Kid Icarus
Encyclopedia
Kid Icarus, known as in Japan, is an action
platform
video game for the Famicom Disk System
in Japan and the Nintendo Entertainment System
in Europe and North America. The first entry in Nintendo
's Kid Icarus series, it was published in Japan in December 1986, and in Europe and North America in February and July 1987, respectively. It was later re-released for the Game Boy Advance
in 2004, and for the Wii
's Virtual Console
online service in 2007. A sequel
to this game was released for the Game Boy
in 1991, and a third entry
to the series is currently planned to be published for the Nintendo 3DS
handheld console.
The story of Kid Icarus revolves around protagonist Pit
's quest for three sacred treasures, which he must equip to rescue the Grecian
fantasy world Angel Land and its ruler, the goddess Palutena. The player controls Pit through two-dimensional
areas while fighting monsters and collecting items. Their objective is to reach the end of the levels, and to find and defeat boss monsters that guard the three treasures. The game was developed by Nintendo
's Research and Development 1
division. It was designed by Toru Osawa and Yoshio Sakamoto
, directed by Satoru Okada
, and produced by Gunpei Yokoi.
Despite its mixed critical reception, Kid Icarus is a cult classic
, and had shipped 1.76 million copies by late 2003. Reviewers praised the game for its music and its mixture of gameplay elements from different genres, but criticized its graphics and high difficulty level. It was included in several lists of the best games compiled by IGN
and Nintendo Power
. After the release of the Game Boy
sequel Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters
in 1991, the game series lay dormant for 20 years. It was eventually revived with a 3D shooter for the Nintendo 3DS, titled Kid Icarus: Uprising
, after Pit's inclusion as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl
.
platformer
with role-playing
elements. The player controls the protagonist Pit
through two-dimensional
levels, which contain monsters, obstacles and items. Pit's primary weapon is a bow with an unlimited supply of arrows that can be upgraded with three collectable power items: the guard crystal shields Pit from enemies, the flaming arrows hit multiple targets, and the holy bow increases the range of the arrows. These upgrades will work only if Pit's health is high enough. The game keeps track of the player's score, and increases Pit's health bar at the end of a level if enough points were collected.
Throughout the stages, the player may enter doors to access seven different types of chambers. Stores and black markets offer items in exchange for hearts, which are left behind by defeated monsters. Treasure chambers contain items, enemy nests give the player an opportunity to earn extra hearts, and hot springs restore Pit's health. In the god's chamber, the strength of Pit's bow and arrow may be increased depending on several factors, such as the number of enemies defeated and the amount of damage taken in battle. In the training chamber, Pit will be awarded with one of the three power items if he passes a test of endurance.
The game world is divided into three stages – the underworld, the surface world and the sky world. Each stage encompasses three unidirectional area levels and a fortress. The areas of the underworld and sky world stages have Pit climb to the top, while those of the surface world are side-scrolling levels. The fortresses at the end of the stages are labyrinths with non-scrolling rooms, in which the player must find and defeat a gatekeeper boss. Within a fortress, Pit may buy a check sheet, pencil and torch to guide him through the labyrinth. A single-use item, the hammer, can destroy stone statues, which frees a flying soldier that will aid the player in boss battles. For each of the bosses destroyed, Pit receives one of three sacred treasures that are needed to access the fourth and final stage, the sky temple. This last portion abandons the platforming elements of the previous levels, and resembles a scrolling shooter.
theme. The backstory of Kid Icarus is described in the instruction booklet: Before the events of the game, Angel Land was ruled by the goddess, or Queen of light, Palutena, and the goddess, or Queen of darkness, Medusa
. Palutena bestowed the people with light to make them happy, but Medusa hated the humans, dried up their crop, and turned them to stone. Enraged by this, Palutena transformed Medusa into a monster, and banished her to the underworld. Out of revenge, Medusa conspired with the monsters of the underworld to take over Palutena's residence, the sky temple. She launched a surprise attack, and stole the three sacred treasures – the Mirror Shield, the Light Arrows, and the Wings of Pegasus – which deprived Palutena's army of its power. After her soldiers had been turned to stone by Medusa, Palutena was defeated in battle, and imprisoned deep inside the sky temple. With her last power, she sent a bow and arrow to the young angel Pit. He escapes from his prison in the underworld, and sets out to save Palutena and Angel Land. Throughout the course of the story, Pit retrieves the three sacred treasures from the fortress gatekeepers at the end of the game's stages. Afterward, he equips himself with the treasures, and storms the sky temple, where he defeats Medusa and rescues Palutena. The game has multiple endings: depending on the player's performance, Palutena either presents Pit with headgear, or transforms him into a full-grown angel.
