Kid Icarus NES 30th Anniversary Palutena No Kagami Review & History Nintendo Gaming Documentary GTV
When it comes to Nintendo, theres no shortage
of heroes: Mario, Link, Samus Aran, Kirby and Pikachu are just some of the familiar
faces we've grown up with. There are others as well, who while not appearing
in as many games, are still held dearly in the hearts of many fans. In this episode we will take a look at a hero
by the name of Pit, who was the star of his own game in the 8-bit days, only to fade away,
then rise up to be reborn for the modern era. Well take a look at how the original Kid
Icarus game works, why its so difficult, and how you play to win.
Also you'll learn about some of the hidden
secrets hiding in the game that once you see them, you'll never look at it the same way
again. So sit back, grab an eggplant and celebrate,
because Kid Icarus is 30! The origins of Kid icarus begin when a man
named Toru Osawa joined Nintendo as a programmer. He was young, fresh out of school, and would
be the main influence behind Kid Icarus. Within his first year, he was given the green
light to create a game for the Famicom Disk System.
Osawa wanted to create a game with a story
based on Greek Mythology, which was a topic that he always found interesting. He would develop the story of the game on
the mythical hero Perseus, who, using a mirrored shield, beheaded the gorgon, Medusa, who had
the power of turning men into stone with a single gaze. Even after medusa was beheaded, this power
was retained until her head was placed on the shield of Athena, known was The Aegis. The character design of Pit, as well as the
English title of his game, are derived from the myth of Icarus, who with his father, Daedalus,
used wings crafted from feathers and wax, to escape from imprisonment on the island
of Crete.
Icarus, in his youthful hubris flew too close
to the sun, which melted the wax, caused his feathers to fall off and he fell from the
sky to the ocean below. The games stages also bear some resemblance
to the three acts in Dantes Divine Comedy, which was divided in to Hades, Purgatory and
The Paradise. The stages of the Kid Icarus are divided into
Underworld, Overworld and Skyworld. Toru Osawa also wanted a game that was action
based, but still contained some RPG elements.
This is where a mixing of game styles comes
in. While the running and jumping element is taken
from Super Mario Bros., A shooting element was also added that comes from Metroid, with
upgrades for power and distance possible later on in the game. Vertical stages are also borrowed from Metroid. Then comes an element of collecting items,
similar to that in The Legend of Zelda, as well as navigating large maze like stages.
Because of this, its been quoted in Nintendo
Power that Pit, can jump like Mario, collect items like Link, and shoot enemies like Samus. Kid Icarus, known in Japan as Hikari Shina-wa
Parutena no Kagami was planned for release in the Fall of 1986 for the Famicom Disk System. But getting the game done would not be an
easy task. The game was produced alongside Metroid, and
they share similar elements as well.
With most of Nintendos R&D1 staff working
on Metroid, Toru Osawa was put under the the direction of Satoru Okada for Kid Icarus. After the completion of Metroid, the development
staff took a much needed vacation, leaving Osawa to develop Kid Icarus on his own. When Okada returned he found that Osawa had
no help in developing the game, and could not show the work that he had finished to
that point. He immediately assigned the Metroid staff
to help Osawa, and three and a half months of intensive development began..
Moving into fall, the production of the game
went day and night with Osawa even forgoing his honeymoon, and started sleeping at his
desk and getting back to work as soon as he woke up. According to an interview given in the Japanese
magazine Nintendo Dream in 2004, which was later translated the website Metroid Database;
as December drew near, Osawa was still working on the game. He was offered heated kotatsu tables and futons
to keep warm, but Osawa said that he wished he could tell them to prepare more staff for
the game instead. Furthermore, Osawa was given a hard deadline
of December 16th to finish the game.
In a way, thanks to the game being on a disk,
it gave Osawa some extra time, as disks could be written and distributed much more quickly
than cartridges. In the same interview, Osawa recalled that
on December 16th, the management came for the final game and said if this game doesn't
have any bugs in it, its finished! There weren't any bugs and the disks were
quickly written and shipped out meeting the planned release date. On December 19th, 1986, Hikari Shin-wa: Palutena
No Kagami, was released for the Famicom Disk System. In English it means The Myth of Light:
Palutenas Mirror The game sold approximately 550,000 copies on original disks and 520,000
more through Disk Writer in Japan.
