brawl.

The Ice Climbers rank 2nd on the current tier list, ranking them in the S tier, a slight improvement over their ranking in Melee, where the duo were 8th out of 26. In addition to being the game's highest-ranking veteran, this is rendered their best placement in the series to date. This is primarily due to their extensive and intricate grab game that can potentially lead to an inescapable zero-to-death combo on the entire cast regardless of the stage. The unique two-in-one mechanism of the character also forces opponents to rethink their approach, as a single climber can easily disrupt combos and chain grabs. The duo also have a pair of decent and flexible projectiles, Ice Shot and Blizzard, allowing them to outcamp their opponents, and the Ice Climbers benefit from a solid grounded and aerial game, courtesy of their effective tilts, powerful smash attacks and aerial attacks (with forward aerial being a relatively powerful meteor smash, and up aerial being large and disjointed). In addition, the Ice Climbers have some of the greatest damage output across the entire cast in Brawl, which is supplemented by their high KO potential, quick frame-data and chain grabbing. If the following climber is KO'd during the stock, however, the remaining climber has drastically nerfed recovery, effectiveness on their special moveset, damage output and KO potential, especially due to their inability to perform a meteor smash, and is considerably more vulnerable to chain grabs and combos. The Ice Climbers also have poor momentum canceling abilities, which when combined with their light weight, makes the Ice Climbers vulnerable to early KOs. The duo's poor mobility also hinders their ability to approach and allows speed demons (like and ) to outmanuever them easily. Despite a long-ranged tether recovery, their recovery often costs the partner if not tethered. Regardless, the Ice Climbers have dominating matchups (losing to only four characters, with being the only top-tier the duo lose to), and excellent tournament results.

Attributes
The Ice Climbers are a pair of lightweights (tied with for the 10th-lightest) with attributes that drastically deviate themselves from other characters of their weight class. The duo are characterized with high KO potential, outstanding damage output, good range, and quick frame-data, yet are burdened with relatively slow mobility; together, the duo have below-average dashing speeds, the 4th slowest air speeds, and are tied for the 5th slowest falling speeds. However, their walking speeds are average, their jumping height and air acceleration are both above-average. These stats hinder their ability to approach, especially in the air. However, with their devastating grab game, the Ice Climbers themselves are formidable to approach.

Unique to a majority of the roster, the Ice Climbers are the archetypical tag-team fighters in Brawl. Together, however, each Ice Climber is a unique character in their own right. The partner (Nana, by default) is controlled by a CPU and mimics what the leader (Popo, by default) performs with a seven-frame delay. As such, the player is essentially controlling a pair of characters at the same time with slight tweaks; the follower inflicts less damage and/or knockback and has less KO potential, but only the follower can meteor smash with their forward aerial. The Ice Climbers are able to grab a pair of different items and are even able to grab a pair of separate opponents. In addition, their unique property also makes them much harder to grab and throw effectively (when a single Ice Climber gets grabbed, the other climber can simply counterattack, making them immune to chain grabs and, to a lesser extent, combos). Conversely, this allows them to have a superior grab game fudamentally unique to them. However, they can easily be separated by powerful attacks. In this scenario, it is advisable to stick to and protect the partner, even if it lures the leader in additional danger. Should the CPU-controlled Ice Climber get KO'd during the stock, the remaining Ice Climber will have drastically reduced damage output, KO ability, and recovery, with Belay becoming practically useless and Squall Hammer losing a good deal of distance (whereas with both Climbers, both are excellent recovering moves). While Belay is a safe and long-ranged tether recovery, it often costs the partner if Belay is non-tethered.

