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Has anyone noticed this? In Nintendo's classic NES game Ice Climber, there are these little fuzzy guys (hereafter referred to as "Mr. Fuzzy") that come out to replace any pieces of the floor that you may have knocked away. One touch from them can kill you.

Mr. Fuzzy

However, in the original Famicom version, Mr. Fuzzy is not there. Instead, there are seals. Cute little blue seals that replace pieces of the floor and can kill you with one touch, just like Mr. Fuzzy.

The seal. Isn't he cute?

The question - why isn't the seal in the NES game? I think the answer's obvious - at about the time that Ice Climber was released, we first started hearing about the plight of the baby seals that were being clubbed to death by a bunch of sick bastards that were harvesting their pelts. Clearly Nintendo didn't want to piss off any potential customers - after all, the Ice Climber's weapon of choice is a big horkin' mallet. Not only do you use it to bash holes through the ceiling, but you use it to ward of the creatures that try to kill you by smacking them over the head with it. Had word gotten out that Nintendo was allowing seal bashing in one of their games - even nonfatal seal bashing, as was the case here - the media and all sorts of animal rights groups would have been all over them like flies on a rotting animal carcass. So the seal was quietly removed from the American and European NES games and replaced by Mr. Fuzzy.

There's no way of knowing this for certain, of course, but that seems to be the most logical explanation. Oddly enough, the birds in the game remained unchanged, and can be bashed as easily as the seals/Mr. Fuzzy can. I guess Nintendo doesn't condone bashing seals in the U.S., but bird bashing is just fine. ~shrug~

Take THAT, you stupid seal!!!

UPDATE: 8/8/03 - This just in from Yashiro Nanakase:

"OK, I've been obsessed with Smash Bros. lately....got it again after not playing it for a few months. It has the uncanny ability of making me fall in love with Nintendo every time I play it. ANYway, Super Smash Bros. Melee includes the Ice Climbers as playable characters, and they have their own stage, complete with Topis and Polar Bears. Of course, the Topis got changed for the U.S. and PAL releases again. I have included 2 pictures from the SSBM trophy room (the coolest feature of the whole game) of both Topis."

And again, Nintendo yanks the seals from the U.S. and European releases. *sigh* Some things never change, eh?