Kid Icarus

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Kid Icarus

Developer(s)	Nintendo R&D1, TOSE
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Designer(s)	Gunpei Yokoi, Satoru Okada
Engine	Metroid
Release date(s)	^JPN 18 December 1986 ^NA July 1987 EU 1987 Virtual console ^NA February 12, 2007 EU February 23, 2007
Genre(s)	Platform game
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: E (Everyone) (Wii)[1]
Platform(s)	FDS, NES, GBA, Virtual Console
Media	FDS floppy disk 1 Mbit cartridge
Input	Gamepad

For the title character, see Pit (Kid Icarus). For the series as a whole, see Kid Icarus (series).

Kid Icarus (光神話パルテナの鏡, Hikari shinwa: Parutena no Kagami^?, Myth of Light: The Mirror of Palutena) is a platforming video game developed by Nintendo R&D1 (what is now known as Intelligent Systems) and TOSE^[1] and published by Nintendo for the Famicom Disk System in 1986 and the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987. It is the first game in the Kid Icarus series.

The game has been re-released twice: On August 10, 2004 for the Game Boy Advance as part of the Famicom Mini Series (Japan only) and on February 12, 2007 on the Wii's Virtual Console.

1 Plot
2 Gameplay
3 Development
4 Legacy
5 Trivia
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Plot

In a time where man and gods coexisted in harmony, the kingdom of Angel Land was ruled by two goddesses, Palutena the Goddess of Light and Medusa the Goddess of Darkness. While Palutena administered the light and helped the mortals cultivate their crops, Medusa despised the mortals and used the darkness to destroy their crops and turn the mortals into stone. Enraged, Palutena transformed Medusa into a hideous monster and banished her into the dark underworld.

But Medusa would not go quietly. She assembled an army of monsters and evil spirits of the underworld to conquer Palutena's home, the Palace in the Sky. War erupted and Medusa's minions overwhelmed Palutena's army, eventually imprisoning the Goddess of Light. Medusa then seized the Three Sacred Treasures, the Mirror Shield, the Arrow of Light and the Wings of Pegasus, and gave them to her most powerful minions.

Defeated and imprisoned, Palutena's only hope was to seek the help of Pit, a young angel trapped in the Underworld. Using the last of her strength, she sent Pit a magical bow. Thus, Pit set out on a quest to escape the Underworld, retrieve the Sacred Treasures that would help him defeat Medusa, rescue Palutena and restore peace to Angel Land.

In the end Pit retrieved these three treasures and battles Medusa. Having won, Pit travels back to angel land to find the newly restored Palutena bestow on him armor (perhaps raising his rank). However, if the secret ending is reached, (all upgrades and hearts) Pit will be turned older(teenage years) which afterwards he'll recieve a kiss of gratitude from Palutena:link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijneLWYjL_Q other endings:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Af3f57fQgA

[edit] Gameplay

Kid Icarus is often compared to Metroid (which was released the same year), as it uses the same game engine. In volume 204 of Nintendo Power, an article was written about the game describing it as blending together elements from The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros. and Metroid, stating that Pit can "jump like Mario, collect items like Zelda, and shoot enemies like Metroid."

[edit] Development

The NES versions of both games were released on the same day with the "Password Pak" selling point. The original Famicom versions feature save slots, unlike the English version which uses a password system (known in-game as "Sacred Words"). As with Metroid, the FDS version of Kid Icarus also features higher quality music and sound effects that take advantage of the system's wavetable sound channel.

Kid Icarus was produced by Gunpei Yokoi and the music was composed by Hirokazu Tanaka.^[2]

[edit] Legacy

Despite being overshadowed by Metroid, Kid Icarus is regularly recognized as a significant game. It was awarded the 84^th slot in IGN's 2003 list of the Top 100 Games of All Time^[3] and was also inducted into the GameSpy Hall of Fame.^[4] In Volume 199 of Nintendo Power, it was voted number 54 in a list of the top 200 games of all time.

[edit] Trivia

The NES Kid Icarus instruction manual incorrectly states that there is a "Game Over" screen and even includes a screenshot of it. The screen was changed in the final release of the game to read "I'm Finished!"
The game's title is an allusion to the Greek myth of Icarus.
The enemy Komayto is actually a Metroid. The Japanese spelling of this enemy's name is (Ko Me To). The "MeTo" being short for "Metoroido" or "Metroid" and the "Ko" signifying it as a child. Thus, the name Komayto actually means "Baby Metroid". The game manual theorizes that Komayto may have came from another planet.^[5] Also, the enemy Shulm bears a resemblance to Goomba from Super Mario Bros.
The Syren enemy on page 38 of the Kid Icarus manual is perhaps the first (and only) Nintendo-owned female character to sport breasts with nipples in North America. It should be noted, however, that the mermaid in the SNK-produced game, Sqoon, was also topless.
Since the Japanese version was released on the Famicom Disk System, some of the sound effects are different in that version over the U.S. version. Most noticeable are the sounds the Grim Reaper makes (he sounds like he's screeching instead of just "blip blup"), the timer sound when players grab a Harp, the noise Pit makes when he's hit by an enemy sounds more like a grunt then a squeal, and some extra instruments in the music. This is because the Famicom Disk System includes an extra sound chip to give FM-like sounds to certain games.
Also, there are alternate endings between the Japanese version and the North American version: In the North American version, after Medusa is defeated, the player sees a short scene where Palutena thanks Pit and offers him a reward, depending on the player's progress, with the credits following afterward. In the Japanese version, however, the player's reward for beating the game is a picture with Pit standing by Parthena, with Japanese text above the two, and no credits at all.
The controls differ slightly between the Japanese and the North American versions. In the Japanese version, at the Palace in the Sky stage, the player must either hold or tap the A Button repeatedly to make Pit fly, whereas in the North American version, the screen scrolls automatically, thus making Pit fly with the screen automatically as well.
The Nintendo DS game Electroplankton uses sound effects and the dungeon theme from Kid Icarus.
The music that plays when Pit dies is identical to the first four notes from Richard Wagner's Bridal Chorus, played at the start of traditional western weddings.