Kid Icarus
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Kid Icarus is a platform game for the Family Computer Disk System in Japan and the Nintendo Entertainment System in Europe and North America. It was released in Japan in December 1986, in Europe in February 1987, and in North America in July 1987. It was later re-released for the Game Boy Advance in Japan in 2004. The game was released on the Wii's Virtual Console in 2007 and the Wii U's Virtual Console in 2013. A 3D Classics remake of the game was released in Japan in 2011 and in North America, Europe, and Australia in 2012. In 2016, Kid Icarus was included on the North American and PAL region releases of the NES Classic Edition. It is also released on Nintendo Switch Online in 2019.
Why It Rocks
- Throughout the game, the player can acquire hearts which work as a form of currency to which the player can give them to merchants who will have three things available for purchase, and purchasing an item will cause the shopkeeper to randomly rotate their stock.
- The game has some variety compared to other platformers at the time. The first three levels of each stage are normal platforming levels, the fourth level of each stage is a dungeon, similar to The Legend of Zelda, and the final stage is a side-scrolling shooter.
- Good graphics that have this nice cartoony sprite work.
- There are five different endings depending on four statistics: If you have all three enchanted weapons (Crystal Rod, Sacred Bow, and Flame Arrows) in your possession, if you have 999 hearts when you defeat Medusa, if you have five segments in your health meter (a score greater 200,000 by 3-4), and if you have five arrows listed for your strength. Each statistic adds a single point.
- Worst ending (0 points): Pit becomes nothing more than a lowly farmer, holding a sickle in his hand.
- Ending 1 (1 point): Pit is promoted to a basic guard, with a helmet and a rod.
- Ending 2 (2 points): Pit is promoted to a guard captain, with a captain's helmet and a spear.
- Ending 3 (3 points): Pit is transformed into a full grown angel; he grows to the same height as Palutena and flexes his arm.
- Best ending (4 points): Pit is transformed into a full grown angel, and the Goddess of Light, Palutena, is so impressed with Pit, that she grants him a kiss. Whereupon the chamber fills with light and four cherubs appear and fly over the couple, dropping hearts on them.
- There are a number of pickups that will help you on your journey.
- Harp: This turns enemies into mallets for a short period of time.
- Mallet: Each mallet can be used to inflict damage upon foes (equal to level 5 strength, regardless of Pit's own), or free Centurions from their stony prison.
- Angel's feather: It grants Pit flight and can be used to recover from falling.
- Credit Card: Allows Pit to purchase items from a Black Marketeer. However, if Pit has this in his inventory while not having enough Hearts to purchase an item from the Black Marketeer, and he collects the item, his Heart total will be reduced to 0 and the rest will be placed as debit on the card. Until he collects enough Hearts to equal out the balance, nothing more will be added to his total and Pit will be unable to buy anything else until the debt is paid off.
- Check Sheet: A map when in the fortress levels.
- Torch: Allows Pit to check his own position on the Check Sheet.
- Pencil: Marks the chambers that Pit has entered in a Fortress.
- Water Barrel: Allows Pit to store up to eight bottles of Water of Life, when normally he can only carry one bottle. He can't carry more than one barrel, however.
- When the player reaches a specific score a block of health will be added to Pit's HP, adding up to 8 additional HP.
- Level 2: 20,000
- Level 3: 50,000
- Level 4: 100,000
- Level 5: 200,000
- There are four weapons that require Pit to be at a certain "experience level" in order for them to activate, and have full health for that bar, so a high score is a must. The first weapon (after being obtained) activates when Pit reaches two bars, the second weapon requires three, and the third weapon needs a total of four full health bars to activate. Once activated, a weapon stays active even if Pit should fall below the required health level needed to activate it.
- Arrow of Strength: The base weapon of the game. As Pit defeats enemies and proceeds through his quest, he'll occasionally come across Sacred Chambers. If he's gained enough experience, Zeus will bestow an additional level of strength to the angel, represented in the form of an arrow. Pit's hair will change color with each upgrade, as well as the color of shopkeepers, black marketeers, nurses, Zeus, items, and several enemies. Also, an additional arrow will show in the status screen. There are five levels of strength, each with their own arrow:
- Level 2: Bronze Arrows. (Changes things to have a green coloring)
- Level 3: Silver Arrows. (Changes things to have a purple coloring)
- Level 4: Gold Arrows. (Changes things to have a light brown coloring)
- Level 5: Sacred Arrows. (Changes things to have a blue coloring)
- Fire Arrow: This weapon adds a spinning fireball around each arrow that Pit shoots with his bow. The fireball itself causes as much damage as the arrow but it only disappears if the arrow itself impacts an enemy, thus making it very useful for thinning out crowds. Pit can earn this weapon by fighting off Monoliths in a Sacred Training Chamber. It needs to be activated before it can be used.
