Posted by Devin de Gruyl on Mar 18th, 2008
It must be the pits to be Pit.
Think about it. Here you are, the star of one of the most popular and fondly-recalled games to ever appear on the NES, to the point where you’re even given a permanent supporting role in the Captain N cartoon (even if they did get your name wrong). Chances are, most members of Generation X can hum your intro theme and first-level BGM from memory, much like they can with the Super Mario theme and Metroid’s Brinstar music. And your game is one of the most often cited on the list of NES titles most deserving of a modern sequel.
But does that sequel ever come? No.
Other than a single Game Boy title in 1991, that wasn’t so much a sequel as it was a remix of the first game, poor Pit has only seldom been seen since his lone NES title. A cameo here, perhaps (such as in Nintendo’s Tetris), or a brief allusion there, but that’s been about the extent of it. At least, that was the case until the advent of Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii, in which the brave little angel wannabe finally makes his return to consoles… a mere 21 years after his debut, which must be some sort of record.
But neither the long dry spell nor the passing of over two decades diminishes the greatness of Pit’s original game…
Kid Icarus (NES, 1987): On the list of Least Desirable Occupations in the Universe, “Princess of a 1980s video game world†is probably at or near the bottom of the barrel. You’re always getting kidnapped, locked up in dungeons, and/or used as bait to lure dull-witted heroes into elaborate, Rube Goldberg-esque traps. Such is the case with the Goddess Palutena, ruler of Angel Land, who’s been abducted and imprisoned by Medusa – you know, the one who gets her hair done in the Well of Souls from Raiders of the Lost Ark – who has also taken the precaution of turning all of Angel Land’s bravest warriors into stone statues, leaving none who are capable of rescuing Palutena and thus restoring peace.
None, that is, except Pit, a small cherub with big dreams. That’s you, in case you were wondering. Despite being only a little guy in a big world – four of them, to be precise – you pick up your tiny bow and arrow and set off on a quest to prove your manhood, save Palutena, send Medusa back to the reptile house at the San Diego Zoo, and bring about the end of evil in Angel Land.
…Okay, so minus several million for plot originality, but in 1987 it didn’t matter as much. It was all about the gameplay, and in that department Kid Icarus delivers in Grecian urns.
Kid Icarus (which, contrary to popular belief only perpetuated by Captain N, is not the name of the main character) is often compared with Metroid, with which it shares a box design, release date, and development team (including Gunpei Yokoi and Hip Tanaka). This is an eminently fair comparison; however, it does not do Kid Icarus much justice. Metroid was a truly innovative game, being one of the first to really emphasize exploration and experimentation to navigate around obstacles, and to provide what we’d call “nonlinear gameplay†today (you don’t necessarily have to do things in a preset order to complete the game). On the other hand, Pit’s game was more of a traditional platform adventure, with a preset level order and nothing in the gameplay that really hadn’t been done before in other games. Which is fine, because what Kid Icarus does it does very well, but when compared to how influential Metroid was at almost the same time, you begin to understand why Pit has fallen behind in recognition to his twin sister Samus.
However, despite the fact it’s probably not as groundbreaking, Kid Icarus actually is somewhat innovative in at least one respect – it is, so far as I know, the first true “multigenre†game. It combines elements of platform action, Zelda-like adventure, exploration, and even (in the final stage) a Gradius-style shmup. That hadn’t been done before, really, combining so many disparate gameplay styles into a single NES cartridge, and thus requiring players to master a variety of different skills in order to master the game.
It starts out as a vertically-scrolling obstacle course, where you jump, run, shoot, bob, and weave through waves of snakes, flying enemies, fire monsters that pop up under your feet, and some exceptionally treacherous terrain (the screen only scrolls up, not down, and one slip will send you off the bottom of the screen and into the hereafter). Along the way, you’ll encounter doors to side rooms; these may lead to a treasure mini-game similar to a video slot machine’s bonus round (shown below; keep shooting urns and revealing treasure until you want to stop, or until you reveal a monster and lose it all), or a room filled with foes that look like flying Groucho glasses (ah, Japan…), a shop where you can buy supplies, or a “training room†where you battle waves of 2001-esque Monoliths to earn a power upgrade. The only problem with this stage is that, at least for me, it starts out in a rather difficult level format, with no small amount of precision jumping required about midway through the first stage. It’s enough to put novice and/or less-skilled gamers off Kid Icarus prematurely, especially when trying to sneak past the pacing Grim Reaper for the 594th time without having him scream for Reapette backup (even Solid Snake himself would have problems getting past this guy!)
