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Kid Icarus

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Far away in a kingdom called "Angel Land," the evil goddess Medusa has stolen the Three Sacred Treasures and imprisoned the goddess of light, Palutena. As Kid Icarus, your mission is to find the treasures, destroy Medusa and rescue Palutena from the depths of the Palace in the Sky. To find the tr...

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Developer
TOSE

Released on
1987

Size
1 Player

Version
NES

Requirements
Nintendo Entertainment System

Downloads
Platform

Publisher
Nintendo

ESRB Rating
Not Rated

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Description

Far away in a kingdom called “Angel Land,” the evil goddess Medusa has stolen the Three Sacred Treasures and imprisoned the goddess of light, Palutena. As Kid Icarus, your mission is to find the treasures, destroy Medusa and rescue Palutena from the depths of the Palace in the Sky. To find the treasures you’ll travel through ruins collecting weapons and storing power for use in combat against creatures of Medusa’s army. Use your bow and arrow to ward off gatekeepers of the Underworld, Overworld and Skyworld as you strive towards your battle against Medusa. Will you survive to restore Palutena’s light and return it to “Angel Land?” Only you know!

Kid Icarus

Overview & History

Released by Nintendo for the Famicom Disk System in 1986 and brought to the North American NES in 1987, Kid Icarus is a notoriously punishing platformer developed by the legendary R&D1 team behind Metroid. The game follows the angelic archer Pit, who is summoned by the Goddess Palutena to escape the Underworld. Medusa, the goddess of darkness, has stolen three sacred treasures—the Mirror of Truth, the Arrow of Light, and the Wings of Pegasus—and imprisoned Palutena in her sky palace. Pit must journey upward through grueling vertical stages, battling mythical Greek monsters across the Underworld, the Overworld, and the Sky World to reclaim the relics and save Angel Land.

Gameplay Features & Mechanics

Unlike standard side-scrolling platformers of the era, Kid Icarus utilizes a unique mix of vertical climbing and horizontal progression. Pit is armed with a trusty bow and arrow, but can collect specialized upgrades like the flaming arrow, protective sacred shields, and hammer power-ups by visiting hidden black-market shops or training chambers guarded by angry gods. A defining mechanic is the RPG-like score progression at the end of each stage: players are rewarded or penalized based on their performance, earning health upgrades if they collected enough hearts. The game is infamous for its demanding physics; falling off a screen edge usually means plummeting all the way back to the bottom of the vertical stage, requiring immense precision and patience to master.