As a dymanic duo, the Ice Climbers are capable of inflicting exceptional damage output on their opponents in seconds. In addition, the duo boast excellent KO ability, although their smash attacks are more suitable for racking up damage than KOing, and most of their moveset are burdened with low base knockback. The duo are also gifted with a flexible special moveset. The duo's neutral special move, Ice Shot, is an icy projectile fired by each Ice Climber which slides along the ground, making it impossible to avoid by crouching/crawling. Unlike most projectiles, the ice acts more like a container or soccer ball in that the incoming projectile is completely stop, allowing the Ice Climbers to counter most projectile-spam playstyles more easily. At extremely high percents, it can also freeze opponents, allowing use of setups or reads. The ice's decent amount of hitstun also make it useful for edgeguarding. Blizzard, their down special, can freeze opponents and even cover both sides if the partner is present, or alternatively can be made to cover a single side if performed while jumping with the partner, giving the attack more power. Squall Hammer is a decent approaching tool with good damage and mobility, spinning the Ice Climbers around each other with their hammers outstretched, allowing them to easily circumvent their poor mobility. The final hit deals moderate knockback, allowing it to KO at high precents. Belay, their up special, is a powerful KO move should the following climber connect with the opponent, but it is overall risky for usage because it separates the Ice Climbers and sends them into helplessness.

A unique fighter ability to the Ice Climbers is that the duo's traction is completely unaffected by the conditions of slippery surfaces and terrain, such as ice, meaning that the Ice Climbers will not slide on it and are immune to tripping on slippery terrain. This is due to the fact that the duo are wearing cleats. Oddly, their cleats do not affect their traction on normal surfaces, as it is second-lowest in the game (surpassed by only ).

Chaingrabbing and desynching
Several of the community consider the Ice Climbers to be "the king and queen of all chain grabs" due to the fact that their unique properties as a two-in-one fighter allows for a variety of infinite chain grabbing options that can combo into KO options. For example, the leading Ice Climber can grab onto one opponent and use the forward throw. In the middle of the throwing animation, the player can gain control of the CPU-controlled Climber, commanding them into performing a spike using forward aerial, or grabbing again with the CPU-controlled Climber. while once again bringing the original, player-controlled Climber in for a new grab. Infinite chain grabs of this nature can be performed at any percent, on any character, on nearly any stage. One hindrance to this strategy is the Ice Climbers' short grabbing range and low traction, making it almost impossible to grab an opponent when they hit the player's shield(s) unless the Ice Climbers powershield the attack.

The Ice Climbers have many different options to perform an infinite chain grab. They can use any combination of forward throw, down throw, and back throw, but each option has different timings for every character. For example, against it is most common for players to infinite using a combination of down throw and back throw, as these two throws have the largest time-windows to achieve a regrab. Against large characters that are difficult to chain grab, like and, the down throw can be used in conjunction with the footstool hop and ice shots for another infinite: the hobble. A hobble is performed when the Ice Climbers' down throw sends opponents into the air, the second Ice Climber jumps and footstools the opponent back onto the ground, and as the opponent bounces, the first Ice Climber traps them with an ice shot causing a reset for another grab. The only possible break to a perfectly executed infinite is Brawl's random tripping, which can occur if either climber dashes for any length of time. This can be avoided by only performing infinite chaingrabs while walking. When a chain grab has raised an opponent's damage enough, the most typically used move to KO the opponent is their up smash, if a forward air meteor smash is inapplicable. All of these chain throws can be considered 0-KO combos.