- Protective Crystal: This is an auxiliary defensive weapon, not suited for direct attacks, and Pit's agility should still be his primary defense. A pair of crystals will rotate quickly around Pit, providing a physical barrier that damages enemies who dare to approach the angel. Each crystal deals damage equal to Pit's current strength. Despite it's usefulness, quick enemies can still slip between the crystals and damage Pit.
- Sacred Bow: With this weapon, Pit's arrows fly much farther and faster, though he can still only have one in the air before nocking another. He must be careful to avoid shooting enemies too far afield, lest he be unable to collect their Hearts.
- Arrow of Strength: The base weapon of the game. As Pit defeats enemies and proceeds through his quest, he'll occasionally come across Sacred Chambers. If he's gained enough experience, Zeus will bestow an additional level of strength to the angel, represented in the form of an arrow. Pit's hair will change color with each upgrade, as well as the color of shopkeepers, black marketeers, nurses, Zeus, items, and several enemies. Also, an additional arrow will show in the status screen. There are five levels of strength, each with their own arrow:
- The 3D Classics version adds some backgrounds to the levels, difficulty modes to make the game easier to newcomers while preserving the difficulty in the harder ones, and the option to switch between the old, NES controls and a new control scheme that makes things easier.
Bad Qualities
- The map you can obtain doesn't work like an ordinary map. You have to buy a pencil to know which rooms you've visited and a torch to see your location.
- Just like in Castlevania, if the screen scrolls up to where there is no platform and you miss a jump, you will instantly die.
- While the graphics are good, none of the stages have background. Instead, they're just one solid color.
- The beginning stage (The Underworld) is considered the hardest stage in the game due to Pit's small health bar and weak bow. Not to mention the fact that you can die if you miss a jump and you go back to the beginning of the stage unless you use a password to continue!
- The idea of an item being a credit card doesn't make any sense in a game with a Greek mythological setting.
- There are some things that the game nor the manual tells the player.
- There is a second, hidden score counter that must be raised to certain amounts (by collecting hearts, killing enemies etc.) to get the weapon upgrades. If you don't raise this score high enough, Zeus won't appear in the upgrade rooms.
- The weapons you get from the training rooms (the Crystal Rod, Flaming Arrow, and Sacred Bow) are not immediately functional. You must raise Pit's health to maximum first, which you probably won't be able to do until you reach the hot springs in the first dungeon. Also, it's important to note that these weapons are disabled while in dungeons.
- It is not obvious what to do in the treasure rooms in the first two worlds. You have to break all of the pots without collecting any of the items inside. One pot, if broken last, will contain a life potion, barrel, or credit card. Said pot is randomly selected when you enter the room, though it's possible to guarantee a win every time by breaking a few specific pots first.
Reception
Kid Icarus has been met with mixed reviews from critics over the years. Reviewers praised the game for its music and its mixture of gameplay elements from different genres, but criticized its graphics and high difficulty level. Despite the reception, this game and its sequel have developed a small, but devoted cult following over the years.
Kid Icarus had shipped 1.76 million copies worldwide by late 2003, and has gained a cult following. It was included in IGN's lists of the top 100 NES games and the top 100 games of all time; it came in 20th and 84th place, respectively. It came in 34th place on Electronic Gaming Monthly 1997 "100 Best Games of All Time", which said it "was one of the first big NES games to show that the system went way beyond offering the single-screen arcade-style experience." In 2001 Game Informer ranked it the 83rd best game ever made. They claimed that despite its high level of difficulty and frustration, it was fun enough to be worth playing. The game was inducted into GameSpy's "Hall of Fame", and was voted 54th place in Nintendo Power's top 200 Nintendo games. Nintendo Power also listed it as the 20th best NES video game, and praised it for its "unique vertically scrolling stages, fun platforming, and infectious 8-bit tunes", in spite of its "unmerciful difficulty".
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