's Research and Development 1
(R&D1) division, while the programming was handled by the external company Intelligent Systems
. The game was developed for the Family Computer Disk System (FDS) because the peripheral's Disk Card
media allowed for three times the storage capacity of the Nintendo Entertainment System
(NES) console's cartridges
. Combined with the possibility to store the players' progress
, the floppy disk format enabled the developers to create a longer game with a more extensive game world. Kid Icarus was Toru Osawa's debut as a video game designer, and he was the only staff member working on the game at the beginning of the project. Osawa intended to make Kid Icarus an action game
with role-playing
elements, and wrote a story rooted in Greek mythology, which he had always been fond of. He drew the pixel art
, and wrote the technical specifications, which were the basis for the playable prototype that was programmed by Intelligent Systems. After Nintendo's action-adventure Metroid had been finished, more staff members were alloted to the development of Kid Icarus.
The game was directed by Satoru Okada
, and produced by the general manager of the R&D1 division, Gunpei Yokoi. Hirokazu Tanaka
composed the music for Kid Icarus. Yoshio Sakamoto
joined the team as soon as he had returned from his vacation after the completion of Metroid. He streamlined the development process, and made many decisions that affected the game design of Kid Icarus. Several out-of-place elements were included in the game, such as credit cards, a wizard turning player character Pit into an eggplant, and a large, moving nose that was meant to resemble composer Tanaka. Sakamoto attributed this unrestrained humor to the former personnel of the R&D1 division, which he referred to as "strange". Osawa said that he had originally tried to make Kid Icarus completely serious, but opted for a more humorous approach after objections from the team.
To meet the game's projected release date of December 19, 1986, the staff members worked overtime and often stayed in the office at night. They used torn cardboard boxes as beds, and covered themselves in curtains to resist the low temperatures of the unheated development building. Eventually, Kid Icarus was finished and entered production a mere three days before the release date. Several ideas for additional stages had to be dropped because of these scheduling conflicts. In February and July 1987, respectively, a cartridge-based version of Kid Icarus was published for the NES in Europe and North America. For this release, the graphics of the ending were updated, and staff credits were added to the game. Unlike the FDS version, which saves the player's progress on the Disk Card, the NES release uses a password system
to return to a game after the console was turned off. In August 2004, Kid Icarus was re-released in Japan as part of the Famicom Mini Disk System Selection
for the Game Boy Advance
. The game was published internationally for the Wii
's Virtual Console
in 2007. The North American, European and Australian versions of this digital release have the cheat codes of the original NES game removed. Kid Icarus is planned to be published for the Nintendo 3DS
handheld console, and may be updated to make use of the system's hardware capabilities.
. The game has been met with mixed reviews from critics over the years. In October 1992, a staff writer of the UK publication Nintendo Magazine System said that Kid Icarus was "pretty good fun", but did not "compare too well" to other platform games, owing in part to its "rather dated" graphics. Retro Gamer
magazine's Stuart Hunt called Kid Icarus an "unsung hero of the NES" that "looks and sounds pretty". He described the music by Hirokazu Tanaka as "sublime", and the enemy characters as "brilliantly drawn". Although he considered the blend of gameplay elements from different genres a success, he said that Kid Icarus suffered from "frustrating" design flaws, such as its high difficulty level. Jeremy Parish of 1UP.com
expressed his disagreement with the game's status as an "unfairly forgotten masterpiece" among its substantial Internet following. He found Kid Icarus to be "underwhelming", "buggy
" and "pretty annoying", and noted that it exhibited "shrill music[, ...] loose controls and some weird design decisions". Notwithstanding his disapproval of these elements, Parish said that the game was "[not] terrible, or even bad – just a little lacking". He recommended players to buy the Virtual Console version, if only because it allowed them to experience Kid Icarus "with a fresh perspective".
Hardcore Gaming 101 head editor Kurt Kalata called the game "somewhat of an oddball among all of the NES 'classics' in existence". Despite his fondness for Kid Icarus, he acknowledged that it had "[flaws aplenty] that ... would turn off [many] people". For example, he criticized the game's controls, as he felt that precise jumps were difficult to maneuver. Upon falling off the screen, the player must restart an area from the beginning. Kalata found this to be a "really big annoyance" that was worsened by the length of the levels, and a control mechanic that may result in an accidental death. He panned the difficulty level of the battles, and noted that the enemies were hard to dodge and "annoying". Kalata thought that the game's black backgrounds in most levels did "[not] look very pretty". Although he found the pixel art to be "decent", he disapproved of the color palette swaps
that certain character sprites
undergo upon receiving a weapon power-up
. The game's music was described by Kalata as "quite good" and "[definitely] hummable". In his closing comments, he said that Kid Icarus was a "very enjoyable" and "really fun" game that was "worth a play", and had "just ... a few bad things that keep it out of the league that Metroid and Zelda are in".
