On That Other Forum, I read a comment by some poor soul who thought Uprising needed to have a multiplayer mode to be successful. To me, that's just entirely unnecessary and not something I want Project Sora wasting their time on. A sequel to Kid Icarus has been a long time coming and now is not the time to be screwing around with some ridiculous 8 player Deathmatch mode. We know Sakurai has a special talent for loading a game with features, but that's really not necessary for the first Kid Icarus game in 20 years. All I want is a great Kid Icarus game. Nothing else is necessary. I want nothing to divide the development team's attention.

Though having said that, I have one mode I'd love to see: Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters. Wouldn't it be great if players could unlock the seldom-played Kid Icarus sequel from the original Gameboy? It's a well-designed, fun little game and I'd love to see it get a second life as a reward in Uprising. Let people play it, Nintendo. It'd be a good move for the Kid Icarus franchise.

Little Mac might have beat him to it by a few years, but is there any doubt that Pit is the current poster child for all those ancient Nintendo properties that deserve to come out of retirement? As such, I think it would be a lot of fun to see a few cameos by long lost Nintendo characters who are still waiting around for their own sequels.

Who? Well, the Ice Climbers for a start. Considering they have a lot in common with Pit - vertical platforming gameplay, R&D1 pedigree, light-heartedness, something to do with eggplants, etc. - it really wouldn't be too much of a mismatch to have them in there.


I'd be delighted to see walk-on cameos from R&D1 characters like Bubbles, Professor Hector, Stanley the Bugman, or any of the other old NES characters who've never appeared in a game since the 80s. Sora shouldn't just shoehorn them in, of course, but if there are places where their appearances might feel natural (in a crowd in a town, maybe?) I say go for it. Make it not only an occasion to celebrate Kid Icarus, but to celebrate all the second tier Nintendo franchises from the early days of the NES.

It won't bother me if Uprising is a bit more story driven than usual for a Nintendo property. Kid Icarus could work as a cinematic style game - a style Nintendo could use in their roster. So I'd love for Uprising to be built around a good, solid story. But, considering this is a handheld system and something of a retro-throwback, let's not get too bogged down with it. Make us care about the characters, yes, but only after you've made us care about the gameplay.

The trailer sort of did this already, but I'd love to see something in the game that acknowledges the ridiculous wait we've gone through for this game.


In my own fake sequel, I had Kid Icarus sleeping in the depths of Hades for 20 years. I don't expect Uprising to have something that drastic, but some meta-reference to the wait would be appreciated. It feels like a celebration that a new Kid Icarus game is coming out at all. The game should delight in acknowledging it.

At this point I know Pit, Palutena, Medusa and the Eggplant Wizard will return in some form or other. But how about Crow? Orcos? What role will the Centurions play?


These are really obscure characters and the Kid Icarus series could certainly continue successfully without them. Speaking as a fan, though, I think it'd be great to see these characters back. (Maybe it's because I worry that this might be the only Kid Icarus game for a while, so want to see them in all their 3D glory while I have the chance. Not sure.)

I think most of you would agree that it is no longer particularly special to have a character in a video game who talks. We're long past the days of Sinistar. Voice acting in games is no longer considered a novelty. In most games released today, it's essential.


Nowadays, I feel even more strongly that a game character only needs a voice when it is absolutely necessary for characterization. With Pit, I don't believe it is. He's a product of the earliest NES days. Pit was associated with Link and Mario back before they had their own cartoon shows, spinoffs and breakfast cereals. And, just like those characters, Pit doesn't have to say a lot to be a great character. In fact, I'll argue that it would be more special to underline that history by carrying on the Nintendo heroic mute tradition with Pit. It sends the message that this is a character from the Golden Age of Gaming. This is a character that shares part of his identity with some of the greatest game characters of all time. Very few modern game characters have that pedigree. And there's just something special about these Nintendo mutes. Why wreck that?

Also, just personally, I don't want Pit to come off like some goofy, Sonic-snarking a**hole. I'd much rather project the personality I've always imagined him to have onto the new game, not have Sakurai reveal it to be something else entirely.

Angel Land is a weird ****ing place. I won't argue with that. But, to me, that's part of the appeal of the series.

So far, Sora seems to be treating the series mythology with respect. They're not getting rid of some of the more oddball ideas, like the Eggplant Wizards, and they're updating the mythos with care. I like that. I'm happy that I can see Medusa pop up in that trailer, even though there are people who argued she was somehow too much of a lightweight to be the villain (not THIS Medusa, partner. You're thinking of some Medusa from some other game.)


But I hope it continues even more deeply in Uprising. I hope the basic story ideas from the original game stay intact. Not just characters like Medusa and Palutena, but I hope we see, for instance, the Three Sacred Treasures. I hope Pit's role as Palutena's champion is more or less the same. I hope I get to run around in pools of healing water and train with Zeus and try to avoid the irritating God of Poverty. And I hope all of this is done without Sora feeling the need to send it up and make jokes out of it.

