Kid Icarus (1987) [NES]

Never regret thy fall
O Icarus of the fearless flight
For the greatest tragedy of them all
Is never to feel the burning light

-Oscar Wilde

The story of Icarus in Greek Mythology is a classic tale. It is the birthplace of the classic idiom “Don’t fly too close to the sun”. This idiom has been used by a great many people, in all walks of life to describe the downside of recklessness with one’s life in the pursuit of their goals. In the game Kid Icarus on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), gamers attempting to beat this classic should heed this classic warning.

Kid Icarus is a side-scrolling action-platformer that was originally released in 1986 in Japan for the Famicom Disk System (FDS) as Myth of Light: The Mirror of Palutena. Eventually, this title would also see a release in North America and Europe for the NES. The game was developed by the famous Nintendo R&D1. R&D1 was responsible for many of the NES original “Black Box” games, which include classics like Balloon Fight, Ice Climber, Wrecking Crew, Metroid, and many more. Kid Icarus was largely an effort of Toru Osawa, this being his first foray into game design. He was helped by Satoru Okada (as director), Gunpai Yokai (as producer), and Hirokazu Tanaka (as music composer). Eventually, they would be joined by Metroid designer Yoshio Sakamoto, who is credited with a significant influence on the design of the game and the overall game development process.

The final development of Kid Icarus was a mad rush by its team. They worked so much overtime that much of the time they stayed at the office overnight. There are stories of the cardboard beds with curtains as blankets to stay warm at night due to the development office being unheated after hours. Eventually, they completed the game, though it was only 3 days before its release date. Due to the time crunch, they did have to scrap additional stages and ideas that were planned.

Although the gameplay is largely the same, there are some key differences between the original Japanese FDS and NES version. Most notably, the FDS featured writable disks, so it had a built-in save system with three slots for the player to save progress. In the NES version, they instead opted for a password system to save progress (similar to the password system in Metroid). Other smaller differences exist, including more elaborate music on the FDS, different sound effects, and slightly different ending possibilities on the NES.

The game’s story is set in the fictional world of Angel Land. Angel Land was created using Greek mythology as its inspiration. Angel Land was ruled by two goddesses: Palutena the Goddess of Light and Medusa the Goddess of Darkness. Palutena was a loving goddess who brought the people of Angel Land light and happiness. Medusa, on the other hand, was hateful and caused strife and misery for the people. These actions forced Palutena to banish Medusa to the Underworld and changed her form to that of a monster. Seeking revenge, Medusa enlisted the help of the Underworld minions to overthrow Palutena and control the Palace in the Sky. In the process, she stole three sacred treasures, the Mirror Shield, the Light Arrows, and the Wings of Pegasus. These treasures are what provided Palutena’s soldiers their powers. In a final effort, Palutena bestowed a bow and arrow to the angel Pit who was trapped in an Underworld prison. The game starts as Pit is escaping his prison.

Progression through the game takes place on 3 main stages, the Underworld, the Overworld, and the Skyworld. Each of these stages ends with a maze-like fortress to traverse. In these fortresses, Pit must locate a boss who when defeated will grant access to one of the three sacred treasures stolen from Palutena by Medusa. The Underworld and Skyworld are vertically scrolling levels where Pit must reach the top. The Overworld is a side-scrolling level.

Reapers

The game’s three different stages feature 41 different enemies (includes four level bosses and one final boss Medusa) who seek to stop Pit’s progression. These enemies range from the goofy looking Specknose (who was rumored to be based on the game’s music producer Hirokazu Tanaka), the unforgettable Reaper (whose panic music will unnerve even the best gamer) and the now-iconic Eggplant Wizard. Among the game’s roster of enemies, you can find some loose interpretations of mythological creatures, such as the stage boss Hewdraw, which is a serpent-like creature, reminiscent of a hydra.

Hewdraw

On your journey to find and defeat Medusa, you will encounter numerous types of rooms that can be accessed via doors placed at various points around the stages. The rooms include shops, bonuses, enemy rooms, and even a hospital. The shops sell items to help Pit along his journey, such as health replenishments. The hospital is there to cure Pit when he is turned into an eggplant by the Eggplant Wizards. The bonus rooms can range from extra hearts up to very useful weapon powerups.

Shop

 Visuals: 7/10

Visually, Kid Icarus stands up pretty well. It is simple graphics from very early in the lifespan of Nintendo’s 8-bit console, but that doesn’t equate to something bad. The character and enemy sprites are all fun to look at and it is all very unique and distinguishable. Each stage features a good variety of graphics for the platforming sections, though there is some reuse as you move around. The general use of a black background behind everything was probably born out of time constraints or technical limitations (i.e. short development time), but I find it to be a charming look. It also makes the stages easy to visually digest.

