The prequel of my favorite videogame ever!

Kid Icarus is a weird one.

It's definitely the black sheep of the classic Nintendo line-up from 1986, while also combining a lot of things that made the other NES juggernaut great. It has the shooting combat of Metroid, the Dungeon exploration from Zelda, the platforming of Mario and some slighlt RPG elements.

In terms of tone is a weird one: it takes "inspiration" fro greek mythology while also adding hospitals, credit cards, eggplant magic, and an enemy that makes fun of the composers's nose (yes, that is real).

It was supposed to be this grand adventure at the time, but the tight release schedule led to harsh compromises the help of the Metroid developers, that miracolously stichted the game together with duct tape in the final month (even passing the winter holidays in the office with cardboard beds) and making the final sections of the game in like a day.

FOr that, this title has a lot of weird aspects about it, but also... that is what makes it stand out. Despite it's flaws, I argue that this oddities makes it for an interesting title that stood the test of time.

Try it if you can, it is a good time
(then maybe go try play Kid Icarus Uprising, the absolute incredible sequel)

Another Nintendo classic to tick off, Kid Icarus stars Pit as he travels through Angel Land to rescue the Queen Palutena from Medusa. While the story is minimal, I’ll give them honest credit for the presentation, the character sprites are a cut above what you may expect on the NES. The game mostly runs well and the enemy designs really delve into the Greek mythology the story runs with.

The game is like a mixture of Metroid and Zelda, there’s 3 main worlds, and each have 3 normal levels, then a dungeon. The main levels aren’t too bad, they go by pretty fast and challenge your platforming and shooting skills. The dungeons are more complex and honestly just confusing, and that sums up a lot of the experience. Confusing.

There’s a few crucial yet unexplained systems that are going to make things hell. This game is hard when you start with a single health bar, low damage and no items. You need to essentially grind to stand a chance. You can unlock power ups for Pit to make him extremely powerful, but you can’t use them in the dungeons.. which is where the bosses are.. it’s a weird balance that never quite hits right.

There’s a bit of fun to be had with the gameplay, it controls well, but the structure is like oil and water clashing.

The music’s pretty catchy, and the game goes by fast when you get going. But overall, I’m just abit confused with this one - 5/10

I think Kid Icarus occupies a similar place in Nintendo's library as Vampire Killer did for Castlevania. It's more obscure than Metroid, but both games were designed with the same engine. While Metroid was an attempt at a more open-ended design, Kid Icarus is more linear. On top of that, I think Metroid focuses slightly more on enemy designs to flush out its stages while Kid Icarus is a more difficult platformer. All in all I prefer Metroid to Kid Icarus, but despite some tedium, you can see that just as much effort went into this game.