I previously mentioned (somewhere) that I played Kid Icarus a bit on the NES but that I apparently really sucked. I had said that Eggplant Wizard was really annoying when he turned you into a walking/floating eggplant, but now that I'm going through the game again, I don't think I even made it so far as to go up against such a necromantic angiosperm. Which brings me to the point of today's ramblings: I recently purchased 3D Classics - Kid Icarus through Nintendo's eShop on my 3DS.
In short 3D Classics - Kid Icarus is an updated port of the Kid Icarus that was released on the NES 26 years ago, in 1986. "Updated" in that the backgrounds are now matte paintings with some motion that are used to help create a layering 3D effect while nearly everything in the foreground are the original 8-bit NES level-era sprites. Even the music is the same as the 8-bit original soundtrack, but without the silencing of one of the three audio tracks to make way for random sound effects like jumping, shooting your arrows, collecting hearts or enemies dying.
From what I remembered of Kid Icarus, it was a combination of Metroid and Super Mario Bros. This has held true as I went through the first level. And promptly died three times while trying to figure out what the hell I was doing. I would've hoped/liked it if with the purchase of games from Nintendo's eShop, a virtual instruction book was also included. In the meantime, the internet will have to do to know what the Donkey Kong Hammer and Barrel are used for.
The beginning of Kid Icarus starts out with the main character Pit (is that short for Icarus, or is "Kid Icarus" a given title?) somewhere that's reminiscent of Hades as there's rivers of fire in the background and flying one eyed demon things, which is never a good thing. Oh, and snakes too. It plays like a vertical scroller (like side-scrolling, but going up and not being able to go back down into a bottomless pit) although I assume once you exit the Underworld that you'll be able to go through traditional side-scrolling levels. And your wings, yeah, they're currently just for looks. You can "buy" the single use ability to save yourself from falling into a pit, which is like Princess Toadstool's hover ability in Super Mario Bros. 2. But again, it's a single use only item, kind of like an insurance policy against falling.
Moving onto the game itself. I died quite a number of times at first, which means I had to start over from the beginning each time. Turns out you only have one life to give for your goddess Palutena. After death, you have to start the stage from the beginning, or wherever your last save point was, which are at the end of each level. It wasn't until after I had died at least twice that I realized you can shoot your arrows up instead of just right and left. So all this was somewhat of a minor shock, but not at all hampering in my liking of the game. It basically lets you go through levels until you're proficient at killing enemies without dying. At the same time, it can be really frustrating getting through a rough patch, then into a new area of the same level and then dying, only to have to go through the level again to figure out what went wrong.
The music is about the same as I remember it. But as I'm still in the first stage (1-3 currently), the background music has yet to change, so it's been the same catchy song for the 54 minutes I've been playing. Even though I have the soundtrack, I'm going to make it a point to not listen to the music so that I can be pleasantly surprised when I get to new stages and thus, new music. That's just how I am.
All-in-all though, the difficulty of the game (not Ninja Gaiden difficulty mind you) is not going to deter me from completing the game. Or at least doing my damnedest to complete it. Stupid Eggplant Wizard.
~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
"Look at me father, I'm flying! I'm like a bird! A true king of the air."
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