The project was finished and Osawa could finally
take a well earned break. The game was then translated to English, and
brought overseas as Kid Icarus. The game was released first in European markets
in February 1987. It was held over in America until July, 1987
to be released just before The Legend of Zelda and alongside Metroid, games which Kid Icarus
takes strong influences from.
Though there weren't many gaming publications
at the time, word of mouth spread, and the game earned a reputation for being very difficult
and a little weird, while maintaining a charm that could be admired. Though Kid Icarus was not as popular as The
Legend of Zelda or Metroid, it later grew to become a favorite in many collections. A proper sequel was announced for GameBoy
in 1991, The game was released only in North America and Europe, and would be, for a long
time, Pits final fall It seemed that that Pit would be lost as a
footnote in 8-bit history. But, Kid Icarus would be re-released in 2004
on the Gameboy Advance in Japan as a Famicom Mini title and on the Wii Virtual Console
in 2007.
He would finally become a playable character
again in 2008, appearing in Super Smash Brothers Brawl. Now there had been a renewed interest in Pit
and his game and It allowed Nintendo to develop and release the first new game in the Kid
Icarus series in 21 years, Kid Icarus Uprising, There was also a rerelease of the original
game for the 3DS with updated, detailed 3D. Scrolling backgrounds and a save function. This was followed up by Pit, Palutena and
Dark Pit joining the cast of fighters in Super Smash Bros.
For 3DS and Wii U in 2014. Kid Icarus was included on the NES Classic
Edition in 2016 as well. There's no telling what Pit will be up to
next, but you can certainly see that much like the original Icarus, Pits, heroics will
be told for all time. Is Kid Icarus hard to play?! It Doesnt Have to be! When we come back, we take a look at learning
the tricks that balance out the gameplay of the original Kid Icarus.
The original Kid Icarus has grown a reputation
since the 8 bit days . Loved by some and hated by others, it's a tough game with many challenges
If youve ever played the game with without any instructions, it can be a rough experience. Not that the instructions helped too much
anyway. The games difficulty is brutally tough
in the first 3 stages, where the screen moves up vertically.
If you fall off the screen, youre finished. You do get, essentially, infinite lives, but
you have to complete each stage to the end on one go, and if you cant make it, you go
right back to the start and lose everything you've earned. This can make the first time you play very
frustrating. Especially if you've played Super Mario Bros.
Which lets you start halfway though a stage, or The Legend of Zelda, which lets you keep
the things you've found and save the game after each attempt.
Also some items dont work until you can
fully recharge your health and others have no effect until later in the game, which if
you don't know that, is confusing. It seems, in a way, a little backwards from
other games because as you progress in the game, things get easier and the game moves
faster, if you know what to do. So lets take an in depth look at how Kid Icarus
actually works. The play mechanics are close to that of the
Legend of Zelda and Metroid.
Pit traverses the games stages and shoots
enemies to defeat them. The enemies leave hearts which are used as
the game's currency, which can be used to buy items and upgrades later in the game. You can also discover and earn items and upgrades
by playing through the game in depth. When navigating the scrolling stages, enemies
will appear in waves of four, and will always gravitate towards Pit.
If you are trying to run through a stage like
its Super Mario Bros. The enemies will move in what appears to be erratic patterns and
make navigating the stages much more difficult. This pattern is easiest to detect right at
the beginning as the first snakes appear in groups of 4 and move left or right depending
on where you stand. Moving further up the stage there are flying
enemies, also appearing in groups of four .
The easiest way to defeat these is just
to stand still and shoot them as they come down the screen, then slowly moving up. There are that will jump up from the bottom
of the screen Its best to shoot these as they land. Beyond that there are enemies that appear
under your feet, so look out! Then there are the areas that are single screen,
such as the endurance rooms and the maze stages. These enemies appear in groups of (8) and
appear to move in a random pattern, but each one moves in its own loop, if you stop to
take a look at how they fly, you can see the pattern.
