[HowardC]

Some answers to your quesitons -RoG- :

The different levels were supposed to have mountains with different colors but the blocks of ice themselves were supposed to remain blue. This is supposed to reflect real life (in insaine nintendo real life anyway) as mountains at lower elevation tend to be brown, mid sized mountains tend to be green and tall mountains are usually covered by snow. The end product was a result of the nes's pallette limitations and/or a programming error. You be the judge as to which.

The polar bear is wearing a speedo and swimming goggles. He's a member of the polar bear club! GET IT! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! Damn those nintendo programmers were funny!

I heard a rumor back in the day that orignally the condor was supposed to have stolen babies instead of fruit. Of course nothing bad happens to babies in nintendo land.. well except for the yoshi's island games... anyway, it was censored down to vegtables. It might be completely untrue, but considering the myth that large birds steal children and climbing a mile high mountain to get some fruit is silly, there might be some truth to it.