With Kid Icarus: Uprising being played all around the world now, I thought I’d go back and play the second game in the series, the one prior to the latest release. It has been many years since Nintendo left Kid Icarus alone as this game was released in 1992 on the original Game Boy. As soon as you start playing this game, you’ll notice that the game’s difficulty is much easier compared to the original NES title.
The graphics and gameplay somewhat resemble Super Mario Land 2, with the character being able to jump incredibly high, with the other button shooting out magical powers, what could go wrong with this? Well it’s not that hard to notice. There’s no set direction. You could aim anywhere that you would like to go, by jumping onto the next platform however there are many doors for you to explore, some with handy advice and others being shops. The best ones are the doors that lead you to a room full of creates with ‘?’ written on them as these give you hearts and weapons.
The gameplay itself is straightforward; jump and shoot. However it does not feel as polished as some of the other Nintendo games, which brings this back behind the front line. With popular titles out at the same time such as Mario and Zelda, it does not surprise me that this game did not achieve what it set out to do. Instead we now have the new and much improved Kid Icarus (3DS) game, which makes this game look very old and dated in comparison!
Moving back to the graphics, they look more child friendly and slightly more bulky, to give that realistic feel. As it was on the Game Boy however, it does bring the more nostalgic feel to it and you cannot help but think that the game lacks the beauty of games of the modern age.
This is a good game; it just does not achieve what it had set out to do. Kid Icarus has only just sprung to life with the latest instalment on the Nintendo 3DS, it is clear to see why Nintendo had left the angel alone for some time.