Other enemies in the single screen maze stages
follow the same rules as they do in the scrolling stages When you start the game, you only have one
life bar, which allows you to get hit 7 times before you have to start all over again. You can increase that when you reach a number
of points on your total score. At 20,000, 50,000, 100,000 and 200,000 points
you can add one more block to your health meter. Each new block gives you 8 hits more and a
total of 39 hits for a full health meter before a game over.
These only get added at the end of the stage,
and you have to fill it by buying potions or visiting a hot spring on your own. It doesnt refill after each stage!! Building up a strong defense is for Pit is
pretty straightforward and while those scores aren't easy to get, its clear what you need
to do. To make Pit's arrows stronger, and the enemies
easier to defeat, is a very different process. In the instruction booklet, it says, How
many of the enemy have you killed? How many chambers have you entered? Have you got a lot of items? And how little damage has the enemy inflicted
on you?.
What it doesn't tell you is that there is
a fully functioning scoring system at work in the game, running behind the scenes. This scoring system will determine if you
can upgrade your weapons in certain stages. The only stages where you can upgrade are
1-2, 2-1, 2-2 and 3-1. You can get upgrades by entering the Sacred
Chambers in these stages.
Sometimes a friendly god appears and sometimes
not. You get one chance in each of the stages and
that's it! If you pass any of these stages without the
weapon upgrade, it's gone forever. So how does that work? You need to enter a Sacred Chamber with a
score of 10,000 points. The hidden score gives you points for defeating
enemies and collecting hearts, but it also takes away points for firing arrows and taking
damage from enemies.
You gain 100 points for each enemy that leaves
a small heart, 300 for an enemy that leaves a half heart and 500 for each enemy that leaves
a big heart. On top of that you get that same amount of
points for each of the hearts you collect, so long as you don't reach 999, then it doesn't
count. You also get 100 points for each mallet you
collect and each item you buy, except the chalices of the water of life, and each weapon
that you buy gives you 1000 points. So getting 10,000 points and upgrading should
be easy right? Well not so fast, because you LOSE 10 points
for each arrow you fire, you lose 300 points for each hit taken from an enemy, and you
lose 500 points for breaking a pitcher in a treasure chamber.
It's actually a better strategy to avoid the
Treasure Chambers as you lose 1,480 points at best, if you clear it. And some items, like angels wings and barrels
can be bought elsewhere. The rooms full of Specknoses should also be
avoided, as these give you no points on your hidden score. Remember! The only stages where you can upgrade are
1-2, 2-1, 2-2 and 3-1.
So in other stages, it doesn't really matter,
even though the score is still being counted. For example, starting out doing THIS. Would be BAD! But if you move carefully, you could end up
with 190 points for each enemy, maximum and so the first enemy wave can get you a little
over 3000 points. That's almost 1/3 of the way there.
Of course if you fail the stage and have to
start over, the hidden score goes back to what it was at the start. Also you can't have a negative score, so at
least there's that. As long as you have 9700 points by the time
you make it to the Sacred chamber in each of these stages, you'll get 300 points for
entering, make it to 10,000 and get the arrow upgrade. Pit's hair will change color and the enemies
will weaken.
Then there are training rooms which give you
a weapon boost as well. This can help your hidden score as you can
gain points faster and lose points less often. The best one to take, for leveling up quickly
is the crystal. Once your health meter re-charges, any enemy
who touches your spinning force field will be defeated, and you won't lose points on
your hidden score, because you won't be using arrows.
The next best weapon is the Flaming arrow
as it gives you a better chance to hit an enemy at close range. The last upgrade is the sacred bow, which
lets you shoot to the edge of the screen. I recommend this last because, if your trying
to preserve points, you shouldn't be shooting arrows unless it's absolutely necessary, and
the closer the range, the better. You can buy these in some shops as well, if
you cant endure the harsh training.
All of these elements in the game affect the
ending too, which rewards you based on how strong Pit has become by the end of the game. In order to get the best ending, you have
to have maximum arrow strength and endurance, as well as maximum hearts and all three weapons
earned from the training chambers. If you maximize some of these, but not all,
the endings will be different, and with none maximized, you'll get the worst ending. Also, The best ending in the English version
does not exist in the Japanese version.
