Kid Icarus: Uprising

Kid Icarus: Uprising (新・光神話　パルテナの鏡Shin Hikari Shinwa Parutena no Kagami, lit. "New Light Myth: Palutena's Mirror") is a Nintendo 3DS video game developed by Project Sora, and designed by Masahiro Sakurai, creator of Kirby and Super Smash Bros. Announced at E3 2010, Kid Icarus: Uprising was the first video game shown off for the Nintendo 3DS. A revival of the Kid Icarus series, Uprising is the third game in the franchise, the first in twenty-one years, since 1991's Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters. The game features enhanced graphics and returning characters including Pit, Palutena and Medusa. The updated designs for Pit and Palutena were first introduced in 2008's Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Story
Uprising is a direct sequel to the classic NES game, and takes place 25 (24 in the Japanese version) years after the original Kid Icarus. The story is divided into twenty-five separate chapters. Medusa has been revived, and once again attempts to eradicate mankind while seeking revenge on Pit and Palutena. It's up to Pit to stop Medusa and her Underworld Army, and restore peace to Angel Land once more. Along the way, Pit must battle classic enemies and bosses from the original games, as well as scores of new ones.

With Palutena's aid, Pit gains the "Power of Flight" to travel the skies and fight the Underworld Army. While fighting one of the Medusa's commanders, Pandora, Pit discovers an item called the Mirror of Truth. Upon looking in the mirror, a doppelganger of himself is created which is known as Dark Pit. Despite being created by the Underworld Army, Dark Pit shows no allegience to Pandora or Medusa and operates on his own free will. After reacquiring the Three Sacred Treasures from intergalactic pirates, Pit challenges and defeats Medusa, only to find that her threat was merely a ruse orchestrated by the true Lord of the Underworld, Hades.

Hades tricks mankind into believing the existence of a red herring called the Wish Seed, an artifact that can grant any wish. This draws the nations of the human race into an all out war. The conflict draws Viridi, the Goddess of Nature, into the fray. She attacks the humans with large devastating devices called "Reset Bombs" and all but wipes out the Human armies. Palutena and Pit begin a conflict with Viridi and the Forces of Nature, again orchestrated by Hades. They take out Viridi's generals and installations, freeing the Chaos Kin from the Lunar Sanctum, a galactic prison disguised as a moon.

Because of the massive-scale war between the Forces of Nature and the Underworld Army as well as Pit's meddling, a mysterious alien race called the Aurum take notice and attack the earth, ransacking it for resources. All three factions join forces against these "space invaders" and are joined by the Sun God Pyrrhon. They succeed in taking out the forward assault force, and the fleet's "hive", where Aurum ships are produced. During their attack on the Aurum Brain, the hive mind controlling the Aurum, Pyrrhon fuses with the Aurum Brain and takes control of their forces, launching an attack on Pit and the others.

They succeed in taking out the Aurum Brain, and using the last of his energy, Pyrrhon sends the brain to the other end of the Galaxy.

This plotline is followed by an three year gap, where the aforementioned Chaos Kin has taken control of Palutena and has been using her forces to attack humanity. The Forces of Nature and the Underworld Army have continued their warring during this time, and Pit has spent the last three years unconscious as a ring. Through a series of events, the ring ends up in the hands of Magnus, a human mercenary who helped Pit defeat one of Medusas commanders. Through Magnus, Pit learns what happened and rushes to the physical body of Pit. He defeats Pit and puts the ring onto his finger breaking the curse and uniting the body and soul once again. Pit goes to face Palutena with the unexpected help of Viridi, but is too weak to get through the forcefield around her temple. Viridi sends him to the Hall of the Lightning Chariot, where Pit faces the Chariot Master and acquires the Chariot. Pulled by Unicorns, it uses its speed and power to break the forcefield, where Pit faces Palutena and breaks the hold the Chaos Kin has over her. At the culmination of the battle, the Chaos Kin takes Paletuna's soul and escapes into the Chaos Vortex. Pit and Dark Pit give chase, and track down the Chaos Kin, finishing it off and restoring Palutena. With its final bit of strength, the Chaos Kin clutches Dark Pit and dives into the nothingness. Pit dives after him, and reactivates the power of flight. He saves Dark Pit, but sacrifices himself in the process. He is left without wings in a near dead coma state.

Dark Pit then travels to the Underworld and seeks out the Rewind Spring, a spring of divine water that allows the user to turn back the effects of time. Once at the Rewind Spring, Pandora (who had been residually within Dark Pit) slips into the Rewind Spring and returns to her humanoid Amazon form. Dark Pit battles, defeats her, and restores Pit to life.

