Kid Icarus: Uprising

More like Kid Icarus: Uprising to My Top 5 Games List!

Look, I know the joke was bad, but throwing things is only going to get your monitor dirty, not mine.

Really, though, Kid Icarus: Uprising is a very, very good game, and I'm surprised I haven't heard a lot about it.  I didn't even get it because I had heard any strong recommendations or anything. I was just looking up a sale Best Buy was having because I heard Paper Mario: Sticker Star was on sale.  I checked the website and noticed that Kid Icarus was only $15, so I picked up both games.

When I booted up the game, my first impression of the game was, "Why am I playing Super Smash Bros Brawl on my 3DS?"

Masahiro Sakurai, director of Super Smash Bros Brawl, was the head of Project Sora, the development team for Uprising.  The menu definitely takes a cue from Super Smash Bros Brawl, but in no way do I mean that in a bad way, because if you copy anything from a Smash Bros game, you're doing it right.

...maybe

So I played the single-player portion of the game first, because if I ever play online multiplayer, I need to have every move and control mastered beforehand, lest I bring shame upon my family.  I was ready for a strange control scheme, because that was what I had read in many of the reviews for the game (and don't get me wrong, flicking the stylus across the touch screen to rotate the camera does feel a bit strange), but everything actually flowed very nicely for an adventure game with only one control stick.

The game has two main modes, a flying mode and a ground mode.  The flying mode actually plays a bit like Starfox 64; the goddess Palutena controls your flight path, since Pit seems to be the only character who is unable to fly on his own in this game, and only for five minutes at a time.  You fly on a preset path through surprisingly diverse environments and fight with a ton of different weapons, each with different abilities as far as close- vs long-range combat.  Visually, it's kind of beautiful, and this is where the gameplay shines the most, but mostly if you're using a long-range weapon.  The close-range ones can reflect incoming fire and do massive melee damage, but have very little ability to hurt any enemies sniping from afar.

On the ground things get more complex.  The gameplay can get muddled here, because there is a lot of exploration to be done in every level.  Pit's base stats are pretty low, so a good amount of your chances for survival depend on the weapon you choose.  Each weapon has unique stats that increase things like your health, speed, and power, and sometimes getting as specific as only aiding certain kinds of attacks or walking speed vs running speed.

What surprised me most about the game was the story, though.  The ads for this game depicted Pit as a generic angelic hero, which is more or less forgivable, but I'll be damned if I wan't bothered by Pit's generic "PREPARE TO MEET THE LIGHT!" line.  You kind of have to remember that this universe had not existed for a couple decades, and those decades happened to be the most crucial ones in forming voice acting and dialogue as we know it today.  With that awful commercial in mind, I was  very surprised to see that when they named one of the first bosses of the game, Hewdraw, they showed a picture of him in 8-bit form from the original Kid Icarus!  Then when the three-headed Hydra shows up, each one of them (with a unique voice and personality) just bickers at one another about who gets to attack Pit first and in what way in goofy voices (one has a British accent!).  I think that's about the moment I had this reaction.

And it just got better and better.  The music is incredible, ranging from your typical Battle-of-the-Gods orchestral fare to the Spanish guitar theme of one of the main characters.  Every level is memorable in its own way, and I don't think I noticed any environments recycled at all.  This is especially noteworthy in regards to the game's length; I was stunned that there was more and more story to play through.  The voice acting is above and beyond what I thought I would encounter, too.  I swear that Thanatos, the god of death, sounded like Choose Goose from Adventure Time.

The online multiplayer is pretty cool, too.  It always takes place on the ground, which is slightly unfortunate, but multiplayer would be difficult with fixed-rail shooter.  There are two main modes: Dark Vs Light and Free-For-All.  You get to use the weapons you unlock in single-player in this mode, but the more powerful they are, the more points the other team or individual gets for beating you.  It's an interesting take on balance; you want to use those weapons you worked so hard for, but you better know how to use them!

Things can get hectic on the small screen, but for the most part it's a nice kind of hectic.

If you're looking for critique on the downsides of this game, you have to understand that this is one of my favorite games.  I wasn't prepared for it in the same way I wasn't prepared for Chrono Trigger.  And I love it in the same way.  Seriously, if you have a 3DS, I will loan it to you. I'm not even kidding.  This is a game that I want everyone to play, because I enjoyed it that much.  The ground portions can be difficult to get used to, and I often took more damage from the environment than the enemies, but I love this game.  It's flawed, but it has so much character that I have no problem looking past them.  Get a 3DS and buy the game, or at least let me loan it to you.  I am honestly very surprised that I don't see this on more "Top Games" lists.