Also in the Japanese version, you can't die
at all to get the best ending. And it also has a worst ending not in the
English version. Eggplants and hot springs aren't even in Greek
Mythology, so why are they in the game? When we come back, more secrets in Kid Icarus
revealed! . On the surface, Its easy to see that Kid Icarus
takes a strong influence from Ancient Greek mythology, but there are several elements
that come from Japanese culture that you might not be aware of.
In certain stages you'll come across a hot
spring, which will fill your health meter if you sit in it. It's colored yellow, to give the player a
subtle hint that it's a safe place. But its a pretty obvious hint if your familiar
with Japanese hot springs. In Japanese they are called onsen, and occur
naturally all over Japan, due to the water trapped underground being heated by volcanic
activity.
Many springs are high in sulfuric content,
which turns the water yellow. The natural mineral composition, can help
people recover from a number of conditions, including rheumatism, hypertension and skin
diseases. The relaxing nature of sitting in a hot spring
is also beneficial for mental health. If you grew you with this common knowledge,
it's easy to know what to do when you see it.
If you enter a treasure room, one of the pitchers
contains the god of poverty, who will send you out of the room, and you won't gain any
hearts found in the room. It's clever in a game filled with mythical
creatures to have a deity who punishes you. However, for the god of poverty, its no myth! The god of poverty is real! In Japanese he is called Bimbogami ()
and usually appears as a small, skinny old man carrying a folding fan. There's also an actual shrine dedicated to
him in Nagano Japan, where people can pray for him to not visit their homes and instead
bring in Fukugami, the god of good fortune.
After defeating one of the three stages bosses,
Pit receives a treasure chest, with what are called the three sacred treasures, the Arrow
of Light, The Mirror Shield and the Wings of Pegasus. In Japan the three sacred treasures, called
Sanshu no Jingi, () are the Imperial Regalia of the Emperor of Japan and
the royal family. The three sacred treasures in Japan are a
sword called Kusanagi, which represents valor. A mirror called Yata no kagami, which represents
wisdom.
And a jewel called yasakani no magatama, which
represents benevolence. They are believed to have been brought to
earth by Ninigi no Motoko, the Grandson of the goddess Amaterasu and were passed on to
his great grandson, Jimmu, the first emperor of Japan. The three sacred treasures of Japan are used
in the enthronement ceremony of each emperor and were last used in 1990, but are not available
for public viewing, nor are they allowed to be photographed. The ones you are looking at here are what
they are believed to look like from first hand accounts.
There's also a version of the three treasures
in modern life: a television, a refrigerator and a washing machine. In the 1950s and 60s many Japanese women said
that they could only marry a husband who could provide them with the modern three sacred
treasures! Then there is the Eggplant wizard, definitely
the weirdest part of the game as they can curse you and change you into an eggplant. But why such a weird enemy and effect? Part of the answer comes from Toru Osawa himself. In his 2004 interview, Osawa stated that while
working on Kid Icarus, he wanted to create a character that cursed Pit and turned him
into an eggplant.
As he was thinking about his summer bonus
while making Kid Icarus, and eggplant being a common Japanese summertime food. He recalled that nobody in the development
staff thought that was strange. While you may or may not find it strange,
theres something a little funny to remove the curse, if you understand Japanese. The word for eggplant in Japanese is NASU.
The transliteration of the word Nurse in Japanese
is NAASU, the word heal in Japanese is NAOSU, which has 2 of the same characters from eggplant
and nurse. Its a bit of wordplay humor that English
players have missed all this time. It's great to see that Toru Osawa was able
to keep a sense of humor while dealing with the difficult task of creating Kid Icarus. He was able to get a few more gags in as the
enemy known as Komayto is similar to a Metroid and in the instruction booklet says it
came from a planet other than Earth and Specknose is a loving homage to the game's
soundtrack composer, Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka.