For further two-in-one tricks, it is even possible to de-synchronize or "desync" the CPU-controlled partner by confusing it with erratic movement (such as dash-dancing), putting the player in control of both Climbers for as long as they are capable of maintaining it. Once the partner is desynced, the player can have it perform any move while the main Climber is in the middle of one, providing for all sorts of possible attack strategies that can be exceedingly difficult for opponents to escape from (alternating Blizzard, alternating Ice Shot). While desynced, the partner Climber has restrained movement within an invisible box around the main Climber; should they be separated or removed from this box, the CPU will take over again. This invisible box makes it so that if the player desyncs from the AI so that it charges a smash attack and they start walking or running away, the AI will slide in the player's direction while charging the smash. A unique thing that the player can do when desynced is that if they desync the AI to charge a smash attack, their Belay will cancel the AI's charging sequence and teleport it into the belaying sequence. Such techniques are extremely difficult to perform in combat, even for advanced players, due to the constant string of precise commands required for the Climbers to move/attack as intended. Nevertheless, these techniques are considered the backbone of playing the Ice Climbers at a competitive level.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. Melee
The Ice Climbers have received a mix of buffs and nerfs in the transition from Melee to Brawl, although the duo have received a few noticeable nerfs. Due to the changes in grab-based mechanics, wobbling has been removed, which had formally been a considerable candidate of their competitive viability. Additionally, the loss of wavedashing has also proven to be a hindrance against the Ice Climbers due to their low traction, inhibiting their approach and mobility. This renders their low traction more of a liability, though not the extent of. The Ice Climbers' damage output has also been lowered, a variety of their moveset have received reductions to their KO potential, and the rest of their grounded moveset have received more ending lag, leaving them more vulnerable to punishes.

However, due to the influence of chain grabbing, the Ice Climbers are considered to be overall buffed. Due to the improvements to their chain grabbing ability, the Ice Climbers are even deadier than in Melee relative to the cast. The player now possesses full control over the following climber during a grab, allowing the player to liberally chain grab and combo out of a grab. In addition, their standing grab is slightly faster and the universal changes to shields makes it easier for the Ice Climbers to grab their opponents. Altogether, the Ice Climbers are one of the only characters in the game who can consistently zero-to-death the entire cast, which is especially beneficial as combos are universally and drastically less deadly and plentiful in Brawl than in Melee due to the introduction of hitstun canceling. The following climber also boasts more artificial intelligence than in Melee, increasing their usefulness and reducing their vulnerability. While the Ice Climbers' grounded mobility is slower, the rest of the cast received the same treatment and most of the cast's attacks that exploited the Ice Climbers' difficulty in sticking together (such as 's Shine and 's down smash) have been drastically nerfed, making it harder for opponents to play around their grabs and separate them. Lastly, Blizzard is a much more versatile tool than in Melee, and can be a strong tool to edgeguard, apply pressure, rack up damage and allow the Ice Climbers to grab their opponents.

As a result, the Ice Climbers are one of the few characters considered to have been truly buffed from Melee to Brawl, and the duo are widely considered to be the best character behind.

Ground attacks

 * Neutral attack:
 * Forward tilt:
 * Up tilt:
 * Down tilt:
 * Dash attack:
 * Forward smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Up tilt:
 * Down tilt:
 * Dash attack:
 * Forward smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Down tilt:
 * Dash attack:
 * Forward smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Dash attack:
 * Forward smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Forward smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Down smash:

Aerial attacks

 * Neutral aerial:
 * Forward aerial:
 * Back aerial:
 * Up aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Forward aerial:
 * Back aerial:
 * Up aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Back aerial:
 * Up aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Up aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Up aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Down aerial:

Throws/other attacks

 * Grabs:
 * Pummel:
 * Back throw:
 * Up throw:
 * Down throw:
 * Back throw:
 * Up throw:
 * Down throw:
 * Up throw:
 * Down throw:
 * Down throw:
 * Down throw:

Special moves

 * Ice Shot:
 * Squall Hammer:
 * Squall Hammer:
 * Squall Hammer:
 * Squall Hammer:
 * Squall Hammer:
 * Squall Hammer:
 * Squall Hammer:


 * Belay:
 * Blizzard:
 * Iceberg:
 * Blizzard:
 * Iceberg:
 * Blizzard:
 * Iceberg:
 * Iceberg:

Moveset
Note: This assumes that both Ice Climbers are present.
 * Although the Ice Climbers have among the lowest traction in the game, their traction is completely unaffected by slippery terrain, such as ice.

