Kotaku: Kid Icarus

Rumor: Nintendo Bringing An "Old Franchise" To Wii

Michael McWhertor — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:30:48 MDT

Does Nintendo have an old-school hit readied for a modern day Wii treatment? That's the rumor that Gamekyo (formerly JeuxFrance) is running, pointing to an impending announcement from the company — as in this Thursday. The property is "an old franchise that everyone is waiting for," clearly a thinly veiled reference to Gumshoe, which has Wii Zapper support written all over it.

Nintendo has previously been rumored to have sequels to both Punch-Out!! and Kid Icarus in the works. Nice idea, but they're no Gumshoe.

We'll know, probably this Thursday, whether this rumor has any basis in reality.

Nintendo reviving an old franchise for the Wii [Gamekyo]

New King Of Games Tees Available Now!! Hey, ...

Michael McWhertor — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:40:00 MDT

New King Of Games Tees Available Now!! Hey, remember when the King of Games announced it was making that sweet Kid Icarus tee? It's available right now, should you have the 4900 yen (plus shipping!) required to make it yours. No, not cheap. KOG also drops word that older styles have been reprinted, if there's some officially licensed Nintendo T you've always wanted.

The King Of Games Does Kid Icarus, Kids

Michael McWhertor — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 19:00:50 MDT

On the left, The King of Games' new Kid Icarus t-shirt. On the right, new kid sizes of The King of Games t-shirts. Both go on sale (in Japan) next Friday at midnight Japan time. If you've ever thought to yourself, "I've always wanted a rather expensive Kid Icarus t-shirt" or "I'm a little person and would like a Mario Bros. t-shirt" you now know where to go. No word just yet on if they'll show up in the English language shop, but we'll bug KOG until they tell us.

Oh, they look quite nice don't they? The Kid Icarus tee will run you about $46 USD, with kiddy stuff at about $37 USD. Totally fair! Yep. More than fair.

The King of Games News

Kid Icarus Wii May Look Like This (But We Hope Not)

Michael McWhertor — Thu, 08 May 2008 20:40:55 MDT

Gaming site Kombo got themselves a nice exclusive today in the form of purported concept art from Factor 5, artwork that was reportedly used in a pitch to Nintendo for a potential Kid Icarus game for the Wii. According to Kombo, the Lair and Rogue Squadron developer is actively pursuing a Wii entry in the series—a long touted rumor—but that Nintendo hasn't officially committed to the project. The above image is just one of many pieces of artwork said to be from a new-gen Kid Icarus game and there are many proposed looks. One things for sure—each and every design will probably make you feel like your flying too close to the sun, eyes first.

Exclusive: "Kid" Icarus Wii Concept Artwork Revealed [Kombo]

Japanese Kid Icarus Commercial

fdemarco — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 18:00:00 MST

Here's a terrifically bizarre Japanese commercial for Kid Icarus circa 1986. Something that always strikes me about these 80's commercials, be they US or Japanese, is the absolute manic pace they seem to keep up. Everything is always amped up just a little too high. Of course, the kids (us) watching these things were usually just as amped up having just cracked out on giant bowls full of sugared cereal. It's a wonder we all didn't just explode.

Remembering Gunpei Yokoi

Michael McWhertor — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 18:20:16 MDT

Today, October 4th, 2007, marks the tenth anniversary of the death of Gunpei Yokoi, the Nintendo engineer responsible for inventing the company's Game & Watch and Game Boy hardware. Yokoi also acted as producer on Nintendo-developed software like Metroid and Kid Icarus with the R&D1 and Intelligent Systems teams. For those who haven't yet watched RobotBling's fantastic piece on Yokoi titled "The Greatest Inventor", I highly recommend doing so.

Great thanks to Eric for the reminder. RIP Gunpei.

Smash Bros. Dojo Update: Kid Icarus' Pit

Michael McWhertor — Fri, 25 May 2007 15:30:45 MDT

The trickle of Super Smash Bros. Brawl news continues, as we get a character profile on fan favorite Pit from Kid Icarus. While I don't expect that we'll find many of the SSBB character updates postworthy, anything Kid Icarus related is going to elicit a fanboy kneejerk reaction and require careful inspection of every pixel of every screenshot.

Four new-like screens of Pit in action from dramatic angles have been added as well as info on his double blade-bow weapon, the Sacred Bow of Palutena. Also revealed is that Pit's light arrow shots will allow for player controlled trajectories.

Yeah, yeah, that's just fantastic news, but will there be an unlockable Eggplant Wizard? Michael McWhertor

Pit [Smash Bros. Dojo]

Kid Icarus For VC 99.44% Perfect

Michael McWhertor — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 15:20:28 MST

It won't be the first time and it won't be the last, but yesterday's release of Kid Icarus for the Virtual Console won't perform exactly like it did when it was released on the NES—almost twenty years ago.

