Pros:
+The music is catchy
+Controls are tight. I never once felt like I wasn't in control even in the tight platforming sections in the last world.
+Rewards the player for getting a high score since score is based on how your health increases. Considering score is an arbitrary thing in most games it's nice to have a reason for it.
+Likewise with health, you can get stronger arrows by exploring every doorway, and you can get the extra items by completing challenges, also in doorways. There's a huge sense of power creep for the players who put in the time and effort and it feels great, while it's still possible to ignore everything for a hard mode run.
Cons:
-There are 3 types of enemies that really stop this game from being a very solid platformer. The first is the flying enemies that can move through walls. Their massive amount of mobility combined with your relative lack of it often feels far too unfair. The second is enemies that pop out of the sky or ground directly onto you without warning. The third is the eggplant enemy. Those three enemies alone (which to be fair take up a large amount of the enemy types) turn what should be fun skill-based action platformer into rage inducing damage sponging.
-Like with a lot of old games NOTHING is actually explained in-game. I assume you're supposed to use the manual to learn what all the items do and such, but as I was playing on the Switch's Nes emulator I had no such thing, so I had to have google handy at all times.
-All 3 dungeons felt the exact same.
Mixed/Not important enough to be a pro or con:
~The game honestly gets easier as it goes on. The actual difficulty never really increases imo, but the extra health, strength and weapons you get mean that the first levels where you're working with nothing are by far the hardest.
Notes/Comments:
•Kid Icarus deserved to be a long running series like Mario and Zelda. Too bad the series went into sleep until Uprising and has been dead since.
+The music is catchy
+Controls are tight. I never once felt like I wasn't in control even in the tight platforming sections in the last world.
+Rewards the player for getting a high score since score is based on how your health increases. Considering score is an arbitrary thing in most games it's nice to have a reason for it.
+Likewise with health, you can get stronger arrows by exploring every doorway, and you can get the extra items by completing challenges, also in doorways. There's a huge sense of power creep for the players who put in the time and effort and it feels great, while it's still possible to ignore everything for a hard mode run.
Cons:
-There are 3 types of enemies that really stop this game from being a very solid platformer. The first is the flying enemies that can move through walls. Their massive amount of mobility combined with your relative lack of it often feels far too unfair. The second is enemies that pop out of the sky or ground directly onto you without warning. The third is the eggplant enemy. Those three enemies alone (which to be fair take up a large amount of the enemy types) turn what should be fun skill-based action platformer into rage inducing damage sponging.
-Like with a lot of old games NOTHING is actually explained in-game. I assume you're supposed to use the manual to learn what all the items do and such, but as I was playing on the Switch's Nes emulator I had no such thing, so I had to have google handy at all times.
-All 3 dungeons felt the exact same.
Mixed/Not important enough to be a pro or con:
~The game honestly gets easier as it goes on. The actual difficulty never really increases imo, but the extra health, strength and weapons you get mean that the first levels where you're working with nothing are by far the hardest.
Notes/Comments:
•Kid Icarus deserved to be a long running series like Mario and Zelda. Too bad the series went into sleep until Uprising and has been dead since.