30 Years! The legend still lives on. It's truly was a wonderful thing to see the
work of Toru Osawa, Pit and Kid Icarus, enshrined in the pantheon of Nintendo History where
they belong, and so rightly deserved..
of heroes: Mario, Link, Samus Aran, Kirby and Pikachu are just some of the familiar
faces we've grown up with. There are others as well, who while not appearing
in as many games, are still held dearly in the hearts of many fans. In this episode we will take a look at a hero
by the name of Pit, who was the star of his own game in the 8-bit days, only to fade away,
then rise up to be reborn for the modern era. Well take a look at how the original Kid
Icarus game works, why its so difficult, and how you play to win.
Also you'll learn about some of the hidden
secrets hiding in the game that once you see them, you'll never look at it the same way
again. So sit back, grab an eggplant and celebrate,
because Kid Icarus is 30! The origins of Kid icarus begin when a man
named Toru Osawa joined Nintendo as a programmer. He was young, fresh out of school, and would
be the main influence behind Kid Icarus. Within his first year, he was given the green
light to create a game for the Famicom Disk System.
Osawa wanted to create a game with a story
based on Greek Mythology, which was a topic that he always found interesting. He would develop the story of the game on
the mythical hero Perseus, who, using a mirrored shield, beheaded the gorgon, Medusa, who had
the power of turning men into stone with a single gaze. Even after medusa was beheaded, this power
was retained until her head was placed on the shield of Athena, known was The Aegis. The character design of Pit, as well as the
English title of his game, are derived from the myth of Icarus, who with his father, Daedalus,
used wings crafted from feathers and wax, to escape from imprisonment on the island
of Crete.
Icarus, in his youthful hubris flew too close
to the sun, which melted the wax, caused his feathers to fall off and he fell from the
sky to the ocean below. The games stages also bear some resemblance
to the three acts in Dantes Divine Comedy, which was divided in to Hades, Purgatory and
The Paradise. The stages of the Kid Icarus are divided into
Underworld, Overworld and Skyworld. Toru Osawa also wanted a game that was action
based, but still contained some RPG elements.
This is where a mixing of game styles comes
in. While the running and jumping element is taken
from Super Mario Bros., A shooting element was also added that comes from Metroid, with
upgrades for power and distance possible later on in the game. Vertical stages are also borrowed from Metroid. Then comes an element of collecting items,
similar to that in The Legend of Zelda, as well as navigating large maze like stages.
Because of this, its been quoted in Nintendo
Power that Pit, can jump like Mario, collect items like Link, and shoot enemies like Samus. Kid Icarus, known in Japan as Hikari Shina-wa
Parutena no Kagami was planned for release in the Fall of 1986 for the Famicom Disk System. But getting the game done would not be an
easy task. The game was produced alongside Metroid, and
they share similar elements as well.
With most of Nintendos R&D1 staff working
on Metroid, Toru Osawa was put under the the direction of Satoru Okada for Kid Icarus. After the completion of Metroid, the development
staff took a much needed vacation, leaving Osawa to develop Kid Icarus on his own. When Okada returned he found that Osawa had
no help in developing the game, and could not show the work that he had finished to
that point. He immediately assigned the Metroid staff
to help Osawa, and three and a half months of intensive development began..
Moving into fall, the production of the game
went day and night with Osawa even forgoing his honeymoon, and started sleeping at his
desk and getting back to work as soon as he woke up. According to an interview given in the Japanese
magazine Nintendo Dream in 2004, which was later translated the website Metroid Database;
as December drew near, Osawa was still working on the game. He was offered heated kotatsu tables and futons
to keep warm, but Osawa said that he wished he could tell them to prepare more staff for
the game instead. Furthermore, Osawa was given a hard deadline
of December 16th to finish the game.
In a way, thanks to the game being on a disk,
it gave Osawa some extra time, as disks could be written and distributed much more quickly
than cartridges. In the same interview, Osawa recalled that
on December 16th, the management came for the final game and said if this game doesn't
have any bugs in it, its finished! There weren't any bugs and the disks were
quickly written and shipped out meeting the planned release date. On December 19th, 1986, Hikari Shin-wa: Palutena
No Kagami, was released for the Famicom Disk System. In English it means The Myth of Light:
Palutenas Mirror The game sold approximately 550,000 copies on original disks and 520,000
more through Disk Writer in Japan.
