Kid Icarus
In the face of Nintendo’s other gargantuan series it’s easy to forget the 30th anniversary of another charming game, Kid Icarus. The angel Pit has to battle the forces of evil and vanquish Medusa in order to protect the goddess Palutena, in this classic platforming game on the NES.
After getting a sequel in 1991 we went decades without hearing a word from Kid Icarus, until Nintendo gave Pit and the series a facelift in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and later with the brand new game Kid Icarus: Uprising. This reboot of the series gave Pit a fresh new design, and gave us a fun rail shooter and action game. Kid Icarus was not a series anyone expected to return, but we ended up getting a fast paced hilarious fourth-wall breaking 3DS title that can be considered one of the best games on the system.
Pit’s newfound popularity managed to pull in over 1 million copies sold for Uprising, but unfortunately Masahiro Sakurai- the mind behind the game – has officially said he is not working on a sequel. Sakurai moved on to develop Super Smash. Bros on Wii U and 3DS, which is soon coming to an end with its post launch DLC support. We have to wonder what Sakurai is doing next, and even though he’s said he wasn’t working on a sequel, you have to imagine that Nintendo didn’t reboot the series for nothing.
Fan reception to Uprising was pretty positive, with minor complaints about the difficult control scheme. Pit is one of Nintendo’s oldest mascots, and the company found a great space for the series in terms of storytelling, humor and gameplay when they released Uprising in 2012.
Four years later may be the perfect time for Pit and his friends to get the full-fledged console game they deserve, and who knows maybe the NX is the place for that to happen. Of course a sequel on the 3DS is welcome too, we just want more Kid Icarus.