GameSpot
s Frank Provo reviewed the Virtual Console version of the game. He noted that the gameplay of Kid Icarus was "[not] the most unique blueprint for a video game", but that it had been "fairly fresh back in 1987". He considered the difficulty level "excessive", and found certain areas to be designed "solely to frustrate players". Provo said that the presentation of the game had "[not] aged gracefully". Despite his favorable comments on the Grecian scenery, he criticized the graphics for its small, bicolored and barely animated sprites, its black backgrounds, and the absence of multiple scrolling layers
. He thought that the music was "nicely composed", but that the sound effects were "all taps and thuds". He was dissatisfied with the emulation
of the game, as the Virtual Console release preserves the slowdown problems of the original NES version, but has its cheat codes removed. Provo closed his review with a warning for potential buyers: he said that players could appreciate Kid Icarus for its "straightforward gameplay and challenging level layouts", but might "find nothing special in the gameplay and recoil in horror at the unflinching difficulty". Lucas M. Thomas of IGN
noted that the game design was "odd" and "not Nintendo's most focused". He thought that it had "[not] aged in as timeless a manner as many other first-party Nintendo games from the NES era", and described Kid Icarus as "one of those games that made a lot more sense back in the '80s, accompanied by a tips and tricks strategy sheet". He complimented the theme music, which he considered "heroic and memorable". In his review of the Virtual Console release, Thomas frowned upon Nintendo's decision to remove the NES cheat codes, and called the omission "nonsensical". He found it to be "not an issue worthy of a prolonged rant", but said that "[Nintendo has] willfully edited its product, and damaged its nostalgic value in the process".
Kid Icarus was included in IGNs lists of the top 100 NES games and the top 100 games of all time; it came in 20th and 84th place, respectively. 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".
sequel to Kid Icarus, titled Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters
, was released in North America in November 1991, and in Europe on May 21, 1992. It was developed by Nintendo in cooperation with the independent company Tose, and largely adopts the gameplay mechanics of its predecessor. Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters remained the last installment in the series for 20 years. Pit was a recurring character in the American animated television series Captain N: The Game Master
, and made cameo appearance
s in Nintendo games such as Tetris
, F-1 Race
and Super Smash Bros. Melee
. He became a playable character in the fighting game
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
, for which his appearance was redesigned. In 2008, there were rumors of a three-dimensional Kid Icarus game for the Wii
that was allegedly developed by the German American studio Factor 5
. However, the title was said to be in production without the approval of Nintendo, and Factor 5 cancelled multiple projects following the closure of its American branch in early 2009. In a 2010 interview, Yoshio Sakamoto was asked about a Kid Icarus game for the Wii
, to which he replied that he was not aware of any plans to revive the franchise. A new series entry for the Nintendo 3DS, Kid Icarus: Uprising
, was eventually revealed at the E3 2010 trade show. The game is a 3D shooter, and was developed by Project Sora
, the company of Super Smash Bros. designer Masahiro Sakurai
.
Action game
Action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes diverse subgenres such as fighting games, shooter games, and platform games, which are widely considered the most important action games, though some...
platform
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
video game for the Famicom Disk System
Famicom Disk System
The was released on February 21, 1986 by Nintendo as a peripheral for the Family Computer console in Japan. It was a unit that used proprietary floppy disks for data storage. It was announced, but never released, for the North American Nintendo Entertainment System...
in Japan and the Nintendo Entertainment System
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
in Europe and North America. The first entry in Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
's Kid Icarus series, it was published in Japan in December 1986, and in Europe and North America in February and July 1987, respectively. It was later re-released for the Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Advance
The is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia and Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China...
in 2004, and for the Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
's Virtual Console
Virtual console
A virtual console – also known as a virtual terminal – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some operating systems such as UnixWare, Linux, and BSD, in which the system console of the computer can be used to switch between...
online service in 2007. A sequel
Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters
Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters is an action platform video game for the Game Boy. It was developed by Nintendo and Tose, and is the sequel to Kid Icarus on the Nintendo Entertainment System. The game was released in North America in November 1991, and in Europe on May 21, 1992...
to this game was released for the Game Boy
Game Boy
The , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...
in 1991, and a third entry
Kid Icarus: Uprising
Kid Icarus: Uprising, known in Japan as , is an upcoming title for the Nintendo 3DS video game system, developed by Project Sora and to be published by Nintendo. It is the third game in the Kid Icarus series and the first since 1991's Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters, a nineteen-year wait...
to the series is currently planned to be published for the Nintendo 3DS
Nintendo 3DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo. The autostereoscopic device is able to project stereoscopic 3D effects without the use of 3D glasses or any additional accessories. The Nintendo 3DS features backward compatibility with Nintendo DS series software, including Nintendo DSi software...
handheld console.