The project was finished and Osawa could finally
take a well earned break. The game was then translated to English, and
brought overseas as Kid Icarus. The game was released first in European markets
in February 1987. It was held over in America until July, 1987
to be released just before The Legend of Zelda and alongside Metroid, games which Kid Icarus
takes strong influences from.
Though there weren't many gaming publications
at the time, word of mouth spread, and the game earned a reputation for being very difficult
and a little weird, while maintaining a charm that could be admired. Though Kid Icarus was not as popular as The
Legend of Zelda or Metroid, it later grew to become a favorite in many collections. A proper sequel was announced for GameBoy
in 1991, The game was released only in North America and Europe, and would be, for a long
time, Pits final fall It seemed that that Pit would be lost as a
footnote in 8-bit history. But, Kid Icarus would be re-released in 2004
on the Gameboy Advance in Japan as a Famicom Mini title and on the Wii Virtual Console
in 2007.
He would finally become a playable character
again in 2008, appearing in Super Smash Brothers Brawl. Now there had been a renewed interest in Pit
and his game and It allowed Nintendo to develop and release the first new game in the Kid
Icarus series in 21 years, Kid Icarus Uprising, There was also a rerelease of the original
game for the 3DS with updated, detailed 3D. Scrolling backgrounds and a save function. This was followed up by Pit, Palutena and
Dark Pit joining the cast of fighters in Super Smash Bros.
For 3DS and Wii U in 2014. Kid Icarus was included on the NES Classic
Edition in 2016 as well. There's no telling what Pit will be up to
next, but you can certainly see that much like the original Icarus, Pits, heroics will
be told for all time. Is Kid Icarus hard to play?! It Doesnt Have to be! When we come back, we take a look at learning
the tricks that balance out the gameplay of the original Kid Icarus.
The original Kid Icarus has grown a reputation
since the 8 bit days . Loved by some and hated by others, it's a tough game with many challenges
If youve ever played the game with without any instructions, it can be a rough experience. Not that the instructions helped too much
anyway. The games difficulty is brutally tough
in the first 3 stages, where the screen moves up vertically.
If you fall off the screen, youre finished. You do get, essentially, infinite lives, but
you have to complete each stage to the end on one go, and if you cant make it, you go
right back to the start and lose everything you've earned. This can make the first time you play very
frustrating. Especially if you've played Super Mario Bros.
Which lets you start halfway though a stage, or The Legend of Zelda, which lets you keep
the things you've found and save the game after each attempt.
Also some items dont work until you can
fully recharge your health and others have no effect until later in the game, which if
you don't know that, is confusing. It seems, in a way, a little backwards from
other games because as you progress in the game, things get easier and the game moves
faster, if you know what to do. So lets take an in depth look at how Kid Icarus
actually works. The play mechanics are close to that of the
Legend of Zelda and Metroid.
Pit traverses the games stages and shoots
enemies to defeat them. The enemies leave hearts which are used as
the game's currency, which can be used to buy items and upgrades later in the game. You can also discover and earn items and upgrades
by playing through the game in depth. When navigating the scrolling stages, enemies
will appear in waves of four, and will always gravitate towards Pit.
If you are trying to run through a stage like
its Super Mario Bros. The enemies will move in what appears to be erratic patterns and
make navigating the stages much more difficult. This pattern is easiest to detect right at
the beginning as the first snakes appear in groups of 4 and move left or right depending
on where you stand. Moving further up the stage there are flying
enemies, also appearing in groups of four .
The easiest way to defeat these is just
to stand still and shoot them as they come down the screen, then slowly moving up. There are that will jump up from the bottom
of the screen Its best to shoot these as they land. Beyond that there are enemies that appear
under your feet, so look out! Then there are the areas that are single screen,
such as the endurance rooms and the maze stages. These enemies appear in groups of (8) and
appear to move in a random pattern, but each one moves in its own loop, if you stop to
take a look at how they fly, you can see the pattern.
