Clubbing Baby Seals: Fact or Fiction?

[Blackbox77]

Ice Climber

Most people who have played or heard of this game know that there is a rather interesting difference between the Japanese and international versions of this game: the Topis (the little fuzzball yetis we know here in the USA) are actually seals in Japan. Why?

The classic NES guru is quick to point out NoA changed this during the localization process because they felt the American audience wouldn't respond well to seal clubbing. Is this true? It's a widely known "fact" but I have never ever seen a source to back it up. It's more like a rumor gone wild.

I've been searching the web for a while and would GREATLY appreciate anyone out there able to shed the littlest bit of truth on this fact. Help!

[norkusa]

It's a fact. I had a NES multicart that had the non-US version of Ice Climber on it and the baby seal clubbing was the first thing I noticed. I think there's also a thread here about it that I posted a couple years ago.

[Blackbox77]

Oh, I realize there are seals in the Japanese version. I've played it myself. What I'm asking is why Nintendo of America changed it from seals to yetis. The common answer is animal cruelty but I've never seen a source to back it up.

[Richter Belmount]

Awesome

[stonecutter]

I will only play the Japanese version for this reason. Otherwise the cod stock will be way to low, we need to give it a chance to re-populate.

[Moo Cow]

well, it's the only logical conclusion I can come up with.

[Nesboy43]

Not to be rude, but companys usually dont want people to know about this stuff so they dont release articles on it.

[Hwj_Chim]

I have never Been a fan of ice breaker but if they had kept the seals I might of found the game more fun.

[Push Upstairs]

Little known fact: Those are Nazi seals.

[TheDomesticInstitution]

They're constantly bumping into me, Rolling on E, with their damn glowsticks!

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

Not to be rude, but companys usually dont want people to know about this stuff so they dont release articles on it.

Exactly.

I mean, I've never seen any kind of official comment about why something was changed in the localization of a game. Maybe in modern games now that there's all these crack game journalists going around interviewing anybody peripherally involved in the game industry. But an NES game? What kind of official source would you expect?

Speculation is all we have to rely on, but I think it's pretty sound speculation to say that the seals were changed because a game where you quite literally club seals would have been considered bad taste. Especially if you keep in mind that the game came out in like 1985 when the whole seal clubbing thing was still a current issue and not a passe joke like it is today.

Turning the seals into yetis was totally stupid, though, wasn't it? I mean those are some pretty small and not very threatening yetis. Maybe they're supposed to be baby yetis, which doesn't really seem all that PC either...clubbing baby yetis. Yetis have got to be way more endangered than harp seals.


...word is bondage...

[dcescott]

Yeah I noticed it and posted something about it a year or two ago. It's just a game. Funny as crap. Fun game, easy to find on a Fammy multicart.

[carlcarlson]

you mean... to make a better deal?

[rbudrick]

You are promoting terrorism by killing those seals, for they are Navy Seals. You communist pig.

Honestly, why do you need official documentation? It's one of those things that is so obvious that no interview or official article need ever be done on it as proof. There's absolutely no other reason whatsoever for them to change it, so the rumored reason is almost undoubtedly *the* reason.

Of course, if anyone ever got an interview with a Nintendo exec that could confirm it, I'd gladly like to hear about it, but I doubt that anyone even at NOJ even remembers the board meeting where the original conversation to change it took place!

-Rob

[Blackbox77]

Thanks guys. These are probably the most reasonable explanations I've ever heard. Makes one wonder why a polar bear in sunglasses and a pink speedo is that much better than clubbing a baby seal.

Very nice.

[DarthKur]

The only version I have is the Famicom one, pictured below. The funny thing is that the presence of the seals didn't even strike me as anything odd.
I'm sure that the image on the cart itself is enough to disturb some people. That being a maniacal looking Eskimo brandishing a large mallet and all the while both a small seal and a polar bear, sporting swimming trunks, look on in apparent apprehension and concern for their own safety.
Sorry for the poor resolution of the picture. My camera is rather cheap junk.

[Blackbox77]

Yeah, with IC being just as surreal as any Mario game, you'd think something like a cartoon seal wouldn't be a big deal. Oh well, it adds to the lore of the game.

[Iron Draggon]

UGH... reminds me of the main reason why I still boycott the Tomb Raider games... in one of them you kill tigers... not my thing at all, even if it is just pretending... and I'm surprised there was never more of a stink about that...

[XxHennersXx]

UGH... reminds me of the main reason why I still boycott the Tomb Raider games... in one of them you kill tigers... not my thing at all, even if it is just pretending... and I'm surprised there was never more of a stink about that...

Yeah, you think thats bad? I don't play Galaga, Duke Nukem, Halo, Galaxian, Space Invaders, Contra... the list goes on.

why?

Because you shoot aliens. And god damn you Steven Speilberg you made me fall in love with ET!

(i kid)

[Nesboy43]

Seriously, you think Nintendo will go "We officially release this statement: In the upcoming NES game Ice Climbers, it orignally had you hitting baby seals but now you hit weird creature things, that is all, thank you."