3D Classics: Kid Icarus Review

Having not owned a NES as a kid, there are a lot of Nintendo classics I missed out on. From The Legend of Zelda to Metroid, from Punch-Out!! to Kirby’s Adventure, all are great titles that I never got a chance to experience the first time around. For the most part I’ve enjoyed my trips back into yesteryear and the time I’ve spent with those titles. One Nintendo classic however continued to mystify me. For the life of me I just could not see how it had built up such a large cult following over the years. That game was Kid Icarus. I just honestly could not get into it; I found it too hard and just too much of a chore to play. However with the recent Kid Icarus: Uprising being released, my interest in Nintendo’s Greek angel has arisen and with 3D Classics my chance to revisit the game has come round.

3D Classics Kid Icarus is a 3D remake of the original in similar vein to what 3D Classics Kirby’s Adventure was last year. Instead of going down the route they did with the Excite Bike and Urban Champion remakes and adding depth to the sprites, Kid Icarus plays around with the background layers to give the game a great sense of depth to the stages. However this goes one step beyond what Kirby did and it gives us all new backgrounds to replace the generic black or plain blue backgrounds that were in the original. The end result of this is a nice parallax scrolling effect that just brings everything together and makes the world seem just that bit more alive and interesting. Other changes fans of the NES game will notice are the addition of game saves, which were present in the Famicom original but not for the western release. Which for the record, is a god send because quite frankly using a password system on a handheld game would be a nightmare. Also as this is a port of the Famicom version it does utilise the music and sound effects from the original which allowed for an extra sound channel not in the NES game. Also as with many of the 3D Classics there are other features such as customisable controls, a Hi-Score board (alas, not online though). Other then those it’s pretty much the exact same game Nintendo released in 1986.

I think the thing that surprises a lot of people when they play Kid Icarus for the first time is just how brutally hard it is, which isn’t really something you see in a lot of Nintendo games even back in 1986. As you begin the game it would easily rank up there amongst the hardest Nintendo made NES games alongside Zelda 2 and Metroid. Pit is incredibly fragile at the start, as only a few hits will send you back to the start of the level. In addition his attacks have a very limited range to start with and don’t do a lot of damage to some of the tougher foes. Also another thing to watch out for is that it’s very easy to fall to your death as the screen only scrolls up, and pushing down on the D-Pad for the most part will make you fall through whatever you’re standing on. However as the game goes on and you get to grips with the controls, these factors become less of an issue. At the end of every level any points you’ve collected will go onto your total. Every time your total passes a certain milestone, Pit’s health increases. Also scattered throughout the stages are various power ups, which will aide you in your fight against Medusa. Some make your attacks stronger, and others the range of your bow. The more you play the more powerful you become, yet the enemies don’t really get that much harder. Plus the levels do change from the vertical style they start out in to more horizontal based affairs in World 2, before going back to vertical again in World 3. This gives you plenty of time to get used to the ins and outs of the controls and by the time you’ve reached World 3, you’re so powerful and so used to moving about you hardly find yourself dying from unwanted falls as much.

Each world is made up of four stages. The first three will be relatively straight forward. Just get from the bottom of the screen (or the left in the case of World 2) to the top. Throughout the stages you’ll encounter many enemies such as Shemums’, Reapers, Monoeyes and of course the Eggplant Wizard. Each have their own unique way of attacking and just being a downright royal pain. Defeating them will make them leave behind a heart which can be used to buy powerups, including health restores and mallets and so on. After you’ve completed the first set of three levels in a world you will then be placed into a labyrinth. Here you must navigate your way through, all the while freeing centurions who have been turned to stone. Once you reach the end of the labyrinth you’ll be on to meet the end of level boss – who those who have played Kid Icarus Uprising will easily recognise. It actually is like that with a lot of the enemies to be honest, and I was just surprised at how easy it was to recognise the monsters from Uprising in their earlier 8bit form. Once you’ve defeated the boss it’s on to the next world until you get to World 4. Then it’s a one way trip to the final epic showdown with Medusa.

I’ve got to say I really did end up enjoying 3D Classics: Kid Icarus a hell of a lot. I’d go so far as to say it might just be my favourite title out of the 3D Classics line. Even though the changes that were made to it weren’t as drastic as some of the earlier titles in the line, they were just enough to take this from one of those games I just didn’t get, to one of the NES games I absolutely adore. If you to are interested to see where all this Kid Icarus fun began, I have no problem in suggesting you check this out. Just when you do play it, don’t give up on it too early for being too hard. Stick with it and I will guarantee you will have a great time.