It's time for our pre-boss-battle rallying cry
Not since Retro Studios rebooted the dormant Metroid franchise a decade ago has a seemingly lost Nintendo series been reinvented with such care, craft, and charm. It's been 20 years since gamers have seen Pit and the Kid Icarus series, and "Kid Icarus: Uprising" has not only redefined the series, but has given gamers one of the best original Nintendo titles on the 3DS yet.
Those may be strong words, but expect nothing less from Project Sora, the development studio headed by Masahiro Sakurai, the master hand behind both the Kirby and Super Smash Bros. series. Still, I was not going in expecting to be blown away by such a high-caliber game and deep experience. I was very concerned about the controls, and perhaps because it was on a handheld, or perhaps because for me, rebooting Kid Icarus was something akin to trying to bring the Ice Climbers back. The original Kid Icarus came out long before my time, and when I tried playing it at various points since then, it never really clicked with me. It was weird and hard, and Pit was just another retro character that did not resonate with me.
But somewhere along the way, Pit became one of Nintendo's most bad-ass leading men. Or angel, I guess I should say. Instead of a scrolling platformer like his original two titles, "Kid Icarus: Uprising" reimagines the series as a two-part adventure. Pit spends the first half of every level airborne on a rail shooter (think Star Fox) and the second half of each level you control Pit on the ground, more akin to a traditional third-person shooter.
Although there isn't much traditional about this game. I can't think of many shooters where the enemies can turn you into eggplant or shrimp and then try to eat you. Yeah, the game is out there and crazy, but in a wild and enjoyable kind of way.
And that's where this game soars: charm and character. The game never stops not taking itself seriously. The characters (with full voice acting) are well developed, sarcastic, and funny, making fun of pop culture, gaming in general, and even the current economic crisis. Pit and Palutena (the goddess of light) banter back and forth during the levels, providing some of the best in-game commentary I've ever seen. Rare are self-aware games that work, but "Uprising" is on some level a parody of those gaming tropes we know and love. Even Nintendo's other franchises aren't immune, with Donkey Kong, Metroid, and Brain Age jokes all making the cut. It's superb writing, and certainly something I didn't expect from the game or from Nintendo.
The locations are stunningly beautiful, and rival the best graphics we've seen on the 3DS. (Best from Nintendo at least, and it's a close call between this and "Resident Evil: Revelations.") And that's with a crazy amount of stuff happening on screen at the same time. For some reason screen shots and videos just don't do the graphics justice, and each new level outdoes the last in terms of visual beauty. I'm still stunned at some of the environments, and that the 3DS was capable of pulling them off -- and in 3D, at that. The level pacing does get a little formulaic: flying portion, ground portion, and then a boss battle. But the varied locations and art style more than make up for it. The music -- which is either fully orchestrated or very, very well done midi -- is amazing as well, and deserves more than a throw-off mention, and the main theme is still catchy as it ever was.
The biggest (perhaps only) point of contention with the game is its control scheme. Instead of opting for using the circle pad pro (which was why I hoped the game was delayed until after the add-on's release), the game lets you customize the controls pretty much any way you can think of, instead of the much-needed dual analog. The main set up has you shooting with L and moving Pit with the left circle pad, while aiming with the right hand and the touch screen. Nintendo must have known something was up: it included a plastic stand with the game, which does help alleviate the bulk of the weight of the system resting on your left hand. I didn't even bother trying to use the game sans-stand, and after fiddling with the controls found that aiming with the touch screen was really the best way to play, and after the learning curve, it became second nature. Aiming with the touch screen is responsive and way better than trying to use the face buttons on the system, but I still would have preferred two analog sticks.
The game is overwhelming with its depth and included offerings. You can buy, fuse, and trade more than 100 different weapons, collect idols (trophies), unlock challenges. Perhaps my favorite of the additions is the slide-able difficulty scale that lets you wager hearts (the game's currency) to change the difficulty of each level from 0 to 9 (with every tenth place decimal in between an option). I still can't manage to beat the very first level cranked all the way up, and I can't imagine the later levels on difficulty 9. It's an idea that is implemented so well, I'd be shocked if we didn't see other games ripping it in the future. Some of the boss battles didn't seem to fall as hard as they should, but I'm still scared of the thought of some of them on higher difficulty.
I managed to make it through the main story in just under 10 hours, but that was with missing a lot of items and playing through most of the levels somewhere in the 3-5 difficult range. Completing the game all the way will take even completionists a long, long time.
And then there's the multiplayer. Again, I was not expecting it to be as addicting, fast-paced, chaotic, or enjoyable as it was. The game offers a 3-on-3 light vs. dark mode with each side having a certain number of deaths allowed before having to protect Pit or Dark Pit from defeat, and then a free-for-all that just gets crazy. Playing pre-launch I noticed very little lag or connection time, but after release I'll be curious to see how everything holds up. I think Sakurai learned his lesson from Brawl's online problems, I would hope. A leaderboard, or online weapon trading, would have been nice, but it's still a very solid addition to an already filled-to-the-brim experience.
Before "Kid Icarus: Uprising," Kid Icarus was just another old Nintendo franchise to me, and now he has earned his wings by becoming one of, if not THE best original Nintendo 3DS title available. This is a modern Nintendo that isn't pulling any punches development-wise, and the game is one of the highest-quality hand-held games the company has made. Pit has been gone for a long time, but he has risen to the top of Nintendo's highly competitive game releases and joined the upper echelons of Nintendo's strongest IPs. Unlike Icarus, Pit flew too close to the sun and prevailed. Fly on, Pit, fly on.