The story of Kid Icarus revolves around protagonist Pit
Pit (Kid Icarus)
is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Kid Icarus series, first appearing in Kid Icarus for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1986 and later appearing in Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters for the Game Boy in 1991...
's quest for three sacred treasures, which he must equip to rescue the Grecian
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
fantasy world Angel Land and its ruler, the goddess Palutena. The player controls Pit through two-dimensional
2D computer graphics
2D computer graphics is the computer-based generation of digital images—mostly from two-dimensional models and by techniques specific to them...
areas while fighting monsters and collecting items. Their objective is to reach the end of the levels, and to find and defeat boss monsters that guard the three treasures. The game was developed by Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
's Research and Development 1
Nintendo Research & Development 1
was Nintendo's oldest development team. Its creation coincided with Nintendo's entry into the video games industry, and the original R&D1 was headed by Gunpei Yokoi...
division. It was designed by Toru Osawa and Yoshio Sakamoto
Yoshio Sakamoto
is a Japanese video game designer working for Nintendo. He is a key member in the development of the Metroid series, having worked as director, scenario designer, and script writer for many of the games. Sakamoto grew up with Nintendo toys, which he noted to be inventive and occasionally "strange"....
, directed by Satoru Okada
Satoru Okada
Satoru Okada is the general manager of Nintendo Research & Engineering, the division designing and developing Nintendo handheld game consoles...
, and produced by Gunpei Yokoi.
Despite its mixed critical reception, Kid Icarus is a cult classic
Cult Classic
Cult Classic is a Blue Öyster Cult studio recording released in 1994, containing remakes of many of the band's previous hits.-Track listing:# " The Reaper" - 5:05# "E.T.I...
, and had shipped 1.76 million copies by late 2003. Reviewers praised the game for its music and its mixture of gameplay elements from different genres, but criticized its graphics and high difficulty level. It was included in several lists of the best games compiled by IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
and Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power magazine is a monthly news and strategy magazine formerly published in-house by Nintendo of America, but now run independently. As of issue #222 , Nintendo contracted publishing duties to Future US, the U.S. subsidiary of British publisher Future.The first issue published was...
. After the release of the Game Boy
Game Boy
The , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...
sequel Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters
Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters
Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters is an action platform video game for the Game Boy. It was developed by Nintendo and Tose, and is the sequel to Kid Icarus on the Nintendo Entertainment System. The game was released in North America in November 1991, and in Europe on May 21, 1992...
in 1991, the game series lay dormant for 20 years. It was eventually revived with a 3D shooter for the Nintendo 3DS, titled Kid Icarus: Uprising
Kid Icarus: Uprising
Kid Icarus: Uprising, known in Japan as , is an upcoming title for the Nintendo 3DS video game system, developed by Project Sora and to be published by Nintendo. It is the third game in the Kid Icarus series and the first since 1991's Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters, a nineteen-year wait...
, after Pit's inclusion as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Super Smash Bros. Brawl, known in Japan as , often abbreviated as SSBB or simply as Brawl, is the third installment in the Super Smash Bros. series of crossover fighting games, developed by an ad hoc development team consisting of Sora, Game Arts and staff from other developers, and published by...
.
Gameplay
Kid Icarus is an actionAction game
Action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes diverse subgenres such as fighting games, shooter games, and platform games, which are widely considered the most important action games, though some...
platformer
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
with role-playing
Role-playing video game
Role-playing video games are a video game genre with origins in pen-and-paper role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, using much of the same terminology, settings and game mechanics. The player in RPGs controls one character, or several adventuring party members, fulfilling one or many quests...
elements. The player controls the protagonist Pit
Pit (Kid Icarus)
is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Kid Icarus series, first appearing in Kid Icarus for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1986 and later appearing in Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters for the Game Boy in 1991...
through two-dimensional
2D computer graphics
2D computer graphics is the computer-based generation of digital images—mostly from two-dimensional models and by techniques specific to them...
levels, which contain monsters, obstacles and items. Pit's primary weapon is a bow with an unlimited supply of arrows that can be upgraded with three collectable power items: the guard crystal shields Pit from enemies, the flaming arrows hit multiple targets, and the holy bow increases the range of the arrows. These upgrades will work only if Pit's health is high enough. The game keeps track of the player's score, and increases Pit's health bar at the end of a level if enough points were collected.
