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Kid Icarus
North American boxart
Developer(s)	Nintendo R&D1, TOSE [1]
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Designer(s)	Gunpei Yokoi (producer) Satoru Okada (director)
Composer(s)	Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka
Series	Kid Icarus
Engine	Metroid
Platform(s)	FDS, NES, GBA, Virtual Console
Release date(s)	NES JPN December 18, 1986 NA July 1987 EU 1987 Virtual Console NA February 12, 2007 EU, AU February 23, 2007
Genre(s)	Platform game
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: E (Everyone) (Wii)[1] OFLC: G (Wii)
Media	FDS disk card 1 Mbit cartridge

For the title character, see Pit. For the series as a whole, see Kid Icarus (series). For the band, see Kid Icarus (band).

Kid Icarus​ (光神話 パルテナの鏡, Hikari Shinwa: Parutena no Kagami,^? "Light Myth: Palthena's Mirror")^[2] is a platforming video game developed by Nintendo R&D1 and published by Nintendo for the Family Computer Disk System in 1986 and the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987. It is the first game in the Kid Icarus series, the second being Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters. The game world is loosely based on Greek mythology, with Icarus and Medusa being drawn from myth.

Kid Icarus has been re-released twice: on August 10, 2004, for the Game Boy Advance as part of the Famicom Mini Series in Japan only, and on February 12, 2007, on the Wii's Virtual Console in North America. It was released on the European and Australian Virtual Consoles on February 23, 2007.

[edit] Gameplay

The player, with rotating shield, faces a group of enemies in the Sky World.

Kid Icarus uses the same game engine as Metroid (which was released the same year). It even includes a Metroid enemy, though it is called "Komayto" in Kid Icarus. The game manual theorizes that Komayto may have come from another planet.^[3] In volume 204 of Nintendo Power, an article was written about the game describing it as blending together elements from The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros., and Metroid, stating that Pit can "jump like Mario, collect items like Link, and shoot enemies like Samus."

[edit] Plot

In a time where humans and gods coexisted in harmony, the kingdom of Angel Land was ruled by two goddesses, Palutena the Goddess of Light and Medusa the Goddess of Darkness. While Palutena administered the light and helped the mortals cultivate their crops, Medusa despised the mortals and used the darkness to destroy their crops and turn the mortals into stone. Enraged, Palutena transformed Medusa into a hideous monster and banished her into the dark Underworld.

[edit] Development

The original Disk System versions feature save slots, unlike the North American version which uses a password system (known in-game as "Sacred Words"). As with Metroid, the FDS version of Kid Icarus also features higher quality music and sound effects that take advantage of the system's additional sound channels. See below.

Kid Icarus was produced by Gunpei Yokoi and the music was composed by Hirokazu Tanaka.^[4]

[edit] Reception

Despite being overshadowed by Metroid, Kid Icarus is regularly recognized as a high quality game. It was awarded the 84^th slot in IGN's 2003 list of the Top 100 Games of All Time^[5] and was also inducted into the GameSpy Hall of Fame.^[6] In Volume 199 of Nintendo Power, it was voted number 54 in a list of the top 200 Nintendo games of all time.^[7] The protagonist of the game, Pit, was included in Super Smash Bros. Brawl on the Wii. The game was also mentioned in the 2008 Jason Mraz song entitled The Dynamo of Volition. The game was also ranked 189th on Game Informer's Top 200 Games of All Time.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Kid Icarus guide at StrategyWiki
• Kid Icarus at MobyGames
• Kid Icarus at NinDB
• Hikari Shinwa Palutena no Kagami (Famicom Disk) at Video Game Den