Kid Icarus: Uprising

[Nz17]

I think I've found my favorite Nintendo 3DS title in Kid Icarus: Uprising. It's fun, it's funny, it's gorgeous, and it's controls are quite customizable. The only thing which would have made it better was support for dual-analogs using the Circle Pad Pro. But this is seriously the best looking 3DS game I've played. Watch YouTube videos of it to see for yourself if you haven't seen it already. You can really tell it was originally going to be a Wii game, that's how good it looks... and for a portable title on a small screen, that is just beautiful.

The humor is very grand. When Pit asks why it is called "Kid Icarus" and when can he meet this Icarus guy, he gets miffed when his questions get ignored. Characters remembering each other see the 8-bit NES sprites in their memories. The forth wall is broken with frequency, like referencing the dash move in the Super Smash Bros. series. And Pit has an inferiority complex about his inability to fly which gets referred on occasion. Plus the three-headed dragon arguing with itselves in British accents is too funny.

The ground-based parts are mainly linear and the flying parts are like an on-rail shooter... and the execution is amazing. Even moreso, you can adjust the difficulty on a scale of 0-100, making the rewards greater to match the challenge. There are hundreds of rewards with thousands of variants to collect. The higher difficulties also open new branches on the levels so you can only explore those other paths on the harder challenges. And besides for using the touch screen to aim (which can be changed to the analog pad, d-pad, or the face buttons), there aren't really any 3DS-specific gimmicks that the game uses. Yes, there are stereoscopic visuals, but those are entirely optional.

I say if you have a 3DS, then pick this game up as soon as possible. Kid Icarus: Uprising is better than all the other 3DS games I've played since buying it back when it launched, and I don't see that opinion changing any time soon unless Castlevania: Lords of Shadow: Mirror of Fate is exceptionally amazing.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

It's a GREAT game, I absolutely love the full voice over treatment, it ads epic levels of charm. I need to finish that game some day.

I only wish the AR card fights wouldn't always produce the same exact results every time.

[mailman187666]

the AR cards are definitely a fun little diversion if you and a friend have a deck to use. Last year at PAX East 2012 we got a bunch of cards at the Nintendo booth and after we left the parties, we had fun playing war with those. Its all random but fun nonetheless.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

the AR cards are definitely a fun little diversion if you and a friend have a deck to use. Last year at PAX East 2012 we got a bunch of cards at the Nintendo booth and after we left the parties, we had fun playing war with those. Its all random but fun nonetheless.

Actually they're not random, two cards matched up will always always produce the same result, there's no randomness at all, which stinks IMO as it could have made for a fun game if there was some chance involved like that Playstation Eye Camera ar card fighting game.


I do like the cards though, it's neat to watch them fight.

[joshnickerson]

Love this game. One of the best and funniest localizations this side of the Mario RPGs. The ground based sections are a bit rough in my humble opinion, but it's easy to overlook when everything else is so amazing.

[substantial_snake]

I just started playing this one last night and although the game is fun and the humorous dialog (only played the first mission so far) is pretty good the control scheme is really tiring really quickly.

I'm playing on an XL though so I don't know whether that makes it any better or any worse.

[Tanooki]

Agreed, great game but also why I put it up too after getting to the faux credits 1/2 into the game...my hand just hurts playing it because of the limited control option it has. Shame with circlepad they halfassed it as lefty only and not dual stick.