Other enemies in the single screen maze stages
follow the same rules as they do in the scrolling stages When you start the game, you only have one
life bar, which allows you to get hit 7 times before you have to start all over again. You can increase that when you reach a number
of points on your total score. At 20,000, 50,000, 100,000 and 200,000 points
you can add one more block to your health meter. Each new block gives you 8 hits more and a
total of 39 hits for a full health meter before a game over.
These only get added at the end of the stage,
and you have to fill it by buying potions or visiting a hot spring on your own. It doesnt refill after each stage!! Building up a strong defense is for Pit is
pretty straightforward and while those scores aren't easy to get, its clear what you need
to do. To make Pit's arrows stronger, and the enemies
easier to defeat, is a very different process. In the instruction booklet, it says, How
many of the enemy have you killed? How many chambers have you entered? Have you got a lot of items? And how little damage has the enemy inflicted
on you?.
What it doesn't tell you is that there is
a fully functioning scoring system at work in the game, running behind the scenes. This scoring system will determine if you
can upgrade your weapons in certain stages. The only stages where you can upgrade are
1-2, 2-1, 2-2 and 3-1. You can get upgrades by entering the Sacred
Chambers in these stages.
Sometimes a friendly god appears and sometimes
not. You get one chance in each of the stages and
that's it! If you pass any of these stages without the
weapon upgrade, it's gone forever. So how does that work? You need to enter a Sacred Chamber with a
score of 10,000 points. The hidden score gives you points for defeating
enemies and collecting hearts, but it also takes away points for firing arrows and taking
damage from enemies.
You gain 100 points for each enemy that leaves
a small heart, 300 for an enemy that leaves a half heart and 500 for each enemy that leaves
a big heart. On top of that you get that same amount of
points for each of the hearts you collect, so long as you don't reach 999, then it doesn't
count. You also get 100 points for each mallet you
collect and each item you buy, except the chalices of the water of life, and each weapon
that you buy gives you 1000 points. So getting 10,000 points and upgrading should
be easy right? Well not so fast, because you LOSE 10 points
for each arrow you fire, you lose 300 points for each hit taken from an enemy, and you
lose 500 points for breaking a pitcher in a treasure chamber.
It's actually a better strategy to avoid the
Treasure Chambers as you lose 1,480 points at best, if you clear it. And some items, like angels wings and barrels
can be bought elsewhere. The rooms full of Specknoses should also be
avoided, as these give you no points on your hidden score. Remember! The only stages where you can upgrade are
1-2, 2-1, 2-2 and 3-1.
So in other stages, it doesn't really matter,
even though the score is still being counted. For example, starting out doing THIS. Would be BAD! But if you move carefully, you could end up
with 190 points for each enemy, maximum and so the first enemy wave can get you a little
over 3000 points. That's almost 1/3 of the way there.
Of course if you fail the stage and have to
start over, the hidden score goes back to what it was at the start. Also you can't have a negative score, so at
least there's that. As long as you have 9700 points by the time
you make it to the Sacred chamber in each of these stages, you'll get 300 points for
entering, make it to 10,000 and get the arrow upgrade. Pit's hair will change color and the enemies
will weaken.
Then there are training rooms which give you
a weapon boost as well. This can help your hidden score as you can
gain points faster and lose points less often. The best one to take, for leveling up quickly
is the crystal. Once your health meter re-charges, any enemy
who touches your spinning force field will be defeated, and you won't lose points on
your hidden score, because you won't be using arrows.
The next best weapon is the Flaming arrow
as it gives you a better chance to hit an enemy at close range. The last upgrade is the sacred bow, which
lets you shoot to the edge of the screen. I recommend this last because, if your trying
to preserve points, you shouldn't be shooting arrows unless it's absolutely necessary, and
the closer the range, the better. You can buy these in some shops as well, if
you cant endure the harsh training.
All of these elements in the game affect the
ending too, which rewards you based on how strong Pit has become by the end of the game. In order to get the best ending, you have
to have maximum arrow strength and endurance, as well as maximum hearts and all three weapons
earned from the training chambers. If you maximize some of these, but not all,
the endings will be different, and with none maximized, you'll get the worst ending. Also, The best ending in the English version
does not exist in the Japanese version.
