Crazy Climber Review: Underappreciated Innovator

With patience, however, the elegance and uniqueness of Crazy Climber really comes out. There's a distinct satisfaction from learning to quickly manipulate the climber's movements. The fact that you're directly controlling his arms provides an extra level of immersion that you won't get from the more abstract directional controls of most video games. If something is about to hit me while I'm hanging from a skyscraper, it's not enough to just will my body in a particular direction, I have to perform a distinct set of movements with my arms to properly adjust my weight. This complexity, in turn, underscores the precariousness of your situation when you're gripping desperately to the side of a building, dodging falling objects.
Even so, the game is forgiving in some respects. Most obstacles, it turns out, can be managed by just hanging on tight, so if you're patient, you should be able to make your way up the tower even before you have complete mastery of the controls. You will need to make extensive use of this fact in the second level, when you're being bombarded by falling objects between just two columns of windows.
Be careful, however, of staying in one place for too long. Windows don't stay open forever.
When it was released by Nichibutsu in 1980, Crazy Climber had cutting edge graphics and an innovative control scheme, making for a unique challenge in contemporary arcades. However, despite receiving acclaim from many critics, it has a fairly small footprint today, and that's a shame. It's likely that the unconventional and non-intuitive controls scare away many gamers looking for instant gratification; in fact, it's somewhat understandable to expect something more than frustration from your first quarters in an arcade machine. In 2020, however, you can play it as many times as you want on an emulator or on Nintendo Switch (via the Arcade Archives), without having to worry about keeping track of your spare change. I recommend you do so.
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