Throughout the stages, the player may enter doors to access seven different types of chambers. Stores and black markets offer items in exchange for hearts, which are left behind by defeated monsters. Treasure chambers contain items, enemy nests give the player an opportunity to earn extra hearts, and hot springs restore Pit's health. In the god's chamber, the strength of Pit's bow and arrow may be increased depending on several factors, such as the number of enemies defeated and the amount of damage taken in battle. In the training chamber, Pit will be awarded with one of the three power items if he passes a test of endurance.
The game world is divided into three stages – the underworld, the surface world and the sky world. Each stage encompasses three unidirectional area levels and a fortress. The areas of the underworld and sky world stages have Pit climb to the top, while those of the surface world are side-scrolling levels. The fortresses at the end of the stages are labyrinths with non-scrolling rooms, in which the player must find and defeat a gatekeeper boss. Within a fortress, Pit may buy a check sheet, pencil and torch to guide him through the labyrinth. A single-use item, the hammer, can destroy stone statues, which frees a flying soldier that will aid the player in boss battles. For each of the bosses destroyed, Pit receives one of three sacred treasures that are needed to access the fourth and final stage, the sky temple. This last portion abandons the platforming elements of the previous levels, and resembles a scrolling shooter.
Plot
The game is set in the kingdom of Angel Land, which is a fantasy world with a Greek mythologyGreek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
theme. The backstory of Kid Icarus is described in the instruction booklet: Before the events of the game, Angel Land was ruled by the goddess, or Queen of light, Palutena, and the goddess, or Queen of darkness, Medusa
Medusa
In Greek mythology Medusa , " guardian, protectress") was a Gorgon, a chthonic monster, and a daughter of Phorcys and Ceto. The author Hyginus, interposes a generation and gives Medusa another chthonic pair as parents. Gazing directly upon her would turn onlookers to stone...
. Palutena bestowed the people with light to make them happy, but Medusa hated the humans, dried up their crop, and turned them to stone. Enraged by this, Palutena transformed Medusa into a monster, and banished her to the underworld. Out of revenge, Medusa conspired with the monsters of the underworld to take over Palutena's residence, the sky temple. She launched a surprise attack, and stole the three sacred treasures – the Mirror Shield, the Light Arrows, and the Wings of Pegasus – which deprived Palutena's army of its power. After her soldiers had been turned to stone by Medusa, Palutena was defeated in battle, and imprisoned deep inside the sky temple. With her last power, she sent a bow and arrow to the young angel Pit. He escapes from his prison in the underworld, and sets out to save Palutena and Angel Land. Throughout the course of the story, Pit retrieves the three sacred treasures from the fortress gatekeepers at the end of the game's stages. Afterward, he equips himself with the treasures, and storms the sky temple, where he defeats Medusa and rescues Palutena. The game has multiple endings: depending on the player's performance, Palutena either presents Pit with headgear, or transforms him into a full-grown angel.
Development and releases
Kid Icarus was designed at NintendoNintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
's Research and Development 1
Nintendo Research & Development 1
was Nintendo's oldest development team. Its creation coincided with Nintendo's entry into the video games industry, and the original R&D1 was headed by Gunpei Yokoi...
(R&D1) division, while the programming was handled by the external company Intelligent Systems
Intelligent Systems
is a Japanese first-party video game developer and internal team of Nintendo Co., Ltd. It has its headquarters in the Nintendo Kyoto Research Center in Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture....
. The game was developed for the Family Computer Disk System (FDS) because the peripheral's Disk Card
Floppy disk
A floppy disk is a disk storage medium composed of a disk of thin and flexible magnetic storage medium, sealed in a rectangular plastic carrier lined with fabric that removes dust particles...
media allowed for three times the storage capacity of the Nintendo Entertainment System
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
(NES) console's cartridges
ROM cartridge
A ROM cartridge, sometimes referred to as a cart, is a removable enclosure containing read-only memory devices designed to be connected to a computer or games console....
. Combined with the possibility to store the players' progress
Saved game
A saved game is a piece of digitally stored information about the progress of a player in a video game. This saved game can be reloaded later, so the player can continue where he or she had stopped...
