Ice Climbers

Lore & Background

In the frozen world of the Ice Climber games, Popo and Nana are a devoted couple whose life revolves around a single, endless pursuit: scaling a towering glacier of jagged ice. The mountain is their home, their playground, and their adversary all at once. They cling to its sheer face with bare hands and feet, dodging the great slabs of ice that calve from the summit and tumble down the slope. There is no destination beyond the peak—only the climb itself, repeated endlessly, a ritual as old as the snow that buries their world.

Their relationship is defined by cooperation. In their native game, they move as one unit, one always slightly behind the other, each ready to catch the other if a slip sends them tumbling. This interdependence carries over into their Smash Bros. appearances, where their movesets are built around the idea that neither is complete without the other. A punch from Popo is followed by a kick from Nana; a jump is a leap shared between two pairs of boots. They are, in every mechanical sense, a single fighter wearing two bodies.

The Ice Climber world is spare and austere—a pale sky, a white mountain, the occasional gust of wind. There are no cities, no other characters, no narrative beyond the act of climbing. It is a world of pure, quiet determination, and the two climbers are its only inhabitants, bound to the ice and to each other in a loop that never ends.

In Their Own Story

The wind off the summit hit like a wall of needles. Popo planted his boots in a crack no wider than his thumb and hauled Nana up beside him. Her pink scarf snapped and whipped across his face. Below them, the slope stretched into a white void, and above, the peak was just a smudge against the grey sky, impossibly far.

A groan rolled through the ice. A slab the size of a house sheared free from the ridge and began its long, tumbling fall. They did not look down. They never looked down. Popo's fingers found the next hold, Nana's boots found his shoulders, and they rose together—two small, stubborn shapes against the endless white, climbing, always climbing, because the mountain was the only thing that had ever asked anything of them, and they had never once said no.

Reader's Guide

Name: Popo & Nana Source Franchise: Ice Climber (1985) Unlock Method: Defeat a set of CPU matches or select them via the fighter roster in Super Smash Bros. Melee, Brawl, Smash 4, and Ultimate. In Ultimate they also appear as an Assist Trophy.

Neutral Attack: A short combo alternating punches and kicks between Popo and Nana, ending with a two-handed haymaker. The sequence is fast but low-damage, designed for spacing and pressure.

Side Special: They hurl a snowball or ice chunk forward. It travels a moderate distance and can be used for edge-guarding or short-range disruption.

Up Special: A vertical hop that lifts both climbers a short distance. It provides limited recovery and is easily interrupted, making off-stage mobility one of their core weaknesses.

Down Special: A spinning, ground-level sweep that hits in a tight arc around the pair. Useful for anti-air at close range.

Aerials: Forward air is a quick kick; up air is a rising kick; down air is a diving kick. When stacked (one on the other's shoulders), aerials gain extra range and a slightly different hitbox.

Smashes: Forward smash is a two-fisted punch; up smash is an overhead swing; down smash is a downward sweep. All are mid-range with moderate knockback.

Grabs: A standard grab followed by a pummel that alternates hits between the two. Throws launch the opponent in a fixed direction.

Unique Mechanics: The pair shares one health pool. They can stack for aerials, and being hit can separate them, leaving one vulnerable. Recovery is notably limited—no strong dash or double-jump equivalent—so positioning and edge-hopping are critical.

Alternate Costumes: Several color variations shift the blue/pink palette to other hues (green, orange, purple, etc.) while keeping the two-character structure intact.

Assist Trophy (Ultimate): Popo and Nana materialize, perform a brief sequence of coordinated punches and a spinning kick, then dissolve. Duration is short; they do not persist on stage.

Did You Know?

• Popo and Nana were among the very first fighters available in Super Smash Bros. Melee (2001), helping define the game's early roster.
• In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, they were split into two individually selectable fighters, a design choice that was later reversed in Smash 4 and Ultimate, where they returned as a single paired entity.
• Their recovery options are among the most limited on the roster—there is no strong aerial recovery move—making them highly vulnerable once knocked off-stage.
• The original Ice Climber arcade game (1985) featured no other characters, no story, and no dialogue; the entire experience was just two climbers scaling a mountain while ice blocks fell.