Day 47: Kid Icarus Uprising
Once upon a time there was a little known game NES game called Kid Icarus. It was a game bathed in Greek Mythology that starred a young angel named Pit, who had to save his goddess Palutena and the land of Skyworld from Medusa and her Underworld Army. It was regarded as one of the classic NES games and it even got itself a sequel on the grey brick we know as the Game Boy and after that…nothing. No one has heard or seen Pit in years. Eventually, everyone just sort of forgot about him. But then on one fateful day, Nintendo released a trailer for their then new Super Smash Bros. Brawl game where they revealed that Pit, the very same angel from all those years ago, would be one of the new fighters for the game. Gamers of that generation didn't know who this angel was, and before Nintendo knew it they were getting requests for a new game from the franchise that is Kid Icarus…And the rest is video game history.
My favorite 3DS game and coming in at #4, we have the utter masterpiece that is Kid Icarus Uprising, the very game that brought Pit out from obscurity and launched a thousand requests for sequels, remakes, and anything in between…and we're still waiting on said sequels, remakes, and anything in between. Hey, Sakurai, after you're done with Smash Ultimate and your subsequent vacation, how about giving us Kid Icarus Uprising 2, eh?
The story follows Pit and Palutena as they try and take down the Underworld army after Medusa mysteriously comes back to life. Not even halfway through the game, we learn that Hades is responsible for bringing Medusa and her commanders back to life and here is where the game picks up as on top of dealing with Hades and the Underworld Army, this opens the gates for other threats like Viridi and her Forces of Nature, an alien race known as the Aurum, and a soul snatching being known as the Chaos Kin to also join the fray. And did I also mention there's a race of space pirates that pay homage to Metroid, and Pit has a dark doppelganger named Pittoo?
Dark Pit: Seriously, that is the last time I want to hear Pittoo!
"Fine, fine, Dark Pit!"
It now falls on Pit's shoulder's to take out all of these threats before any damage can be done.
Gameplay is split up into two segments, air battle and land battle:
Starting with Air battle it plays like an on rails shooter, something along the lines of Sin & Punishment. You can perform air dodges and fly through majestic landscapes as you shoot your enemies out of the sky and use Special Attacks as a sort of screen nuke. This form of gameplay is rather self explanatory. Also, off topic, Kid Icarus Uprising is one of the best looking games on the 3DS, and they really shine during these air battle sections. Here would be a good a time as any to turn on the 3D slider.
But now we get to Land Battles. Alright, let's the elephant in the room out of the way, let's talk about the controls. You shoot with the L button, move with the analog stick, and aim by using the touch screen and stylus. That doesn't sound too bad…if not for the fact that the touch screen and stylus also control the camera. A lot of people really don't like this control scheme, and while I fully admit it's far from perfect, I personally don't mind this control scheme as much as other. Sure it takes some getting used to, but once you do, the land sections are actually kind of fun. And besides they always offer a control configuration menu in the options.
Land battles play out like a third person shooter, with large and open areas for you to shoot enemies, or explore to earn yourself a treasure in the form of hearts, weapons, powers, or health recovery items. Exploration is especially encouraged on higher difficulties as playing on or above a certain difficulty will open up these things called Intensity Gates. These gates can lead you to a treasure, take you to a separate part of a level, and occasionally act as a short cut.
Assisting you in land battles are the vehicles of the gods. There's the Exotank, which allows you to ram into enemies and jump off of ramps. There's the Cherubot, a battle mech that allows Pit to hit enemies hard when up close, shoot rapid fire when far away, or perform a ground pound. And there's the Aether Ring, another weapon with a rapid fire ranged attack, but also can put up a shield that damages enemies on contact.
Pit also gains access to a wide variety of weapons. In total there are nine classes.
There's the Blade class, a balanced weapon in both range and melee.
The staffs, which have great range for sniping, but the shots aren't homing and there's poor melee ability.
Claws, which allow Pit to move faster and have great melee ability but poor ranged ability.
Bows, another good ranged weapon with homing and a decent melee weapon.
Palms, another great homing weapon with rapid fire, but poor range.
Clubs, powerful melee weapons with charge shots that can travel through walls, but lower movement speed.
Cannons, another weapon with poor movement speed, but makes up for it with bouncing shots and great damage output.
Orbitars, weapons with great high shot rate.
And Arms, weapons with great melee attacks but poor ranged attacks.
All of these weapons are very unique and fun to try, making for some great replay value to go back into each level with each weapon class.
Speaking of replay value, this game highly encourages going back into each level as it offers various Treasure Hunts, where more squares get unlocked each time you do something special in each level. These can range from finishing a chapter in a certain time, beating a chapter on a certain intensity, beating a chapter with a certain weapon class, and so much more.
If you get bored with the main story, for whatever reason, Kid Icarus Uprising offers other game modes to expand your playtime. There's training modes to try out different weapons in land and air combat, Idol Toss to get more idols of characters/enemies/locations/weapons in the game (Idols are basically this game's equivalent to Smash Bros. trophies), AR Battle to scan the AR cards that come with the game so you can watch your cards engage in combat, the usual Street Pass that can be found with most 3DS games, and off course Multiplayer mode.
Multiplayer Mode is easily the most fun you'll have with this game outside of the main story. There's free-for-all, which is essentially 'every man for himself' combat mode, and the player to score the most points wins. And then there's Light vs. Dark, where six players, three on Light side and three on Dark, battle each other and the first person on each team to lose their health gets replaced by either Pit or Dark Pit, and the team to take out each team's respective angel wins the match.
And finally, I want to talk about the best thing about this game, the characters. Between the charismatic Pit, the wise and wisecracking Palutena, the snarky Viridi, the edgy Dark Pit, and…literally everything that is Hades this is easily the best ensemble of characters in any game. Even the side characters like Magnus, Pyrrhon, and the commanders for the Underworld Army and Forces of Nature are all memorable and likeable. All of these characters with their quirky personalities lead to some absolutely excellent interactions. I could list some of my favorites, but instead I'm inviting you to look at the Kid Icarus Uprising Quotes page on TV Tropes. Yeah, when TV Tropes is dedicating an entire page to quotes from one game, you know there's got to be some funny moments sprinkled in there.
In conclusion, Kid Icarus Uprising is undoubtedly the best 3DS game. Even after the likes of Pokémon Generation 6 and 7, Super Smash Bros. for 3DS, Kirby Triple Deluxe and Planet Robobot, among a fuck-ton of other games for the 3DS, it's always that scrappy angel with severe dedication to his goddess that winds up beating them all.
Pit: "Sorry to keep you waiting!"
"That's quite alright, Pit, the wait was totally worth it!"