, the floppy disk format enabled the developers to create a longer game with a more extensive game world. Kid Icarus was Toru Osawa's debut as a video game designer, and he was the only staff member working on the game at the beginning of the project. Osawa intended to make Kid Icarus an action game
Action game
Action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes diverse subgenres such as fighting games, shooter games, and platform games, which are widely considered the most important action games, though some...
with role-playing
Role-playing video game
Role-playing video games are a video game genre with origins in pen-and-paper role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, using much of the same terminology, settings and game mechanics. The player in RPGs controls one character, or several adventuring party members, fulfilling one or many quests...
elements, and wrote a story rooted in Greek mythology, which he had always been fond of. He drew the pixel art
Pixel art
Pixel art is a form of digital art, created through the use of raster graphics software, where images are edited on the pixel level. Graphics in most old computer and video games, graphing calculator games, and many mobile phone games are mostly pixel art.- History :The term pixel art was first...
, and wrote the technical specifications, which were the basis for the playable prototype that was programmed by Intelligent Systems. After Nintendo's action-adventure Metroid had been finished, more staff members were alloted to the development of Kid Icarus.
The game was directed by Satoru Okada
Satoru Okada
Satoru Okada is the general manager of Nintendo Research & Engineering, the division designing and developing Nintendo handheld game consoles...
, and produced by the general manager of the R&D1 division, Gunpei Yokoi. Hirokazu Tanaka
Hirokazu Tanaka
is a Japanese composer and musician, best known for his scores for various video games produced by Nintendo. He is also the current President of Creatures, Inc.-Video game soundtracks:*Radar Scope *Space Firebird...
composed the music for Kid Icarus. Yoshio Sakamoto
Yoshio Sakamoto
is a Japanese video game designer working for Nintendo. He is a key member in the development of the Metroid series, having worked as director, scenario designer, and script writer for many of the games. Sakamoto grew up with Nintendo toys, which he noted to be inventive and occasionally "strange"....
joined the team as soon as he had returned from his vacation after the completion of Metroid. He streamlined the development process, and made many decisions that affected the game design of Kid Icarus. Several out-of-place elements were included in the game, such as credit cards, a wizard turning player character Pit into an eggplant, and a large, moving nose that was meant to resemble composer Tanaka. Sakamoto attributed this unrestrained humor to the former personnel of the R&D1 division, which he referred to as "strange". Osawa said that he had originally tried to make Kid Icarus completely serious, but opted for a more humorous approach after objections from the team.
To meet the game's projected release date of December 19, 1986, the staff members worked overtime and often stayed in the office at night. They used torn cardboard boxes as beds, and covered themselves in curtains to resist the low temperatures of the unheated development building. Eventually, Kid Icarus was finished and entered production a mere three days before the release date. Several ideas for additional stages had to be dropped because of these scheduling conflicts. In February and July 1987, respectively, a cartridge-based version of Kid Icarus was published for the NES in Europe and North America. For this release, the graphics of the ending were updated, and staff credits were added to the game. Unlike the FDS version, which saves the player's progress on the Disk Card, the NES release uses a password system
Password (video games)
In many video games of the 8-bit and, to a lesser extent, 16-bit eras , after a level was beaten and/or when all continues were used, the game would display a password, that when entered in the game would allow the player to return to this part in the game...
to return to a game after the console was turned off. In August 2004, Kid Icarus was re-released in Japan as part of the Famicom Mini Disk System Selection
Classic NES Series
The Classic NES Series in North America are a series of Game Boy Advance games that were originally released on the Nintendo Entertainment System emulated on the Game Boy Advance...
for the Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Advance
The is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia and Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China...
. The game was published internationally for the Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
's Virtual Console
Virtual console
A virtual console – also known as a virtual terminal – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some operating systems such as UnixWare, Linux, and BSD, in which the system console of the computer can be used to switch between...
in 2007. The North American, European and Australian versions of this digital release have the cheat codes of the original NES game removed. Kid Icarus is planned to be published for the Nintendo 3DS
Nintendo 3DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo. The autostereoscopic device is able to project stereoscopic 3D effects without the use of 3D glasses or any additional accessories. The Nintendo 3DS features backward compatibility with Nintendo DS series software, including Nintendo DSi software...
handheld console, and may be updated to make use of the system's hardware capabilities.
Reception
Kid Icarus had shipped 1.76 million copies worldwide by late 2003, and has gained a cult followingCult following
A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a specific area of pop culture. A film, book, band, or video game, among other things, will be said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fan base...