Pit, fully restored, makes a desperate attack against Hades, equipped with the Three Sacred Treasures. Hades is far too powerful for the Treasures and destroys them with a single blow. He then tries to destroy Pit by consuming him. Pit however makes his way through Hades' body until he finds his heart. He attacks the heart, causing it to explode and is saved by Dark Pit with the Lightning Chariot.

With the Three Sacred Treasures destroyed, Pit seeks out Dyntos: God of the Forge, who makes all of the weapons Pit uses in the game. Dyntos puts Pit through three trials to test his worth. His final trial is against the ultimate weapon Pit hopes to use, the Great Sacred Treasure which is a transforming suit of flying armor. Surviving the Trials, Pit is granted the treasure, and resumes his assault on Hades.

Their fight rages on through the Underworld, generally matching each other blow for blow. Hades makes for the Overworld, and catches Pit off guard, crushing the Great Sacred Treasure. As Hades prepares to finish Pit with a powerful attack, Medusa rushes in and attacks him distracting him from the final attack. Revealing his true form, Hades easily destroys Medusa and resumes his attack on Pit. But by this time, Pit has taken up the weapon salvaged from the Great Sacred Treasure and is guided in his flight path by Viridi whilst Palutena uses her energy to charge the weapon. Just as Hades is about to finish him, Pit unleashes the full power of the Sacred Treasure, vaporizing Hades where he stands in the massive blast.

The world is saved, and the people of Earth rejoice. As the credits roll, Pit is asked by Viridi on why he cares about the humans. Pit is then joined in his flight by Dark Pit as Viridi states that Pit and Palutena can have their happy ending. If the player waits 5 minutes after the credits finish rolling, Hades Soul states that he is alive, however without a body, he then states that he has 25 years or so to revive himself before the next sequel.

Enemies
There are many different types of enemies, some made their first appearance in the original NES game and have been updated, while others are brand new.

Returning Enemies

 * Commyloose
 * Daphne
 * Eggplant Wizard
 * Ganewmede
 * Hewdraw
 * Keron
 * Komayto
 * Mik
 * Monoeye
 * Monolith
 * Nettler
 * Octos
 * Pandora
 * Reaper
 * Shemum
 * Specknose
 * Syren
 * Thanatos
 * Twinbellows

New Enemies

 * Handora
 * Merenguy
 * Orne
 * Shelbo
 * Shildeen
 * Souflee
 * Tempura Wizard
 * Tortolunk
 * Treasurefish

Gameplay
Gameplay is similar to previous titles in the Kid Icarus series in that players take control of Pit, and fight their way through level after level of enemies. However, unlike it's 2D predecessors, Uprising takes the franchise to new dimensions by introducing full 3D environments in which Pit can run and fly through. The game can be controlled either with the default controller and stylus or the Circle Pad Pro peripheral. The game is bundled with a stand allowing the player to place the 3DS on a table or flat surface for easier control. Most of the game's various chapters are split up into sections in which Pit flys through the air, and runs along the ground. Flying sections are on-rail shooting segments, in which players must shoot flying enemies while dodging attacks. These sections are limited to 5 minutes, after which time Pit's wings burn up, and he falls/crashes; This seems to be a reference to fact that the series is named 'Kid Icarus '(outside of Japan). Once on the ground, players have more control over Pit as he traverses through the level. Pit can either shoot enemies from a distance or attack them up close with melee attacks, while also performing various moves to dodge enemy attacks. As the game progresses, Pit earns several types of weapons such as bows, claws, blades and more, each with their own advantages and disadvantages.

Multiplayer
Along with the single player story mode, the game also features multiplayer for up to six players locally or via Wi-Fi. Players can compete in Team Deathmatches or Free-For-Alls using standard fighter characters. In the Team Deathmatch mode, named Light vs. Dark, each team has a health meter that depletes when a player is defeated. The value of the player's weapon determines how far the meter depletes, and the player whose death depletes the meter completely will become their team's angel, a more powerful character who represents the team. The match ends when the other team's angel is defeated.

