Kid Icarus-why?

Alienblue · Postby **Alienblue** » January 17th, 2007, 1:14 pm

I was looking through the old NES players Guide I recently scored for 50 cents, and was reminded of something that has long bugged me. The NES had FOUR early "Hit" games; Super Mario Bros., Metroid, Zelda and Kid Icarus. The first three games went on to spawn sequals and spin-offs aplenty up to TODAY, with no sign of stopping. So WHY did Kid Icarus fail? It was my favorite of the early NES action-adventures; good graphics and music and lots of mazes and worlds to explore.
I've thought of two possibilities. 1) the "Greek history" theme was off-putting, not fantastical enough perhaps, or perhaps ATHENA left a bad taste in gamers mouths! or 2) Homophobia! I mean, the hero, PITT, is a skinny guy in a "dress" (Toga) who flies with wings! If THAT doesn't say "fairy" I don't know what does. I always thought Pitt was cool, especially all powered up. Medusa was awesome! Any thoughts on this?

Zenzerotron · Postby **Zenzerotron** » January 17th, 2007, 3:35 pm

When I was a kid, I borrowed Kid Icarus from a friend and beat it. I thought it was a great game.

About 6 months ago, I tracked down a copy of it to add to my NES collection. To my horror, this game has aged very very poorly.

My knee-jerk reaction to your question is simply Kid Icarus has aged very poorly, that's why there's no sequals or interest in the game.

But Pitt is going to be in the Wii version of Smash Bros..........

Steerforth · Postby **Steerforth** » January 18th, 2007, 7:53 am

Don't know why, but the Greek mythology is actually a very rich game setting and Link is a 'fairy boy' too. Remember the opening of OoT? Doesn't Mido say something like your not a real man if you don't have a fairy? Lol.

chrisbid1 · Postby **chrisbid1** » January 19th, 2007, 7:49 am

metroid was neglected for a long time as well, only getting a gameboy sequel (as did kid icarus btw). nintendo finally gave in and made super metroid only after they had exhausted mario and zelda on the SNES.

Paul Campbell · Postby **Paul Campbell** » January 19th, 2007, 9:59 pm

I hated the vertically scrolling levels of Kid Icarus so much that I pretty much dismissed the game right off the bat. I have never given it much of a chance because every time I do, it takes me so long to get through those first few vertical stages that I just give up.

a1 · Postby a1 » January 19th, 2007, 11:36 pm

[QUOTE=Paul Campbell]

I hated the vertically scrolling levels of Kid Icarus so much that I pretty much dismissed the game right off the bat. I have never given it much of a chance because every time I do, it takes me so long to get through those first few vertical stages that I just give up.

[/QUOTE]

There were non vertically scrolling levels in that game? I gave up on it before making it out of those, too.

Alienblue · Postby **Alienblue** » January 20th, 2007, 4:58 am

As far as vertical stage scrolling goes, Kid Icarus didn't have all that much, and Metroid was even worse-at least K.I. gave you actual steps to climb instead of partly frozen "bugs"!

The castles were all mapped out like a horizontal ZELDA, going up, down, left and roght.

Paul Campbell · Postby **Paul Campbell** » January 21st, 2007, 12:31 pm

I always hear great things about the game that get me motivated to give it another shot, but I am so put off by those early stages that I get frustrated and move on to something else alot quicker than I normally would. We should ask Dave to do a review of that game. I think I have another copy of it I could donate.