The issue? It's minor, but still noteworthy. Due to hardware restrictions, some of the cheat codes players used in the past to skip levels or gain invincibility will not work with the Virtual Console version. No "DANGER !!!!!! TERROR HORROR" or "PAKING PAKING PAKING PAKING" for you lazy cheaters.

While not gamebreaking, that two issues with the VC have already cropped up makes us more wary than ever about re-buying games we already own. Still, Nintendo's warnings are quite visible, so we only have ourselves to blame when forking over the Wii Points and coming away disappointed. Michael McWhertor

Kid Icarus Monster Boobies

Brian Ashcraft — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 07:22:09 MST

Don't remember this from when I was a kid ('cos I was looking elsewhere for jubblies), but apparently the Kid Icarus manual has mammaries. While the game doesn't feature topless female monsters, page 38 of the booklet's got 'em. Big deal for family-friendly Nintendo? Nah. The character sports chicken feet and no arms, but does have nipples. And so do we all! Brian Ashcraft

Jubblies In Kid Icarus [Siliconera]

Custom Painted NESes On eBay

Michael McWhertor — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 21:30:28 MST

eBay seller hellokitty11111111111 (yeah, that's right) is auctioning off a number of hand painted, custom NES consoles, including the pictured Metroid version, as well as ones based on Mega Man 2, Kid Icarus, Dragon Warrior, Bubble Bobble, The Legend of Zelda, and Super Mario Bros. 3. At starting prices ranging from $120 and $150, these one-of-a-kind items aren't cheap, but they look surprisingly nice. Okay, that Kid Icarus looks half-assed at best, but many of them look quite lovely.

From the oddly capitalized item description:

The System Has been Custom Hand Painted With Acrylic Paints and then Sprayed down with 3 to 4 Coats of Clear Acrylic Sealer to protect your Painting from being Scratched or Ruined. It also Gives your Painted Nintendo a Wicked Awesome Shine to it that really does the artwork Justice. Over 10 Hours of Painting Went into this Nintendo! This Hand Painted Nintendo's is 1 of a Kind. No One on Ebay is Doing anything like this and The Painted Nintendo Is in Absolute Center Piece To your Video Gaming Collection.

At those prices, I won't be biting, but those with deeper pockets should check out the whole line. Michael McWhertor

Custom Painted Nintendo Nes Game System Metroid Samus [eBay via Insert Credit]

Japan Gets New Wii VC Titles, America Weeps

Michael McWhertor — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 18:20:28 MST

Nintendo has announced twelve of the Virtual Console titles they plan to release to Japanese gamers at some point during January '07, which will bring the total number of VC games for the Wii in that region to a healthy, jealous rage inducing 62.

The announced games are:

- Ikki (NES)
- Kid Icarus (NES)
- Ice Climber (NES)
- Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (NES)
- Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu (SNES)
- Mario Kart 64 (N64)
- Bonanza Bros. (Genesis)
- Gain Ground (Genesis)
- Alien Crush (TG-16)
- Moto Roader (TG-16)
- R-Type II (TG-16)
- Soldier Blade (TG-16)

A fairly solid list, one that includes a pair of games I'd personally never even heard of. After watching clips of Ikki in action, it seems that I'm better off having been ignorant to it in the first place. Michael McWhertor

Kid "Where's My Damn Sequel?!" Icarus Reminder

Brian Ashcraft — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 13:20:42 MDT

Reader Aaron happened across this retro ad for Hikari Shinwa: Parthena no Kagami (Might of Light: Parthena's Mirror) in Akihabara. Known as Kid Icarus in the West, the game was released almost twenty years ago and is looong overdue for a sequel. And Game Boy games or Smash Brothers titles don't count. Why is it that the sequels you really want take forever, while the ones you are largely indifferent towards reappear year after year after year? Brian Ashcraft

New Kid Icarus Joke

Brian Ashcraft — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 21:22:19 MDT

Super Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai has worried Kid Icarus fans up into a tizzy. Pit is included in the forthcoming Smash Bros., but hasn't seen a solo adventure since 1991. In a Nintendo forum, Sakurai had this to say:

I was well aware that Pit was a popular character in both America and Japan. I tried as best I could to design this version of him in a way that reflected current tastes, so I'm happy to see him so well received. The creator of Kid Icarus has even jokingly asked if he could make a spin-off using this Pit model.

Funny, real funny. Ha. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Press the Buttons]

New Kid Icarus Art Isn't Real

Michael McWhertor — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 08:55:06 MDT

Could it be? No. A new Kid Icarus game for Revolution?? No. Leaked concept art from an unannounced Nintendo game??? No!

These pictures have been floating around the Web lately, most notably on Korean game site Ruliweb, with some poorly tacked on Capcom and Nintendo logos. Tacked onto what? San Francisco based Wen-M's personal artwork, swiped from deviantART by some hopeful Nintendo fans. Personally, I too would welcome a new entry in the Kid Icarus franchise, but not like this.

These are fake, so tell your friends!

More of Wen-M's Design And Illustration