. The game has been met with mixed reviews from critics over the years. In October 1992, a staff writer of the UK publication Nintendo Magazine System said that Kid Icarus was "pretty good fun", but did not "compare too well" to other platform games, owing in part to its "rather dated" graphics. Retro Gamer
Retro Gamer
Retro Gamer is a British magazine, published worldwide, covering retro video games. It was the first commercial magazine to be devoted entirely to the subject. Although launched as a quarterly publication, Retro Gamers soon became a monthly...
magazine's Stuart Hunt called Kid Icarus an "unsung hero of the NES" that "looks and sounds pretty". He described the music by Hirokazu Tanaka as "sublime", and the enemy characters as "brilliantly drawn". Although he considered the blend of gameplay elements from different genres a success, he said that Kid Icarus suffered from "frustrating" design flaws, such as its high difficulty level. Jeremy Parish of 1UP.com
1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....
expressed his disagreement with the game's status as an "unfairly forgotten masterpiece" among its substantial Internet following. He found Kid Icarus to be "underwhelming", "buggy
Software bug
A software bug is the common term used to describe an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program or system that produces an incorrect or unexpected result, or causes it to behave in unintended ways. Most bugs arise from mistakes and errors made by people in either a program's...
" and "pretty annoying", and noted that it exhibited "shrill music[, ...] loose controls and some weird design decisions". Notwithstanding his disapproval of these elements, Parish said that the game was "[not] terrible, or even bad – just a little lacking". He recommended players to buy the Virtual Console version, if only because it allowed them to experience Kid Icarus "with a fresh perspective".
Hardcore Gaming 101 head editor Kurt Kalata called the game "somewhat of an oddball among all of the NES 'classics' in existence". Despite his fondness for Kid Icarus, he acknowledged that it had "[flaws aplenty] that ... would turn off [many] people". For example, he criticized the game's controls, as he felt that precise jumps were difficult to maneuver. Upon falling off the screen, the player must restart an area from the beginning. Kalata found this to be a "really big annoyance" that was worsened by the length of the levels, and a control mechanic that may result in an accidental death. He panned the difficulty level of the battles, and noted that the enemies were hard to dodge and "annoying". Kalata thought that the game's black backgrounds in most levels did "[not] look very pretty". Although he found the pixel art to be "decent", he disapproved of the color palette swaps
Palette swap
A palette swap is a practice used in video games, whereby a graphic that is already used for one element is given a different palette, so it can be reused as other elements. The different palette gives the new graphic a unique set of colors, which make it recognizably distinct from the original...
that certain character sprites
Sprite (computer graphics)
In computer graphics, a sprite is a two-dimensional image or animation that is integrated into a larger scene...
undergo upon receiving a weapon power-up
Power-up
In computer and video games, power-ups are objects that instantly benefit or add extra abilities to the game character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a benefit and can be used at a time chosen by the player...
. The game's music was described by Kalata as "quite good" and "[definitely] hummable". In his closing comments, he said that Kid Icarus was a "very enjoyable" and "really fun" game that was "worth a play", and had "just ... a few bad things that keep it out of the league that Metroid and Zelda are in".
GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
s Frank Provo reviewed the Virtual Console version of the game. He noted that the gameplay of Kid Icarus was "[not] the most unique blueprint for a video game", but that it had been "fairly fresh back in 1987". He considered the difficulty level "excessive", and found certain areas to be designed "solely to frustrate players". Provo said that the presentation of the game had "[not] aged gracefully". Despite his favorable comments on the Grecian scenery, he criticized the graphics for its small, bicolored and barely animated sprites, its black backgrounds, and the absence of multiple scrolling layers
Parallax scrolling
Parallax scrolling is a special scrolling technique in computer graphics, popularized in the 1982 arcade game Moon Patrol. In this pseudo-3D technique, background images move by the camera slower than foreground images, creating an illusion of depth in a 2D video game and adding to the immersion...
. He thought that the music was "nicely composed", but that the sound effects were "all taps and thuds". He was dissatisfied with the emulation
Video game console emulator
A video game console emulator is a program that allows a computer or modern console to emulate a different video game console's behavior. Emulators are most often used to play older video games on personal computers and modern video game consoles, but they are also used to play games translated...
of the game, as the Virtual Console release preserves the slowdown problems of the original NES version, but has its cheat codes removed. Provo closed his review with a warning for potential buyers: he said that players could appreciate Kid Icarus for its "straightforward gameplay and challenging level layouts", but might "find nothing special in the gameplay and recoil in horror at the unflinching difficulty". Lucas M. Thomas of IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
noted that the game design was "odd" and "not Nintendo's most focused". He thought that it had "[not] aged in as timeless a manner as many other first-party Nintendo games from the NES era", and described Kid Icarus as "one of those games that made a lot more sense back in the '80s, accompanied by a tips and tricks strategy sheet". He complimented the theme music, which he considered "heroic and memorable". In his review of the Virtual Console release, Thomas frowned upon Nintendo's decision to remove the NES cheat codes, and called the omission "nonsensical". He found it to be "not an issue worthy of a prolonged rant", but said that "[Nintendo has] willfully edited its product, and damaged its nostalgic value in the process".