After three stages of this (which do get easier – or maybe that’s just you getting more used to the gameplay mechanics), you find yourself in a maze very similar to one of The Legend of Zelda’s Underworld dungeons, only viewed from the side rather than the top. (Unlike Adventure of Link, these are not scrolling areas but rather static screens connected by doors in any of the four edges.) Here’s where the exploration aspect comes into play, as you’ll have to navigate through the portals to find your way to the Boss, fighting your way through foes (including the infamous Eggplant Wizard) and obstacles as you go. Fortunately, there are shops along the way, as well as a Healing Spring where you can recharge yourself fully and even a Hospital where you can get yourself “de-eggplanted†if necessary. Just like Zelda, there’s a mini-map on the subscreen that’s filled in as you go (provided you at least have a Pencil) for when you get lost. The Boss fights are generally easier than your encounters with Kraid and Ridley in Metroid, but more difficult than a Zelda end-of-dungeon battle, and success will earn you one of Angel Land’s three Sacred Treasures.
After you’ve cleared all three Worlds (World Two is a traditional side-scrolling adventure, while World Three returns to the vertical scroll of World One), Pit dons all three Sacred Treasures and sets off to the Castle in the Air, where Palutena awaits liberation from Medusa and her minions. The game becomes a horizontal shooter here, with Pit shooting laserbeam-like arrows at waves of flying foes and dodging falling bricks from on high, and when you finally encounter Deucey herself, she’s a screen-high face launching eye-beams and snakes at you. (What, none of the old turning-to-stone routine?) Those who are veterans of many missions in the Vic Viper will find this easier than many of the Gradius levels (if much longer than any of them), while shmup fans in general will enjoy this diversion from the jump-n-run gameplay that’s defined Kid Icarus up to this point.
Despite floundering in the shadow of Metroid, Kid Icarus retains a large and loyal following among hardcore gamers to this day, mostly for its blending of gameplay styles, challenging but not overwhelming difficulty level, and superb audiovisual presentation (by NES standards, at least). And much as was the case with Metroid, the password feature (a novelty in 1987) became a major factor in building its popularity, as gamers would trade passwords at school to see where everyone else was in the game, or to get past particularly difficult sections. (Does anyone else remember the frustration when entering a password somebody else wrote down and realizing what you thought was an S was really a 5, or that made no distinction between a lowercase “ell†and the digit “one,†or “oh†and “zero?†Or stumbling on one of the “secret†passwords, such as 9uuuuu uuuuuu uuuuuu uuuuuu or DANGER !!!!!! TERROR HORROR, that warped you immediately to the Medusa level with more than enough items and health to beat the game?) It remains in my own personal top ten NES cartridges of all time (which I will probably compile and share with you WotGers someday).
So while you pick up your Wiimotes and Nunchukus to help Pit clobber his way through armies of Nintendo icons in Brawl, don’t forget to check the Virtual Console for the classic NES game too. It’s great to finally see the little guy finally getting some much-deserved respect in the modern era…
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Shawn M.
March 18, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Great article, Devin. I wasn’t terribly fond of Kid Icarus, but that was probably due to me playing it after having completed Mega Man 2 — one of gaming’s true classics.
March 19th, 2008 at 11:50 am
Interestingly enough, Kid Icarus was one of the first NES games I ever played, before even Metroid (which I first encountered on a PlayChoice-10 machine, of all things). I found the precision jumping required very early on to be frustrating (though not nearly as much as, say, Wizards & Warriors, which had to be one of the worst all-time offenders in that category), but the gameplay and the idea of the “bonus rooms” (as I thought of them back then) captivated me.
Truthfully, between Kid Icarus and the original Zelda, I couldn’t tell you which game was more responsible for turning me on to the NES.
Jacob Bond
March 24, 2008 at 1:20 am
I can’t wait for the Wii game coming this year. I kind of suspected something was up when I played Brawl and saw that woman with Pit (since as far as I knew that character wasn’t in any of the games).
I hope he at least moves faster than Pit did in Brawl, though.