Kid Icarus series

This article is a short summary of the Kid Icarus series.
Icaruspedia features a more in-depth article.

Kid Icarus

光神話パルテナの鏡
Hikari Shinwa Palutena no Kagami

Logo as of Kid Icarus: Uprising

Creator:	Nintendo R&D1
First game:	Kid Icarus (1986)
Latest game:	Kid Icarus: Uprising (2011)

Kid Icarus is a series of action games by Nintendo. Set in the world of Angel Land, based primarily on Greek mythology, the series focuses on Pit, an angel from Skyworld and the captain of the goddess Palutena's army, as he fights against the forces of the Underworld who seek to take over.

Overview

Main series

The original Kid Icarus was developed by Nintendo R&D1 after the completion of Metroid, and shared much of the same development staff, including Gunpei Yokoi. Released in 1986, the game is a 2D platformer that involves the player traveling through the Underworld to return to Skyworld and defeat Medusa. Despite poor sales, the game is regarded as a cult classic. A sequel, Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters, would be released for the Game Boy in 1992, and centers around Pit's quest to defeat the demon Orcos. Of Myths and Monsters was released only in North America and Europe, and would be the final installment in the series for over 20 years.

In 2012, the third installment in the series, Kid Icarus: Uprising would be released for Nintendo 3DS. Developed by Masahiro Sakurai and Project Sora following Pit's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the game opts for a hybrid of third-person shooter and on-rails shooting gameplay rather than the platforming gameplay of its predecessors. Set 25 years after the original, Uprising focuses on Pit's quest to stop the Underworld Army from destroying humanity.

Following the release of Kid Icarus: Uprising, Sakurai has stated that he does not plan on creating a sequel.^[1]

Other media

To promote the release of Kid Icarus: Uprising, a series of short animated movies were produced by three Japanese animation studios and released through Nintendo Video, two of which being released in multiple parts. The videos include:

Following the discontinuation of Nintendo Video, the movies were made available to view on the Nintendo eShop. In March 2017, these videos were re-released as downloadable rewards from My Nintendo, to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the release of Kid Icarus: Uprising.

Other appearances

Pit would be made one of the central characters in DIC Entertainment's Captain N: The Game Master cartoon. Going under the name "Kid Icarus", he has a habit of adding the suffix "-icus" to words he says. He appears in a similar capacity in the Captain N: The Game Master Nintendo Comics System series by Valiant Comics.

After his initial appearances, Pit has made cameo appearances in other Nintendo titles, including the NES version of Tetris, F-1 Race, a Trophy in Super Smash Bros. Melee, and in microgames in WarioWare: Twisted! and WarioWare: Smooth Moves.

Pit would be made a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, sporting an updated, modernized design based on Masahiro Sakurai's interpretation of Pit had the series continued beyond Of Myths and Monsters.^[2] Pit also returns as a playable character in later Super Smash Bros. titles, with an updated moveset based on Kid Icarus: Uprising, alongside Palutena and Kid Icarus: Uprising's Dark Pit.

Accompanying their appearance in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, Pit, Palutena, and Dark Pit have been given amiibo figurines, which can unlock special content in compatible games. This includes their appearances as unlockable Costume Mario costumes in Super Mario Maker and Yoshi patterns in both Yoshi's Woolly World and Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World.

Games

Game	JP release	NA release	EU release	AUS release	KOR release	Platform
Kid Icarus	1986	1987	1987	N/A	N/A	Famicom Disk System / Nintendo Entertainment System
Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters	2012	1991	1992	N/A	N/A	Game Boy
Kid Icarus: Uprising	2012	2012	2012	2012	N/A	Nintendo 3DS

Trivia

The Kid Icarus enemy Komayto deliberately resembles the Metroids of the Metroid series; this is mentioned and played with in several instances throughout the series.
- Adding to this, the Space Pirates from Kid Icarus: Uprising may also be a reference to the Metroid antagonists.

External links

The Kid Icarus series on Wikipedia

References

↑ No Sequel for Kid Icarus Uprising. IGN (May 9, 2012). Retrieved December 11, 2016.
↑ "In bringing [Pit] to Super Smash Bros. Brawl, I [Masahiro Sakurai] designed him imagining, 'if the series had continued and he had evolved with it over these long years, what kind of character would he be?' " Promotional e-mail from Nintendo for Kid Icarus: Uprising. SmashWiki. Retrieved December 12, 2016.