ICARUS FIGHTS
MEDUSA ANGELS
Ah, passwords. The bane of many a child with sloppy handwriting and impatience. I can’t remember when I first saw the game Kid Icarus, but I think my friend Paul had it. It was a weird looking game. Really colorful monsters with a pitch black background. And that’s all I remember seeing. It always felt like one of those games Nintendo wanted you to like but no one was sure if they did. Pit, the protagonist, was in the Captain N show. I also remember reading about the game in Nintendo Power several times, so it isn’t as if the game wasn’t pushed. I didn’t have it, though, and my aforementioned friend was the only person I remember having it.
Pit and his game felt like a bastard child that no one wanted. The game never became a series and drifted off into oblivion until Pit was brought back for Super Smash Brothers Brawl and now for one of the first Nintendo 3DS games as we have recently learned. Which, to be fair, looks pretty dang cool. Almost like Sin & Punishment but with angels and limited flying. I’ll probably get it with my 3DS if it’s a launch title.
But what of the original game?
From what I know about the NES version of the Kid Icarus, the above password is one that lets you jump ahead to the final boss fight completely powered up. The Japanese version of Kid Icarus, known as The Mirror of Palutena, was a Famicom Disk System game, meaning it had no need for passwords or confusing button presses to continue after death1. This is the version I played2, so did not get the average experience that most Western gamers did. I also got it about 20 years later, but let’s not be too picky on the details here.
That said, I went into the game knowing many people hated it and left loving the little bastard. It’s a weird game, but a fun one. The challenge is balanced in a way that it actually feels like you are really becoming stronger as you proceed. This sounds like a given for any game, but in this case it really feels like you go from a complete weakling to a crusher of the damned. Honestly, I’m not sure if that the later levels are actually easier or if it’s just because of the power-ups gained along the way, but I’d wager it’s a combination of the two. It’s just a really pronounced feeling in this game.
It’s such a mash up of other game types that I can’t help but think this is what polarized a lot of folk against the game. Horizontal and vertical scrolling levels with fiendish jumps, particularly in the vertical levels are combined with dungeon levels to explore every four stages comes off as a sweet combination. The shooting requires a good deal of precision especially considering your shots do not go very far and usually pack not much of a punch. And the aforementioned exploration levels add a nice change of pace. They do, however, contain one thing that can only be described as pure terror.
This one thing, something that every gamer from this game’s generation should know even if they didn’t play the game, is the Eggplant Wizard. These assholes toss eggplants which, if strike you, turn you into an eggplant. It is perhaps one of the most annoying status aliments I have ever experienced in a game. You cannot attack. Your only option is to find the hospital where a kind lady will remove the curse. This may not sound that bad, but when you are exploring a dungeon and suddenly walk into a room and an eggplant flies into your face a sense of terror unlike any other sets in. Only one thing goes through your mind.
I must avoid this vegetable.
Failing to do so, you may as well restart the stage right then and there. Sure, you could hop around and make your way to a hospital. But you’re an eggplants. It’s embarrassing. The music that plays while you are inflicted brings even more shame. It really is degrading. Nothing is as satisfying as successfully dodging the barrage of eggplants and getting the necessary shots at the wizards to take them out and continue your journey.
I mentioned prior that it is a short game. And it is. In total there are 13 stages, none of them particularly long. But learning the way the game plays and being able to make it through these stages does take some time. Time that feels well rewarded once you finally make it to the end of the stage.
Despite playing it many, many years past its original release date, I found Kid Icarus to be a great game. Quirky to be sure, but a fun game well worth the time spent.