Fortress Stage

Audio: 7/10

The audio from Kid Icarus is a mixed bag. Mostly, the game uses fairly basic sounds for each action, reusing some for various things. Nothing of significant note, but not really much that is off-putting (off-putting sound effects is a common occurrence for this era of games). The music, on the other hand, is something to talk about. All of the music is memorable and earworm-ish. The start screen music is a great dynamic orchestral-sounding introduction to the game’s theme. The first underworld theme you are introduced to is a wonderful adventure song with layers of progression built into it. The use of percussive sounds keeps it moving, which inspires you the player to keep moving to your destination. The spot where this game loses some marks is that the game only features a handful of full-length songs. So, despite them all mostly being well-composed tracks, they can start to get a little old after your 10th attempt through the game or a stage. If you do manage to beat the game, you are given a wonderful ending theme song that really puts a nice end cap on the entire composition by Hirokazu Tanaka.

Gameplay: 8/10

Kid Icarus is a well-made platformer that fans of the genre need to experience. It is relatively straightforward and easy to pick up. The game mixes up levels with vertical and horizontal scrolling, as well as the free roam fortress stages at the end of each level. Control is tight and responsive. There is little in the way of cheap shots from enemies. It is definitely a game where you only have yourself to blame for a mistake made, like falling off an edge or running into enemies. Some points come off for some of the lack of explanation in-game for items, though a glance at the manual will tell you exactly what these all do. There are clear similarities in the control and overall gameplay to games like Metroid. 

Themes: 8/10

Another area where Kid Icarus shines is in its use of Greek mythology as a base for its theme. There are definitely a lot of liberties taken by the design team when they created the world. But, despite those liberties, overall it presents itself in a very cohesive and thoughtful way. From start to end, Pit is moving among statues and marble columns, fighting fantastical creatures and all of it feels like something out of a Greek story. It is a unique world and theme, and the humor injected by Yoshio Sakamoto gives it a special feeling not always found in games from this era.

Challenge: 9/10

Kid Icarus starts out relatively simple. They keep the formula simple and it feels 100% understandable at the beginning. You can move left and right, jump and shoot in 3 directions (left, right, and up). But, after a couple stages, you will quickly realize that it is anything but simple. In the first vertical scrolling stages, you will quickly learn that a wrong move will send you falling back down to your death. The flying enemies move in a recognizable pattern, though there is a random sway added to it which makes it difficult to predict where they are going next. Levels feature no checkpoints, something us modern gamers are spoiled with. Fortunately, Pit does have a health bar, so you don’t have 1 hit deaths – but the health replenishments are few and far between. Boss battles can be hard, they have an extremely high amount of hit points.  Despite the difficulty, though, it is a good challenge. You feel like you are entirely in control of your own success. It always feels like, with practice, this is a game I can beat. 

Replayability: 6/10

The replayability here is directly tied to how much you enjoy “NES Hard” style games. If extremely challenging, but fair, platformers are your jam, Kid Icarus probably will be a game you enjoy returning to time and again. Of course, it being a 30+-year-old retro game means there is no DLC, no online play, but it is simple and straightforward and is worth a revisit from time to time. The game does feature 5 potential different endings, which lends itself to replaying the game. The ending you receive is determined by multiple factors, such as how many hearts collected, arrow strength, maxed health bar, and whether or not you collected all 3 of the enchanted weapons.

Level 4

Uniqueness: 8/10

It has been touched on at various points already, but this game features a very unique theme. Utilizing Greek mythology as a loose basis was a fun way to build an interesting world. It doesn’t suffer from the same fatigue that some other themes can. The way that the game designers and producers also injected their own story, characters, and humor also keeps the game feeling fresh. There really is no other game that feels like Kid Icarus. Once played, it should provide a memorable experience.

Specknose (inspired by music composer Hirokaza Tanaka)

 My Personal Grade: 9/10

Overall, I rate Kid Icarus as a very good game in the NES library. It deserves a spot in every retrogamers library, right there next to the other greats on the system like Castlevania, Metroid, Contra, and Ninja Gaiden. It is quirky and humorous, but beneath that exterior is a solid platformer with excellent controls. The music is great, despite the limited number of tracks. I don’t hold it against the game, this is an early entry for the NES and compared to other games of the time, it is very advanced in the audio department.

The single biggest flaw I will mark the game down for is the difficulty level. It is not cheap or unfair in any way, but traversing the game takes patience. Long levels with no sort of checkpoint system and bosses with high levels of hit points can force players to redo levels numerous times before succeeding. But, that difficulty level doesn’t detract too much from the overall fun of the game. 

Aggregated Score: 7.8

The Source Code Mage is Retrogamingdev, a Geek Dad who is super into video games, most specifically retrogaming. Learning game dev, developing @100HeartsGame! You can also find me on Twitter @retrogamingdev!

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