Let me also say, I'm glad they didn't dork around with the name "Kid Icarus". Back in the days of the 'Cube, when the Nintendo bashers used the word "mature" instead of "hardcore" and "kiddie" instead of "casual", there seemed to be a movement to drop the word Kid from the title. You know, as if having the word "Kid" in the title was poison to all self-respecting mature gamers. I thought that was ludicrous, but I heard it relatively frequently. These same people wanted to make Pit some kind of generic badass rather than the character we see in all those NES booklet drawings. I'm just glad they didn't get their way.

(Okay, so the original game wasn't called Kid Icarus in Japan. Fine. That doesn't mean it isn't an awesome and memorable title. I'm really happy that Nintendo is keeping it. There was a time when great fighters used to put the name "Kid" in front of their nickname, to show that they were youthful and exuberant. Kid Dynamite. Kid Galahad. Kid Icarus. Works for me.)

Oh my God, does Kid Icarus have great music! So many classic, gorgeous tunes. If you haven't heard them - or haven't heard them in a while - have a listen here:

Title Theme

Personally, I think the title theme to Kid Icarus is the single greatest theme tune from the NES days. Or, at the very least, second only to the Mario theme. Listen to the arpeggios that start at the 0:57 mark. Is that not the most beautiful sound that ever came out of an NES?

Underworld Theme

Everyone knows the Underworld theme. I thought Brawl kind of screwed it up, to be honest, making it big and brassy where it should be more about martial determination.

Castle Theme

The castle music from the fortress stages is nice and exotic in flavor. There's a wonderful OC remix of this floating around that really emphasizes the unsettling nature of the tune.

El Skyworld!

Sigh. Skyworld. One of the more playful tunes from the era. A little goofy, but I still like it.

Overworld Theme

The Overworld theme really has a great adventuring, travelling feel. Mixes a little of Waxies Dargle in there, too. Brawl had a fine version of this one, which is also included in this video.

Some Gameboy Noise

While the Gameboy sequel certainly didn't have music in the same league as the NES game, it had its moments. I particularly like the syncopation here.

I'd love to hear perfect, orchestrated versions of these tunes, along with new music in this vein. Kid Icarus is well known for its soundtrack and I hope Sora carries on that legacy. One of the things I'm most looking forward to is hearing these tunes.

I said I want Sora to respect the mythos of Kid Icarus. I believe that whole-heartedly. But part of doing that is recognizing that this game series always had a sense of humor about it, too. Just the fact that the lead character can get turned into an eggplant with legs - that's possibly the single weirdest thing in NES history. And it's meant to be weird. It's meant to be funny.


At the end of Myths and Monsters, Pit flies too close to the sun and his wings fall off. Is that canon? Who cares? It's just there to be funny. I remember falling all over myself the first time I ever saw a reaper start freaking out when it spot me. And then nearly wet myself laughing at the little Reapettes. Just the fact that they're called Reapettes, like they're the Reaper's backup singers. The fact that there were Metroids in the game, or that there were little thugs who'd rob you. Or that you could threaten the shop dealer with the second controller. Or when you die it doesn't say "Game Over" Pit shouts "I'm Finished!" And don't get me started on the Specknoses!

This is a game that never took itself too seriously. And I know it may sound ironic coming from the guy who wrote The Fall of Kid Icarus, but I think it'd be a shame if the game lost some of its quirkiness. Oh, make the threats real. There should be scope and a real sense of danger in the game. But, like with the great Mario games, where Bowser is likely to have a big neon sign that says "Bowser" on top of his castle, don't sacrifice the funny factor just to give the game an epic scope. This is Nintendo, damnit.

It all comes back to this, though. The hallmark of Kid Icarus is the extremely punishing vertical platforming in some of the levels. The 3DS might not be the best system to go vertical, but at the very least, this should primarily be a platformer. It should be a hard game, a few levels in difficulty above your average Mario game. Make it dense with enemies and a challenge for people who can cakewalk Galaxy.

And that justifies having another AAA platformer series on the Nintendo roster in 2011. In a way, Kid Icarus is like Ninja Gaiden in the sense that part of the appeal is the difficulty. Okay, the original Kid Icarus is not all that hard by today's standards, but many of us remember playing it as kids and being blistered by it. If you fall, you're going back to the beginning of the level, compadre. It's unforgiving like that.

I want this mystique back. I want people to say "I beat Kid Icarus: Uprising" and have it mean something. You gotta have good reflexes and a quick mind to beat this game. You gotta know your platform gaming and play close, close attention to what's going on as you play. You gotta take the opportunities to power up. I want to see levels absolutely swarming with snakes, Monoeyes and Reapers.

It took me over a decade to beat this game. I would adore seeing the gauntlet thrown down again.


I want to fight this game all the way to victory. Make it so, Sakurai.