Crowd cheer

 * In the NTSC-U and PAL versions, when playing as Nana, the Back sound of the menu plays in lieu of the crowd chant.
 * The fact that the crowd chant changes (albeit in a glitchy manner) depending on which Climber is leading the pair might indicate that the lead Climber's name was intended to be chanted first by the crowd.

Notable players

 * See also: Category:Ice Climbers players (SSBB)


 * - Widely considered the best Ice Climbers player in the world and one of the best players in Japan along with, notably winning SKTAR 3.
 * - Placed 5th at WHOBO 5.
 * - Considered one of the best players in the United States during the game's later stages; although famous primarily for his Pikachu, has used an Ice Climbers co-main to great success, defeating players such as Kakera and using them.
 * - Known as one of the top players in Japan, placed 5th at Apex 2012.
 * - A nationally dominant player during his peak from 2009-2010.
 * - Defeated players such as 9B, Smasher, Nagahari, Earth, OCEAN, Suinoko, Shu, Kei and Masashi.
 * - Quickly rose as a top Ice Climbers player in 2013, with a 4th place at SKTAR 2 and wins over, , , and.
 * - A nationally dominant player in the later stages of Brawl's life, after switching to Ice Climbers from.
 * - Defeated players such as Shu, Kuroobi, and RAIN.

Tier placement and history
In the first year of Brawl's metagame, the Ice Climbers were ranked as high-tier characters, but were not especially considered a dominant force, given how weak Popo alone is after Nana dies, and their powerful grab tactics were unrecognized at the time. However, Ice Climbers players soon began to utilize their infinite chain grabs, giving them an extremely powerful zero-to-death option against any other character, which shot them up the tier list. Players found dealing with this difficult, as it completely changed the way players fought the Ice Climbers, with the matchup now revolving around avoiding getting grabbed at all, and the Ice Climbers were able to completely shut down characters who lacked effective means to avoid grabs or separate the Ice Climbers. became the character's first top level player in 2009 and 2010, achieving multiple major top 8 placements, such as and. This resulted in the Ice Climbers being considered uncontested top-tiers by the Brawl Back Room's the fourth tier list where they ranked 5th, just short of two years after Brawl's international release. However, the Ice Climbers were held back by their relative lack of top representation compared to other top-tiers, and lain was never able to win a major over other top-tier mains. Additionally, the existence of numerous extremely unfavorable stage counterpicks kept the Ice Climbers in check, preventing them from becoming truly dominant. In the earlier Brawl metagame, multiple stages with scrolling platforms and hazards, such as Rainbow Cruise, Brinstar, and Norfair, were available as counterpicks; these stages favored more air-based gameplay and made it much more difficult for the Ice Climbers to complete a zero-to-death chain grab without getting interrupted by the stage.

As Brawl's metagame further refined, the Ice Climbers' tournament presence continued to grow. The Ice Climbers' worst stages also happened to be 's strongest stages; as Meta Knight's dominance over the Brawl scene continued to grow, Rainbow Cruise, Brinstar, and Norfair eventually were banned in all Meta Knight-legal tournaments due to his unmatched aerial prowess on those stages. The other two stages with more minor moving platforms and hazards, Halberd and Delfino Plaza, also became more frequently banned due to Meta Knight's dominance there, and typically only one of these stages was available as a counterpick, which gave Ice Climbers mains the opportunity to play around this with a stage ban. These factors allowed the Ice Climbers to truly shine in the Brawl scene. Although lain became inactive, a new wave of even better Ice Climbers players arose from 2011 to 2014. ,, , , and quickly became some of the biggest tournament threats in both North America and Japan, achieving multiple first place victories at events such as , , and the MK-banned  and ; 9B in particular was considered by many to be the outright best player in all of Japan. As a result, the Ice Climbers became one of most dominant characters in tournaments behind Meta Knight, and this coincided with their rise to 2nd place on the eighth and final Brawl Back Room tier list in 2013, right underneath in their own tier above the rest of the characters. Some players argued that since the Ice Climbers have access to a zero-death on every character that works at any percent, they could be tied for first place with Meta Knight, or could even be first place themselves; however, despite these advancements, the Ice Climbers' results never approached Meta Knight's uncontested dominance before the end of Brawl' active competitive life at the release of Smash 4.

