Overall Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
Nintendo’s oldest development team, Research & Development 1, was responsible for some of the truly classic titles on the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) console, including Ice Climbers and Metroid, along with other contributions such as creating the Wario character as originally portrayed in the Super Mario Land series of Game Boy cartridges. In 1987, another of their projects hit the American market, a Grecian adventure called Kid Icarus.
Gameplay
The player controls Pit, a young, angelic being equipped with a bow and arrows. The A button jumps and the B button fires an arrow. Gameplay, for the most part, takes place as a two-dimensional scrolling platformer. Notably, this adventure actually begins as a vertically scrolling quest, rather than side-scrolling, complete with wrap walls; that is, moving past the left boundary makes an object appear on the right edge of the screen, and vice versa.
Roughly, Kid Icarus is divided into three lengthy portions: The vertically scrolling portion, or Underworld that Pit, the hero, must escape from; the Surface World, which is horizontally scrolling; and then the last realm, the Sky World, which again scrolls vertically; until the finale, which takes place as more of a horizontally auto-scrolling shoot-‘em-up.
Throughout Pit’s jumping and foe-fighting, the player can come across doorways that lead to several possible types of rooms, including being completely empty. They may present him with a mob of enemies, which defeating earns a prize, such as currency (oddly shown as a count of hearts); the opportunity to have his bow and arrow made stronger, if he had passed a certain criteria such as amount of enemies slain; a shop, in which Pit can spend those hard-earned hearts on helpful items, such as a healing potion; or even just friendly hot springs, in which bathing automatically restores his health bar.
The game presents quite a wide array of enemies, from the stage-end fortress gatekeeper bosses, to little foot-worm things that die in one hit, to crazy flying eyeballs, to the infamous Eggplant Wizards that can, indeed, turn Pit into an eggplant for an amount of time. Fortunately for Pit’s chances at rescuing Queen of Light Palutena from the Queen of Darkness Medusa, each time Pit defeats one of the three bosses, he is presented with one of the three sacred treasures, used in the final portion of the game: The Mirror Shield, Light Arrows, and Wings Of Pegasus.
Similar to Metroid, Kid Icarus has multiple endings, depending on the player’s performance; furthermore, there is a password feature, enabling the player to continue where he or she left off. This classic 8-bit video game is also noteworthy for a somewhat punishing difficulty level, considered brutal by many (seriously, Google the game or read some reviews elsewhere); however, it can also be noted that, in a strange twist against convention, Kid Icarus actually seems to start off hard and gradually get easier, especially as Pit gains a longer, more powerful shot, with arrows that can pierce multiple enemies.
Graphics
Trying to properly frame the visual quality of Kid Icarus may be like trying to most appropriately critique a hundreds-years-old fresco; that is, for its time it may have been brilliant, but techniques and standards quickly shifted, even within the mode. Later NES video games would show great progression in sprite art, character outline, shading, and other graphical areas.
In some ways, then, Kid Icarus has its weaknesses. The tile-based level element arrangements, the starkly blank backgrounds, the sometimes rather limited animations used, critiques against the arguably sub-par enemy designs, etc. Yet, in other ways, age has helped Pit and his crew, as the game definitely has a somewhat distinctive appearance. If you like it, you like it, regardless of any to-the-pixel nuanced complaints. Is this one of the best-looking games on the NES console? No, and not by a long shot. But do its visuals create the look it aimed for, provide a signature sensation, and help give players a unique experience? Yes. This is going to be a matter of opinion, person-to-person.
Sound
The sound effects are sometimes derided. Go ahead, fire an arrow; does the sound of its firing elicit any fear from Pit’s foes? Does it sound at all masculine, loud, or intimidating? No. Other examples provide the same watered-down, disappointing result, with some effects being whines at a higher pitch than others, and a rare exception when a wet, blunt force gives the player a satisfactory signal for an arrow hit. But then the background music comes in, and the arrangements please. The title screen tune is a cascading-to-crescendo beauty that bores into the mind and refuses to leave, while even the first level theme is a brain-screwingly triumphant track that befits the epic scale of the mythos. Perhaps the effects, then, are, by intention, indeed, supposed to be mere subtle nuance to the grander scheme of the orchestration played beyond.
Originality
Kid Icarus should not be given absolutely, completest credit for originality. It is a scrolling platformer, after all, and not the first. It is, however, somewhat imaginative, playing off the Greek mythology, and giving an impressive variety of platforming avenues throughout. The look and sound combine for a distinctive experience, and the vastness of its challenge, coupled with the password system, definitely resonate with Metroid, perhaps being the fantasy foil to its science-fiction tale.
Considering its early release on the NES console, and the team behind it, this was an ambition project that largely filled big expectations. It is of worthy difficulty, noted for being among the few old-school titles that could legitimately be seen as actually starting off hardest and growing easier, as Pit gains more endurance and powerful weapons, while still facing similar beasts. All in all, this is a meaty, mythical, near-masterful stroke of Nintendo gamedom, worth four and a half stars out of five.