Crazy Climber

So I'm going to go a little off track and talk about a different series for a moment.



The Crazy Climber series predates Donkey Kong by about a year, coming out in 1980. You played as a guy scaling the outside of a skyscraper, controlling each arm separately and avoiding obstacles. Things to look out for include, among other things, a giant condor (something Nintendo kept for their own ice climber game later) that drops eggs (and shit) on you and Kong, a gorilla that stomps around and hurls down girders and dumbbells your way.

Wait. That sounds familiar.



Hmm.

Anyway.



The graphics haven't aged well, but it's got a certain quaintness to it. Incidentally, Crazy Climber served as the base code for the Reverse-engineered DK Arcade rippoff competitor Crazy Kong, hence the name. One could probably make a case for them being the same gorilla, but whatever.

In 1988, they decided to dust off the IP and release Crazy Climber 2.



It was much the same gameplay as before, the only major improvement being the graphics. And the billboards.



There are a few new obstacles about, like construction cranes, as well as beneficial stuff, like ducking into windows to make out with random women for bonus points (I'm serious).



Unfortunately, the game only ever hit Japanese arcades.



In 1996, Hyper Crazy Climber was released on the PS1. In addition to the classic skyscraper, Kong now sporting boxing gloves, there's also other things round the world to climb, like ancient temples and beanstalks.



This game is a bit more out there than its predecesors, featuring elves and man-eating plants and such. Hard to find, hard to play. Apparently it's on the PS3 eshop, but I'm not sure what regions.



In, er, 2000, they released Crazy Climber 2000.



More in line with the originals, this was in 3D, and made use of the new tech by allowing you to more on to the other sides of the buildings, wrapping around the whole thing. Other than that, they really didn't add a whole lot to the formula.

Also, it's rather hideous.



2007 saw the most recent entry in the series, Crazy Climber Wii, which took a more anime approach to the franchise.



Again, they really haven't done much with the formula beyond updating the look of the thing. They even removed the unique hand by hand control scheme.

Anyway, thus is the life of a franchise that arguably had some early influence on the Donkey Kong Arcade series, but then failed to really do anything interesting with itself or evolve in any way.

As always, comments, feedback, suggestions, etc are welcome.