The Ice Climbers are among the most disliked characters in Brawl by both casual and competitive players, since they possess a reliable zero-death against any character, something no other character has access to, with several players supporting the ban of the infinite chain grabs in tournaments. Due to the prominent competitive philosophy at the time of Brawl however, zero-death chain grabs were uncommonly singled out for banning in tournament rulesets, and with the definition of what construes an "infinite chain grab" typically being rigid, players of the Ice Climbers could find loopholes to avoid using it while still nearly securing stocks with each grab, making opponents' predicaments effectively the same. Some tournaments in the post-Smash-4 era, such as Glitch 2, have banned the Ice Climbers altogether alongside Meta Knight, due to being considered too powerful, especially when Meta Knight is banned, farther fueled by their unpopularity among opponents and spectators alike.

Role in The Subspace Emissary
The Ice Climbers make their first appearance in The Glacial Peak, climbing up a mountain together, either potentially in pursuit of the Halberd or they were just climbing, being completely oblivious to the shootout between the Great Fox and the Battleship Halberd. When passed them going up the mountain, the Ice Climbers angrily took his quick ascent as a challenge and jumped up the mountain with Meta Knight. In the process, the Ice Climbers and Meta Knight warded off a portion of the Subspace Army along their routes with the mountain.

Upon reaching the summit, the Ice Climbers celebrated with their "victory" for managing to reach up to the mountaintop first, until they and Meta Knight encounter in a meditative stance on the peak of the mountain, who challenges Meta Knight to a sparring duel, while the Ice Climbers spectate from the side in agitation. After the fight, the victor revives the trophicated loser, to the relief of the Ice Climbers. The pair deem each other worthy and shake hands, making an alliance while the Ice Climbers cheerfully watch their reconciliation. However, relief is short-lived, as the Halberd suddenly plunges through the red clouds, ramming the Great Fox into the mountain while grabbing it with the ship's Combo Cannon. Although Meta Knight and Lucario managed to have the opportunity to board the Battleship Halberd, the Ice Climbers are ironically knocked back towards the canyon (along with a multitude of Shadow Bugs raining from the sky), where, the , and  reside. The latter two retreat for the Ice Climbers' landing on the ground, while the drizzling Shadow Bugs from the sky materialize a considerable ambush of the Subspace Army. The Ice Climbers, Lucas, Ike, the Pokémon Trainer and Marth team up to defeat the ambush of the Subspace Army, with the assistance of, , , and.

After that, the ten fighters camp out for a while, until noticing an enormous explosion of Subspace Bombs from the Isle of the Ancients. The Battleship Halberd (now under control of Meta Knight,, Lucario, /, , , , and ) and the Falcon Flyer (carrying , , , , , and ) land, reuniting with the rest of the other fighters.

After annihiliating the Subspace Gunship and invading the Subspace, the Ice Climbers and the other fighters eventually confront Tabuu. Unfortunately, the rest of the fighters have been effortlessly trophicated by Tabuu's off waves, including the Ice Climbers. However, the Ice Climbers and the rest of the other fighters are miraculously revived thanks to the efforts of, alongside , , and. After completing the Great Maze, the Ice Climbers and the other fighters confront Tabuu once again, and the latter prepares to trophicate the fighters another time by using his off waves, but shatters his wings, teaming up with the other fighters and eventually defeating Tabuu. In the end, the fighters successfully defeat Tabuu, including the Ice Climbers among them, resulting in the restoration of the World of Trophies and the obliteration of the Subspace.