Weapons
Kid Icarus: Uprising features nine different classes of weapons. Each class has many different variations effectively making hundreds of weapons to collect. Each weapon has it's own statistics for melee and range power, as well as other bonuses. Weapons can be found in Treasure Boxes throughout the story mode, or can be unlocked by completing certain tasks found in the Challenges. Additionally, two different weapons can be fused together to create an all new, often more powerful, item. Weapons found or unlocked in the story mode can be used in Multiplayer and vice versa. The types of weapons are:


 * Arm - Bulky, giant, fisting like devices that Pit wears on his arms. Best used at short range.
 * Bow - Weapons that shoot homing arrows. They are split into two blades for melee attacks.
 * Blade - Balanced weapons that are good at any range.
 * Cannon - A large gun that Pit wears on his arm. These weapons slow the user down and are best used at a long range.
 * Claws - Claws worn on both hands. They have a fast shot rate, but are best used at short range.
 * Club - Massive weapons that can deflect enemy projectiles, or fire giant projectiles of thier own. They slow down the user and only have a two-hit combo when used as melee weapons.
 * Orbitars - Two floating orbs that fire two energy shots at multiple foes, or one shot at a single foe.
 * Palm - A glowing aura around Pit's hand that shoots energy blasts. They can also be used to slash enemies.
 * Staff - Spear-like staves that curve at the end. They are like sniper rifles and their shots gain power over distance.

StreetPass & SpotPass
This game utilizes the 3DS's StreetPass and SpotPass features by allowing players to download and trade Weapon Gems. Gems contain information about a specific weapon that players can then create using hearts.

Vehicles
In many chapters Pit will come across vehicles while on land. They can only be used in certain areas of a level, and can be destroyed if they take too much damage. There are a few different types of vehicles, such as the robotic armor known as the Cherubot, the sphere-shaped Aether Ring and the motorcycle-like Exo Tank.

Fiend's Cauldron
Players collect hearts by defeating enemies, which they can then use to bet in what is known as the Fiend's Cauldron to increase the 'intensity' or difficulty of a chapter. The intensity of each chapter ranges from 0.0 (Effortless) to 9.0 (Nothing Harder!) with 2.0 considered Standard. Players can increase or decrease the intensity by 0.1 increments, effectively making a total of ninety difficulty levels. If the player successfully clears a chapter, they can earn rewards, such as new weapons and skills, depending on the intensity settings, with higher intensity earning more powerful equipment. Dying in the chapter will cause some of the hearts to be lost from the cauldron, and the intensity level will subtracted by one whole. In many chapters there are doors known as 'Intensity Gates' which are only available to unlock if you are playing at a certain intensity.

AR Cards
The game utilizes the 3DS's augmented reality feature by allowing the player to collect over 400 AR Cards of characters, enemies and weapons. Each copy of the game comes bundled with six randomly chosen cards out of a possible twenty. Other cards are available through special offers such as Club Nintendo or packaged with other products such as magazines like Game Informer and Nintendo Power. When the 3DS's cameras are pointed at a card, a character model springs to life on the screen. Up to three cards can be displayed on the screen at any one time. Players can then take pictures of the characters. If two cards are pointed at one another, the characters will battle.

Idols
Idols are 3D models of characters, enemies, weapons and items that can be collected and viewed by the player, similar to Trophies in Super Smash Bros. Each Idol has a description with information about the subject. Idols can be obtained through either scanning AR Cards or by playing "Idol Toss", a feature that allows players to purchase Eggs with 3DS Play Coins. The Eggs can then be offered up and transformed into Idols. The more Eggs offered, the more likely a player is to obtain a new Idol rather than one they may already have.

Development
During an Iwata Asks interview with game designer Masahiro Sakurai, Satoru Iwata claimed that after the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, in which Pit was featured as a playable character, demand from fans for a new Kid Icarus game began to increase. When Sakurai was beginning to think about the next game he wanted to make, Iwata did not want him to jump into another Smash Bros. title right away. Instead he wanted him to try something different. Sakurai says "After I’ve thought about those requests and other various factors, I thought we would make a shooting game with air battles and land battles. At the same time, I wondered if we couldn't revive a stalled series from the Nintendo lineup. I thought of which titles would be effective, and the central protagonist, Pit, is an angel who can't fly, so I thought it might be interesting if he could fly via a kind of magical power and headed down toward earth." With the 3DS in the works Sakurai was very excited to make a title for the system that would appeal to everyone yet be a "solid game for gamers."

Trivia

 * The E3 2010 trailer for the game has Pit say "Sorry to keep you waiting". This refers to the fact that this was the first Kid Icarus game since 1991's Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters for the Game Boy.
 * The box art was changed for its English release so that it features Pit with an angry expression, while the Japanese version has him smiling. This type of change has similarly been made for various games in the Kirby series, which was also created by Masahiro Sakurai.
 * Players in North America who pre-ordered the game at GameStop recieved the eShop download 3D Classics: Kid Icarus  for free.
 * Interestingly, the 3DS home screen jingle for Kid Icarus: Uprising is the same as 3D Classics: Kid Icarus.
 * Characters in-game often "break the fourth wall" by acknowledging that they are, in fact, in a video game.
 * This game makes references to other Nintendo franchises such as Nintendogs and Metroid.