Plot

In a time where man and gods coexisted in harmony, the kingdom of Angel Land was ruled by two goddesses, Palutena the Goddess of Light and Medusa the Goddess of Darkness. While Palutena administered the light and helped the mortals cultivate their crops, Medusa despised the mortals and used the darkness to destroy their crops and turn the mortals into stone. Enraged, Palutena transformed Medusa into a hideous monster and banished her into the dark underworld.

But Medusa would not go quietly. She assembled an army of monsters and evil spirits of the underworld to conquer Palutena's home, the Palace in the Sky. War erupted and Medusa's minions overwhelmed Palutena's army, eventually imprisoning the Goddess of Light. Medusa then seized the Three Sacred Treasures, the Mirror Shield, the Arrow of Light and the Wings of Pegasus, and gave them to her most powerful minions.

Defeated and imprisoned, Palutena's only hope was to seek the help of Pit, a young angel trapped in the Underworld. Using the last of her strength, she sent Pit a magical bow.

Thus, Pit set out on a quest to escape the Underworld, retrieve the Sacred Treasures that would help him defeat Medusa, rescue Palutena and restore peace to Angel Land.

Gameplay

Kid Icarus is often compared to Metroid (which was released the same year), as it uses the same game engine. In volume 204 of Nintendo Power, an article was written about the game describing it as blending together elements from The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros. and Metroid, stating that Pit can "jump like Mario, collect items like Zelda, and shoot enemies like Metroid."

History

Kid Icarus uses the Metroid game engine and contains both horizontal and vertical scrolling action sequences. In fact, the NES versions of both games were released on the same day with the same "Password Pak" selling point. The original Famicom Disk System versions of both games, however, feature save slots, unlike the NES version which uses a password system (known in-game as "Sacred Words"). As with Metroid, the FDS version of Kid Icarus also features higher quality music and sound effects that take advantage of the system's wavetable sound channel.

A sequel to Kid Icarus, titled Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters, was released for the Game Boy in 1991, only in America and Europe. The game is similar to the original, though there are a few new features including the ability to slowly float downwards by repeatedly pressing the jump button (much like the raccoon tail power-up in Super Mario Bros. 3).

Despite being overshadowed by Metroid, Kid Icarus is regularly recognized as a significant game. It was awarded the 84th slot in IGN's 2003 list of the Top 100 Games of All Time[1] and was also inducted into the GameSpy Hall of Fame.[2] In Volume 199 of Nintendo Power, it was voted number 54 in a list of the top 200 games of all time.

On August 10, 2004 Kid Icarus was re-released in Japan on the Game Boy Advance as part of the Famicom Mini Series. The game has also been released for the Wii's Virtual Console.[3]

Pit is to appear as a playable character in the Wii production Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and has undergone a dramatic update for the game, giving die-hard fans of the game new hopes of a 3D revival, much like what happened to the Metroid series.

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