Playable appearances

 * The Glacial Peak
 * Entrance to Subspace
 * The Great Maze (if rescued in Subspace (Part II))

Exclusive stickers
These stickers can only be used by the Ice Climbers, or a select few including them:
 * Balloon Fight Enemy: [Specials: Indirect] Attack +4
 * Donbe: [Slash] Resistance +26
 * Duck: Launch Resistance +20
 * Fat Hockey Player: [Specials: Indirect] Attack +12
 * F-Type: [Throwing] Attack +22
 * Nana: [Specials: Direct] Attack +29
 * Wild Gunman: [Specials: Indirect] Attack +5
 * Yakuman Player: [Electric] Resistance +28

In Classic Mode, Ice Climbers can appear as an opponent in Stage 9 on Summit. Ice Climbers can also appear as an opponent in Stage 11, but only if they haven't appeared in Stage 9.

All-Star Mode
In All-Star Mode, Ice Climbers are fought in Stage 4 on Summit.

Solo Events

 * Event 11: Yoshi's Rainbow: As the Ice Climbers, the player must KO six s in the order of red, pink, yellow, green, cyan, and blue.
 * Event 17: Super Waterfall Climb: must survive on Rumble Falls until the background changes into a waterfall. Two pairs of Ice Climbers will try to hinder the player's progress.
 * Event 34: All-Star Battle Melee: Ice Climbers are one of the opponents fought in this event. All opponents are newcomers from Super Smash Bros. Melee.

Co-Op Events

 * Co-Op Event 10: The R.O.B.'s of Tomorrow: and the Ice Climbers must defeat five s of varying sizes on Summit.
 * Co-Op Event 21: The True All-Star Battle: Both players select a character and take on the entire roster on.

Trophies
The Ice Climbers' main and Final Smash trophies can be obtained by clearing and All-Star mode respectively with the Ice Climbers.

Alternate costumes
Nana becomes the leading, player-controlled character when using the 2nd, 4th, and 6th costumes shown below. The stock icons for these costumes change to reflect this, but the character select portraits always show Popo in front.

Trivia

 * Along with, , and , the Ice Climbers are one of the only characters to have a unique "Defeated/No Contest" pose different from the traditional hand-clapping, with their head down while rubbing their eyes, depicting them crying. This pose is a reference to the one they make in Ice Climber after failing in a bonus level.
 * If the player looks carefully, Nana can actually be seen smirking while crying while Popo is frowning. This is fixed in Ultimate.
 * In Stamina mode, it is possible for the partner to die before the leader. Regardless of whether this happens or not, the partner will lay on the ground motionless, but not blink red.
 * If the partner is caught in a trapping Final Smash and the leader is KO'd, the partner will disappear, leaving the opponent attacking nothing. Some examples are 's, 's, 's, and 's, and as seen here.
 * Both Ice Climbers must win a microgame in the WarioWare, Inc. stage to be rewarded.
 * Certain Final Smashes, especially trapping ones, can cause the trailing Ice Climber's special effects to be slowed down under the effect of a Timer (Nana's remains even after the Timer is done). The effects end when one or both of the Ice Climbers are KO'd.
 * When CPU-controlled, if one Ice Climber is Star KO'd, the partner will sometimes taunt.
 * Brawl is the only game where the portraits of the Ice Climbers are not swapped around when Nana is the leader, the only game where their default costume is not available in Team Battles and the only game where Nana leads the duo in all even-numbered costumes.
 * If the leader dies in Stamina Mode without losing all their stamina, the partner will not disappear and can continue playing normally. This was later fixed in Ultimate.
 * If the leader loses their stamina after the partner has been KO'd, but without losing all their stamina in Stamina Mode, the partner will respawn in the middle of the stage, but will still be defeated.
 * The Ice Climbers,, , , and are the only characters whose icon in the Subspace Emissary and the Sticker menu is not based on their renders.