Icicle Mountain

Infinite Glacier: Icicle Mountain
Icicle Mountain in Super Smash Bros. Melee.
Universe	Ice Climber
Appears in	Melee
Availability	Starter
Tracks available	Icicle Mountain Balloon Fight (Alternate)
Tournament legality Melee Singles: Banned Doubles: Banned

Icicle Mountain (アイシクルマウンテン, Icicle Mountain) is a stage in Super Smash Bros. Melee.

In Adventure Mode, the mountain path is dominated by Freezie-pushing Topis and Polar Bears that force the stage to "jump" upward when they hop. Players can jump along the top of the stage to force their way higher to quickly face-off against the Ice Climber team, or climb still higher to reach the two-platform summit.

In All-Star mode, this stage is played on when the player faces the Ice Climbers and any of their teammates.

Stage overview

Unveiled at E3 2001, Icicle Mountain is a stage that constantly moves up or down (mostly up), therefore making it a sidescroller. It moves infinitely up/down, although the speed varies. It has platforms that are flat as well as diagonal. There are ice blocks that can be destroyed with one hit, both large and small ones. Many sections of platforms are slippery as they are made of ice. There are also platforms that drop if one stands on them too long. If playing as Pikachu or Pichu, one should be aware that Thunder is completely useless, due to the fact that floors are constantly generated, permanently blocking the move.

Origin

The fourth level in Ice Climber featuring two icicles.

This stage is loosely based on the NES game Ice Climber, in which the goal is to try to get to the top of the level by jumping through blocks while dodging obstacles, such as falling icicles, and enemies. If the Ice Climbers got hit by an enemy or a falling icicle, they lose a life. If the Ice Climbers take too long to complete a level, a Polar Bear appears and jumps to make the screen scroll up, causing them to lose a life if forced offscreen. In this stage appear destructible blocks and icicles; however, the icicles do not fall nor damage fighters. The stage scrolling up the mountain is also similar to Polar Bears causing the screen to scroll up.

Tournament legality

Icicle Mountain is universally banned at tournaments, primarily because its focus for players is to survive rather than actually fight. Additionally, it heavily favours characters with superior jumping prowess. The upper and horizontal blast lines are close to the stage, allowing for some very early KOs, and there are impassable platforms throughout the stage that can block a potential KO. The frequent blocking of the lower blast line also undermines spikes and meteor smashes, as well as minimizing edge guarding skills.

Trivia

• Any AI character tends to SD easily when the stage starts scrolling quickly upwards. This is because the AI will ascend only one platform at a time, frequently leading to them not moving quickly enough to escape the lower blast line.
• Icicle Mountain, along with Mute City (SSBM) and Poké Floats, are the only stages not to reappear outside of Melee.