Thanks to video games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, or the predecessors of the series, we have been able to see characters that had been missing from the world of video games for a long time or whose franchises had been somewhat forgotten. Undoubtedly one of the most striking cases and one that best reflects this situation is that of Kid Icarus.
What is one of the most classic Nintendo sagas is true that it has not had much prominence since its inception. Despite this, it has left us with some other adventure, but after so much time it is inevitable to ask ourselves, what happened to Kid Icarus?
The hero tasked with restoring peace in a time set in Greek mythology
To talk about this saga we have to go back a long way, specifically to the year 1986. It was then that the first Kid Icarus was published in the classic NESthe first desktop console created by the great N. It could be said that the company itself was inspired by some of its best works for its development, because the truth is that it combines the most important mechanics of several of them.
Thus we find a 2d platform adventure, with exploration elements and objects to pick up and use. In any case, his plot was set in Greek mythology, at a time when men and gods coexisted peacefully. At this time there was the Land of Angels, in which the evil Medusa had stolen the three Sacred Treasures from her and in turn had imprisoned Palutena, the goddess of light.
That is where Pit, our protagonist in the form of an angel, entered the scene, who had a mission to recover these hidden treasures and, incidentally, kill Medusa to restore order. Along the way, he had to go through scenarios with a somewhat devilish difficulty, so he had to be somewhat skillful at the controls so as not to constantly die at the hands of the numerous enemies that appeared everywhere.
To do this, Pit was equipped with a magic bow with which he could shoot arrows at anything that moved on the screen. However, that was not one of his greatest dangers, since the very design of the levels was what also played against us. More than anything because some of these were vertical, something that was not so normal in NES video games. That implied that you had to climb up jumping on the platforms, dodging obstacles and so on.
But once you were climbing, there was no going back, which meant that if you fell down to a place where there was nothing, you lost a life. Even so, hearts could also be obtained to use them as currency to boost certain statistics and thus make Pit become even stronger, since he could increase things such as his strength or his life. What’s more, depending on the stats that were maxed out, the ending varied between five different ones.
On the other hand, at the end of each phase it was time to overcome a dungeonmoment in which the action began to go through some areas with a horizontal design having to go through a good handful of rooms, among which there could be a store to buy weapons and improvements, but there was also another in which you had to face against an end boss.
The passage of the saga through portable consoles
A few years later, in 1991was published in Game Boy the classic Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters, the sequel in which a new threat loomed over the Land of Angels. Orcs, a fearsome demon, intended to attack her, so Pit had to once again obtain the three Sacred Treasures in order to defeat him. For this he needed to seize the silver armor, the arrows of light and the wings of Pegasus.
Although the time that elapsed between the release of this and the original title was not too long, there was a clear improvement in a few details. Mainly due to the fact that the screen did move in all directions, without having to fear falling off the bottom, thus adding more exploration to the levels. Furthermore, Pit was capable of slight glide.
After all this the saga was completely forgotten and several generations had to pass and a total of 21 years for Pit to return to action better than ever with Kid Icarus: Uprising in Nintendo 3DS. Of course, he was not the only one who was reborn, because the Machiavellian Medusa returned to do her thing, ready to eradicate humanity completely.
Our hero finally made the most of his ability to fly with his wings, since much of the action in this adventure involved us overcoming a series of levels to travel through the skies fighting against the enemies of the Underworld, as if it were a game of ships, but you also had to go through another part of these phases from the ground. All this with a third-person perspective full of combat and with 25 chapters to complete.
The latter guaranteed a fairly considerable duration compared to the other Kid Icarus. As if that wasn’t enough, the main story was accompanied by another game mode, such as one multiplayer by teams in which you had to defeat your opponents in a three-on-three match. Likewise, there was also another option to fight all against all in a survival mode.
And now that?
If we look at the score he received Kid Icarus: Uprising on Metacritic the average stands at a score of 83 based on 75 reviews, which is an excellent grade. So why hasn’t Nintendo been encouraged to develop a fourth part? Because of course it is not that the latter was of poor quality at all.
It is somewhat inexplicable that after more than a decade there has not been a single news or rumor that we will see Pit starring in a new title again. Therefore, it is another of Nintendo’s most mythical franchises that has disappeared without a trace, as happened to F-Zero, Star Fox or Wario Land, among others.
We will cross our fingers that we do not have to wait another 21 years to see a new Kid Icarus. If so, the next one would arrive in 2033, so we would only have to wait ten more years, but hopefully the wait will be shorter. A Nintendo Switch would not even paint a game like the Nintendo 3DS or a totally new one, but whatever it was, it is time for Pit to come down from the skies and we will see him shooting arrows again.
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