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Seal has been targeted for termination for the following reason(s): not villains, just normal seals Please discuss it on the talk page for this article.
Seals are major antagonists of Nintendo's platform video game series, Ice Climber. In the japanese localization of the game, Seals will replace Topis as the representative enemies. Like Topis, Seals will potentially make an appearance from either side of the stage and will attempt to prevent the Ice Climbers from scaling the mountain by pushing blocks of ice into the holes the duo materialized on the stage; furthermore, Seals could send the Ice Climbers falling down the stage if running into them. The Seals could be easily defeated, but would respawn after some time. Seals also make their official reappearance in Super Smash Bros. Melee.
As the name implies, these species are representative as blue/indigo and anthropomorphic seals. The change in its appearance to a yeti-like creature, however, is assumed to be due to the controversial situations surrounding seal clubbing in the Western world.
Personality[]
Despite their simplistic species, Seals are revealed to be hardworking creatures who repair broken gaps in mountains after Popo and Nana destroy them, something that differs drastically from the other antagonists of Ice Climber. Evidently, if a Seal finds a crack in the ground, it will immediately turn around and back off past the edge of the screen before returning with icicles to fix the gap. Seals are also mischievous and troublemaking, as Seals shove icicle blocks for them to ram into the Ice Climbers.
Biography[]
Ice Climber[]
In Ice Climber, Seals are typically the first enemies to be encountered in the game. They will potentially make an appearance from either side of the stage and will attempt to prevent the Ice Climbers from scaling the mountain by pushing blocks of ice into the holes the duo materialized on the stage; furthermore, Seals could send the Ice Climbers falling down the stage if running into them. The Seals could be easily defeated, but would respawn after some time. Dissolving their icicles are worth 400 points.
Super Smash Bros. Melee[]
In the original japanese release of Melee, Seals replace Topis as in the japanese localization of Ice Climber, but Topis are instead the white yeti-like creatures in international localizations. Both variations function identically, and uniquely, the blue seals do not make an appearance in the North American version even when the language is set to Japanese. The change was presumably due to controversy over seal hunting, though it is also possible that the change was merely to preserve the continuity of the Topis' appearances between regions.
Gallery[]
The seal replacing the topi on the official artwork of Ice Climber for Famicom, for Japan.
A topi and a seal pushing a block of ice in Ice Climber.
Alternate versions of the Topi's trophy in Super Smash Bros. Melee.
Description of the Seal's trophy in Super Smash Bros. Melee, although the trophy's title is instead visualized as "Topi."
The blocks of ice Seals pushed in Ice Climber are depicted for the Ice Climbers' Ice Shot for the Super Smash Bros. series.
The Ice Climbers' 4th costume in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which depicts Popo's inuit parka as navy and Nana's inuit parka as cyan, and depicts both of their gloves as faded indigo, is reminiscent of the similar coloration of the Seal's body. In Nana's case, however, her parka color is more reminiscent of the Seal for the Famicom artwork of Ice Climber.[1]
In the japanese variant of Ice Climber released for the Famicom (1985), the Topi has been replaced with a blue/indigo seal that slide across the ice. This is also carried over in Super Smash Bros. Melee, where the japanese localizations have the seal as the representative topi instead of the yeti-like creature.
When Ice Climber was localized into other countries like North America and Europe, they were changed to be based upon a more fictional character; a small, white-furry creature with a mouth resembling a beak instead of a seal. Presumably, this was to prevent potential and controversial concerns from consumers related to hitting seals with mallets, which could be perceived to be bad taste (in better terms, animal cruelty).
In Vs. Ice Climber (1984) and VS. Ice Climber Dual, it is notable that the "yeti-esque" design for the Topi was depicted immediately, potentially indicating that the seal was developed and finalized later. Ice Climber (Famicom Disk System) (1988), also depicted the Yeti Topi as well.
In Super Smash Bros. Melee, the Trophy for the Topi in the japanese localizations depicts Topi as a seal, as in Ice Climber for the Famicom. Despite that, this was changed to the "yeti" trophy in other localizations of the game when they were released, however, in early trailers of Ice Climber for North American, the seal's model could be seen, indicating that the change from 'Seal' to 'Yeti' was a relatively late change in the game's developmental stages.
The reason for changing the characteristic sprite of the Topi on the American localization was never formally stated, but heavily implied for concern for Nintendo to retain a family-friendly image. During the time of the game's release, North America (in particular Canada) had come under heavy criticism from animal rights activists for the practice of clubbing harp seals.
.png "Topi Trophy Melee (JP).png (81 KB)")
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