Video games - Kid Icarus

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	Video games - Kid Icarus

Kid Icarus (derived from the Greek myth of Icarus) is a console game for the Famicom Disk System in Japan, where it is known as Hikari shinwa: Parthena no kagami (光神話パルテナの鏡 Hikari shinwa parutena no kagami), or Myth of Light: Parthena's Mirror. In other markets, it was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The Famicom Disk System version featured save slots, while the NES port featured a password system. Kid Icarus was designed by Gunpei Yokoi, famous for creating the Game Boy and Metroid
, among other things.

Plot

In a time where man and gods existed, Angel Land is ruled by two goddesses: Palutena the Goddess of Light and Medusa the Goddess of Darkness. As Palutena administered the light and helped the mortals grow their crops, Medusa hated the mortals and used the darkness to dry up their crops and turn mortals to stone. Palutena didn't like it and transformed her into a monster and banished her into the deep, dark underworld. Medusa assembled an army of monsters and evil spirits of the underworld to conquer the Palace in the Sky (where Palutnea lived). Her army overwhelmed Palutena's army and Medusa imprisoned Palutena. It gets worse when Medusa scatters the Three Sacred Treasures (The Mirror Shield, The Arrow of Light, and the Wings of Pegasus) across Angel Land.

The main character in Kid Icarus was a small boy with wings named Pit, on a quest to find the Three Sacred Treasures, rescue Palutena the goddess of light, and free Angel Land from the grasp of Medusa the Goddess of Darkness.

Other notable characters in this game are Pluton the Robbing Ogre, Eggplant Wizard, Uranos, and Erinus.

Levels

Underworld
Overworld
Sky World
Palace in the Sky

History

The game was based on the Metroid engine and contained both side and vertical scrolling action sequences. The music was composed by Hirokazu 'Hip' Tanaka. In fact, they were released on the same day with the same "Password Pak" selling point. However, Metroid caught on better than Kid Icarus. Metroid went on to be one of the major Nintendo series while Kid Icarus was left aside.

Sequels

The game did spawn a Game Boy sequel entitled Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters, but apart from long-forgotten rumors of a Super Famicom/Super NES follow-up that never came to be, no words of a new game in the series have been mentioned. In 2003 it was rumored that the cancelled Capcom game Dead Phoenix for the GameCube would be resurrected as a Kid Icarus sequel. In 2004 Kid Icarus was re-released for the Game Boy Advance in Japan as part of the Famicom Minis Series (Classic NES Series). In 2005, in an exclusive interview with IGNcube, legendary gaming creator Shigeru Miyamoto hinted that a Kid Icarus sequel may be released for the Nintendo Revolution, nearly 20 years after the original Kid Icarus was released on the NES. A few weeks later, a Kid Icarus game appeared on IGN's Revolution games TBA list. He is also one of the widely debated characters that may be included in Super Smash Bros. Revolution.

Captain N: The Game Master

Pit is one of the stars in the cartoon Captain N: The Game Master. He is a member of the N-Team, a group of mostly video game characters who defend Video Land against the evils of Mother Brain and others. Pit does not go by the name of Pit in the show; he is erroneously named Kid Icarus.

Pit/Kid Icarus carries a wide range of arrows, all of which have unique abilities. He often adds the suffix "-icus" to important words, though this brings no additional meaning. Furthermore, he tends to add "-us maximus" (alluding to the Circus Maximus) when referring to big objects.

One of the villians from Kid Icarus, the Eggplant Wizard, also appears in the series, playing one of the minions of Mother Brain. He sweats vegetables when anxious and speaks in a voice reminiscent of Droopy Dog.

Pit is voiced by Alessandro Juliani in the cartoon. He also makes appearances in the comic book version of the showand is the only character from the N-Team to do so.

Cameos

Pit has also made several in-game cameo-appearances:

Tetris
(NES) - 1989 - Pit is playing harp when you complete Game B on Speed 9, Height 5.
F-1 Race (Game Boy) - 1990 - Before Course 8, Pit appears to cheer you on. He also appears during the ending sequence.
Kirby Super Star
(SNES) - 1996 - In the Great Cave Offensive game, you can collect the Pegasus Wing, one of the three Legendary Treasures from Kid Icarus (bottom row, fifth column on the treasure screen).
Super Smash Bros. Melee
(GameCube) - 2001 - There is a Pit trophy.
WarioWare: Twisted!
(Game Boy Advance) - 2005 - There is a microgame which is a homage to Kid Icarus and there is a remixed version of the main theme for Kid Icarus as an unlockable. It even states "This is the closest you'll ever come to getting a sequel".

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Kid Icarus ]

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