Nintendo handed Masahiro Sakurai a simple brief: build a launch title for the 3DS. What he built instead was Kid Icarus: Uprising, a game that splits itself between airborne shooting and ground combat and refuses to pick a lane. It is the third entry in the Kid Icarus franchise, the first since Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters in 1991, and the only game Project Sora made before shutting down in mid-2012.
Trailer, via IGN.
Pit and Palutena Against Medusa
The setup is loose Greek mythology. Pit, a young angel, serves Palutena, the Goddess of Light. When the Goddess of Darkness Medusa returns and unleashes her Underworld Army on humanity, Palutena grants Pit the power of flight — for limited stretches — and sends him to stop her. Sakurai wrote the story himself, and it keeps a lighthearted tone even as the stakes climb.
The campaign runs deeper than the pitch. Pit fights Medusa’s servant Twinbellows, beats commander Dark Lord Gaol with help from the human mercenary Magnus, and confronts the Goddess of Calamity Pandora to destroy the Mirror of Truth. The Mirror spawns a doppelgänger, Dark Pit, who absorbs Pandora’s powers and leaves. With help from the God of Oceans Poseidon, Pit defeats Medusa’s final commander, Thanatos, then retrieves the Three Sacred Treasures and uses them to beat Medusa.
That win is a trick. Medusa was a resurrected puppet hiding the real antagonist: Hades, Lord of the Underworld. Hades spreads a rumor about a “wish seed” guarded by the Phoenix, provoking war among humanity so he can claim their souls. The Nature Goddess Viridi attacks both sides. The story keeps escalating, and it earns the escalation.
Bows, Claws and Orbitars
Combat splits between rail shooter segments in the air and third-person shooting on the ground, with both linear paths and free-roaming areas. Long-range attacks come from gun-like weapons; melee covers close quarters. Weapons fall into nine types:
- Bows
- Claws
- Blades
- Clubs
- Orbitars
- Staffs
- Arms
- Palms
- Cannons
Each type has its own strengths and weaknesses, and every individual weapon carries distinct stats for range, melee damage, ranged damage by distance, continuous fire speed, movement speed and charge time. Stars mark the power of melee and ranged attacks. Players pick a loadout before sending Pit into battle, then can test it in the Practice Range.
A Blade, Claws or an Orbitar
The starting choices tell you how the nine types differ. A basic Blade is well balanced. Claws have limited reach but raise running speed. Orbitars fire two shots that grow in power over distance. Loadouts carry real weight because Intensity raises the payout.
The Fiend’s Cauldron
Difficulty is the sharpest idea here. Before each mission, players bet hearts in the Fiend’s Cauldron, setting Intensity anywhere from “0.0” to “9.0”. Higher Intensity makes enemies tougher but pays out more hearts, and weapons come out stronger depending on how many hearts are riding. Death costs you the bet. It turns every mission into a wager on your own skill.
Multiplayer supports up to six players, and collectable items are scattered throughout.
Where the 3DS Stood
Uprising arrived in 2012 with a control scheme that caused Sakurai real trouble during development, which began in 2009 without access to finished hardware. The balancing act shows in places. But the ambition does not. Sakurai took a franchise dormant since 1991 and gave it flight, a weapon economy and a difficulty bet that few games have tried since.
Kid Icarus: Uprising holds an 8.8/10 on IGDB’s critic aggregate (8 outlets). The Fiend’s Cauldron is the mechanic worth stealing. Betting hearts against your own performance makes failure expensive and victory specific, and it is the rare risk system that makes the player, not the character, the one on the line.
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