Nintendo's E3 Showing

After a lot of searching of the internets, I have finally located a video of Nintendo's full E3 conference (sadly, minus the trivia that they showed at the beginning like cinema previews).

So can I be the first to say that I never really expected the next iteration of Zelda to look the way she did?

The answer is no, because I'm writing this like an entire day after the press conference, and three hundred people have probably beat me to the punch. But still.  I do like the visual styling, though.  It does look like Toon Link grew up, which is way cool.  Some of the new bad guys look pretty neat, too.  Nintendo is being huge on Zelda's 25th anniversary, and a lot of Zelda games are being re-released on several systems.

The 3DS lineup is also looking good.  Mario Kart will still be Mario Kart, and that can only ever be a complement towards the game.  And because it will still be Mario Kart, insanity has been incorporated into the games with hang gliders and tracks that will go underwater.

Starfox 64 in 3D looks really intriguing, but frankly, they could have re-released it with no 3D and it would still be a portable Starfox 64, which would still be spectacular.  There are two newer features that make me hesitate, though:  It has the option to use the 3DS itself as a motion controller for the game (thankfully an option, just in case that doesn't turn out to work well), and multiplayer features the faces of your friends so you can see what they look like as you dominate them.  The videos make it look like they give away the position of enemy aircraft a little easier, though, but it might not even be a problem.

Super Mario 3D is apparently coming out, too.  It looks like the same art-style as Skyward Sword, but that might just be me,  Watching the trailer, I can see influences from a lot of Mario games.  Also, this is back:

Oh yeah.  That's Tanooki Suit Mario.  In a 3D game. (Both in virtue of 3DS and 3D like Super Mario 64.  I wonder how they'll differentiate those 3Ds when it becomes relevant.)

Luigi's Mansion 2 and Kid Icarus: Uprising were also announced.  Both look pretty cool, and Luigi's Mansion 2 apparently has several mansions to explore.  Nintendo then announced a lot of third-party titles, including Snake Eater 3D and Tekken 3D.  I can't be the only one who sees this and prays for Street Fighter X Tekken to come to the platform.  Nintendo also announced that the Virtual Console will be coming to the 3DS, so if you haven't pirated all of the handheld games you've ever wanted, you can look forward to that.

So then the big news.  Wii U.

Yes, that's the name of the new system.  It consists of a very-similar-to-Wii console:

And a fancypants new controller:

Oh yes.  That's a touchscreen you're looking at, ladies and gentlemen.  Through a process most scientists call magic, the Wii U can transfer a game from the TV to the controller if someone wants to come in and watch TV on their TV.  It has all the goodies from the Wii controller, too, like speakers, motion controls, four shoulder buttons, and everything you see in the picture.  That big black area on top is a camera.  Nintendo has also joined us in the twenty-first century by giving a lot of new features involving transference of pictures and videos from the controller to the TV.  There's a lot of internet functionality in the works for the new system, including video chatting.

The Wii U is also supposed to be backwards-compatible, too, and supports all of the peripherals that could function on the Wii.  So just as the Wii made your Gamecube relatively useless, so too will the Wii U make your Wii useless.

If the video Nintendo showed at E3 about 3rd party developers holds true, it means a lot of people seem to be excited about the new controller.  Then again, people were excited for the Wii-mote, too.

I just have to list games now, because it got real during the 3rd-party developer video:

• Tekken on Wii U.
• Batman: Arkham City (so much happy)
• Assassin's Creed (they didn't specify which, but I think it's Revelations)
• Ghost Recon: Online
• Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge
• Darksiders II
• Dirt
• Battlefield 3

And a few more.  Things are looking bright for Nintendo at this point.

Oh, and I guess one tiiiiiiny detail might interest some of you gamer-types reading this:
A new Super Smash Bros. game has been announced for the 3DS and the Wii U, and they will somehow allegedly interact.   That feeling you just got was joy, ladies and gentlemen.

All of the videos I referenced (including Nintendo's entire E3 presentation which had Shigeru Miyamoto being delightfully weird) and pictures I used can be found at Nintendo's E3 website.