Also in the Japanese version, you can't die
at all to get the best ending. And it also has a worst ending not in the
English version. Eggplants and hot springs aren't even in Greek
Mythology, so why are they in the game? When we come back, more secrets in Kid Icarus
revealed! . On the surface, Its easy to see that Kid Icarus
takes a strong influence from Ancient Greek mythology, but there are several elements
that come from Japanese culture that you might not be aware of.
In certain stages you'll come across a hot
spring, which will fill your health meter if you sit in it. It's colored yellow, to give the player a
subtle hint that it's a safe place. But its a pretty obvious hint if your familiar
with Japanese hot springs. In Japanese they are called onsen, and occur
naturally all over Japan, due to the water trapped underground being heated by volcanic
activity.
Many springs are high in sulfuric content,
which turns the water yellow. The natural mineral composition, can help
people recover from a number of conditions, including rheumatism, hypertension and skin
diseases. The relaxing nature of sitting in a hot spring
is also beneficial for mental health. If you grew you with this common knowledge,
it's easy to know what to do when you see it.
If you enter a treasure room, one of the pitchers
contains the god of poverty, who will send you out of the room, and you won't gain any
hearts found in the room. It's clever in a game filled with mythical
creatures to have a deity who punishes you. However, for the god of poverty, its no myth! The god of poverty is real! In Japanese he is called Bimbogami ()
and usually appears as a small, skinny old man carrying a folding fan. There's also an actual shrine dedicated to
him in Nagano Japan, where people can pray for him to not visit their homes and instead
bring in Fukugami, the god of good fortune.
After defeating one of the three stages bosses,
Pit receives a treasure chest, with what are called the three sacred treasures, the Arrow
of Light, The Mirror Shield and the Wings of Pegasus. In Japan the three sacred treasures, called
Sanshu no Jingi, () are the Imperial Regalia of the Emperor of Japan and
the royal family. The three sacred treasures in Japan are a
sword called Kusanagi, which represents valor. A mirror called Yata no kagami, which represents
wisdom.
And a jewel called yasakani no magatama, which
represents benevolence. They are believed to have been brought to
earth by Ninigi no Motoko, the Grandson of the goddess Amaterasu and were passed on to
his great grandson, Jimmu, the first emperor of Japan. The three sacred treasures of Japan are used
in the enthronement ceremony of each emperor and were last used in 1990, but are not available
for public viewing, nor are they allowed to be photographed. The ones you are looking at here are what
they are believed to look like from first hand accounts.
There's also a version of the three treasures
in modern life: a television, a refrigerator and a washing machine. In the 1950s and 60s many Japanese women said
that they could only marry a husband who could provide them with the modern three sacred
treasures! Then there is the Eggplant wizard, definitely
the weirdest part of the game as they can curse you and change you into an eggplant. But why such a weird enemy and effect? Part of the answer comes from Toru Osawa himself. In his 2004 interview, Osawa stated that while
working on Kid Icarus, he wanted to create a character that cursed Pit and turned him
into an eggplant.
As he was thinking about his summer bonus
while making Kid Icarus, and eggplant being a common Japanese summertime food. He recalled that nobody in the development
staff thought that was strange. While you may or may not find it strange,
theres something a little funny to remove the curse, if you understand Japanese. The word for eggplant in Japanese is NASU.
The transliteration of the word Nurse in Japanese
is NAASU, the word heal in Japanese is NAOSU, which has 2 of the same characters from eggplant
and nurse. Its a bit of wordplay humor that English
players have missed all this time. It's great to see that Toru Osawa was able
to keep a sense of humor while dealing with the difficult task of creating Kid Icarus. He was able to get a few more gags in as the
enemy known as Komayto is similar to a Metroid and in the instruction booklet says it
came from a planet other than Earth and Specknose is a loving homage to the game's
soundtrack composer, Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka.
30 Years! The legend still lives on. It's truly was a wonderful thing to see the
work of Toru Osawa, Pit and Kid Icarus, enshrined in the pantheon of Nintendo History where
they belong, and so rightly deserved..
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