The Ice Climbers and the Summit stage were initially planned to make a return in "Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U" but were taken out during development because of technical issues encountered in the development of the 3DS version. While the Ice Climbers and their home stage would have been functional on the Wii U version of Smash, game director Masahiro Sakurai excluded them from the final release so he could keep the two games' rosters and stages equal. Sakurai also stated that there was not a high priority to include them since the "Ice Climber" series was "unlikely to have another installment" at the time. Despite this, they are still mentioned in-game via a collectible trophy. The Polar Bear from this series also appears as an enemy in the 3DS version's Smash Run mode.