Kid Icarus was included in IGNs lists of the top 100 NES games and the top 100 games of all time; it came in 20th and 84th place, respectively. The game was inducted into GameSpy
GameSpy
GameSpy Industries, Inc., known simply as GameSpy, is a division of IGN Entertainment, which operates a network of game websites and provides online video game-related services and software. GameSpy dates back to the 1996 release of an internet Quake server search program named QSpy. The current...
s "Hall of Fame", and was voted 54th place in Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power magazine is a monthly news and strategy magazine formerly published in-house by Nintendo of America, but now run independently. As of issue #222 , Nintendo contracted publishing duties to Future US, the U.S. subsidiary of British publisher Future.The first issue published was...
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".
Legacy
A Game BoyGame Boy
The , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...
sequel to Kid Icarus, titled Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters
Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters
Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters is an action platform video game for the Game Boy. It was developed by Nintendo and Tose, and is the sequel to Kid Icarus on the Nintendo Entertainment System. The game was released in North America in November 1991, and in Europe on May 21, 1992...
, was released in North America in November 1991, and in Europe on May 21, 1992. It was developed by Nintendo in cooperation with the independent company Tose, and largely adopts the gameplay mechanics of its predecessor. Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters remained the last installment in the series for 20 years. Pit was a recurring character in the American animated television series Captain N: The Game Master
Captain N: The Game Master
Captain N: The Game Master was an American animated television series that aired on television from 1989 to 1991 as part of the Saturday morning cartoon lineup on NBC. The show incorporated elements from many of the most popular Nintendo games of the time...
, and made cameo appearance
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
s in Nintendo games such as Tetris
Tetris
Tetris is a puzzle video game originally designed and programmed by Alexey Pajitnov in the Soviet Union. It was released on June 6, 1984, while he was working for the Dorodnicyn Computing Centre of the Academy of Science of the USSR in Moscow, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic...
, F-1 Race
F-1 Race
F-1 Race is a racing video game released in 1984 for the Famicom in Japan. A version was released in 1990 for the Game Boy in Japan, Europe, and North America, which included the Four Player Adapter for four player gameplay.-Gameplay:...
and Super Smash Bros. Melee
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Super Smash Bros. Melee, known in Japan as , often abbreviated as SSBM or simply as Melee, is a crossover fighting game released for the Nintendo GameCube shortly after its launch in . It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 game Super Smash Bros., and the predecessor to the Wii game Super Smash...
. He became a playable character in the fighting game
Fighting game
Fighting game is a video game genre where the player controls an on-screen character and engages in close combat with an opponent. These characters tend to be of equal power and fight matches consisting of several rounds, which take place in an arena. Players must master techniques such as...
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Super Smash Bros. Brawl, known in Japan as , often abbreviated as SSBB or simply as Brawl, is the third installment in the Super Smash Bros. series of crossover fighting games, developed by an ad hoc development team consisting of Sora, Game Arts and staff from other developers, and published by...
, for which his appearance was redesigned. In 2008, there were rumors of a three-dimensional Kid Icarus game for the Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
that was allegedly developed by the German American studio Factor 5
Factor 5
Factor 5 GmbH is an independent software and video game developer. The company was originally co-founded by five former Rainbow Arts employees in 1987 in Cologne, Germany, which served as the inspiration behind the studio's name....
. However, the title was said to be in production without the approval of Nintendo, and Factor 5 cancelled multiple projects following the closure of its American branch in early 2009. In a 2010 interview, Yoshio Sakamoto was asked about a Kid Icarus game for the Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
, to which he replied that he was not aware of any plans to revive the franchise. A new series entry for the Nintendo 3DS, Kid Icarus: Uprising
Kid Icarus: Uprising
Kid Icarus: Uprising, known in Japan as , is an upcoming title for the Nintendo 3DS video game system, developed by Project Sora and to be published by Nintendo. It is the third game in the Kid Icarus series and the first since 1991's Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters, a nineteen-year wait...
, was eventually revealed at the E3 2010 trade show. The game is a 3D shooter, and was developed by Project Sora
Project Sora
is a Japanese video game developer founded by Nintendo Co., Ltd. president Satoru Iwata and former HAL Laboratory employee Masahiro Sakurai. It was formed in the year 2009 after the successful launch of Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii console. On formation of the new company, Nintendo is...
, the company of Super Smash Bros. designer Masahiro Sakurai
Masahiro Sakurai
is a Japanese video game designer, the creative force behind both the Kirby and the Super Smash Bros. series on Nintendo platforms. He is currently Director of Software Development for the video game developer's Sora Ltd. and Project Sora. He is also the author of a weekly column for Famitsu...
.