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Kid Icarus-why?

Posted: January 17th, 2007, 1:14 pm
by Alienblue
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?

Kid Icarus-why?

Posted: January 17th, 2007, 3:35 pm
by Zenzerotron
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..........

Kid Icarus-why?

Posted: January 18th, 2007, 7:53 am
by Steerforth

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.


Kid Icarus-why?

Posted: January 19th, 2007, 7:49 am
by chrisbid1
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.

Kid Icarus-why?

Posted: January 19th, 2007, 9:59 pm
by 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.


Kid Icarus-why?

Posted: January 19th, 2007, 11:36 pm
by a1
[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.


Kid Icarus-why?

Posted: January 20th, 2007, 4:58 am
by Alienblue
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.

Kid Icarus-why?

Posted: January 21st, 2007, 12:31 pm
by Paul Campbell

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.