Super Smash Bros. (64) Review

Super Smash Bros. Review

Welcome one, welcome all to my Smash-a-thon! For those of you who don’t know, Smash Bros. is my all time favorite game series. It takes the best of Nintendo (and sometimes 3^rd party closely tied to Nintendo) and puts it all in one game for them all to duke it out! It’s a great concept and needless to say it was executed very well. The way Smash plays is really simple and easy to learn but also has an amazing amount of depth to it. To start it off I’m reviewing the game that started it all, which is simply just called Super Smash Bros. These reviews will probably be longer since these games are packed with content for me to talk about. Let’s start smashing away at this game, shall we?

Graphics

This game’s graphics are hard to judge from a 2014 point of view, but knowing other games that were on the Nintendo 64 at the time, this game looked relatively good back then, so I’ll give the graphics an ok. It certainly has aged rather poorly over time but for when it was new it looked fine.

Plot

This game doesn’t really have a ‘plot’. The closest you can get to one in this game is the mode where you go through levels and defeat most of the characters in the game with Master Hand at the end. This would later go on to be called Classic Mode in the future Smash games. Since there’s pretty much no plot except for that, which I still wouldn’t really count as a plot, I will make the plot non-applicable to my final verdict of the game. 

Gameplay

Now is where the real meat of the game lies. First I will talk about the basic gameplay of Smash Bros. and then go through all of the characters and talk about them. So Smash is unlike your typical fighter. Instead of HP bars that you’re trying to lower, each character has a percentage that builds up with every hit that you take. The higher the percentage, the farther your knockback is. You can roll out of the way to dodge attacks, use your shield, dodge in place, or dodge in the air. Each stage in the game is taken from a game represented by a fighter such as the Mushroom Kingdom from Super Mario Bros. or Yoshi’s Island. Some stages have hazards that you must avoid while fighting. Up to 4 characters can be playing at a time. Now on to the playable characters.

Mario is the very first character I every played as in this game. I make it a tradition to always play as Mario first in a Smash Bros. game. Well, at least every official Smash game. He’s an all-around character that doesn’t have much remotely special about him. However, he does have a recovery move that can be very effective if you manage to hit someone with it. Overall he’s a good character for beginners.

Luigi is almost exactly like Mario except his recovery has a different effect, which is when you get it ‘sweet-spotted’ you can cause it to do this ping sound. Luigi’s taunt can also do some damage if you use it at the right time. He also has really poor traction, which has always been a thing about Luigi in general.

Link is another good character to use for beginners. He has pretty good recovery and his projectiles are useful. His grab attack, which is the hookshot, works best in this game out of the 3 currently out games. It doesn’t do a sagging thing if you fail to grab someone. Link has always been considered a bad character by competitive smashers. I personally think he’s okay, at least in this game and in Melee. In Brawl… well, I’ll get to Link in Brawl when it’s time for me to.

Samus is the lowest-ranking character on the tiers list for the original Smash game. Like Link, I think she’s not half bad and her charged shot can be deadly if you can successfully pull it off.  She’s heavy and floaty. She’s definitely better in the later games, but she’s not exactly terrible in this game.

Pikachu is really good in this game as well as every Smash game that has come out so far. He’s fast, has quick attacks, and has a deadly down special that gets even better in later games. Pikachu also has really good recovery.

Kirby is my main in this game. He has effective and hard-hitting attacks and phenomenal recovery. The only thing wrong with Kirby is that he’s lightweight so a good hard smash attack could send him flying.

Fox is one of if not the most popular Smash Bros. character ever. He has fast and effective attacks and he’s quick on his feet. He’s pretty good in this game but he gets even better in Melee.

Donkey Kong is a heavy character with powerful attacks and good recovery. The only real problem with him is that his size opens him up for attacks. His Down B is especially good as it’s pretty much unstoppable. The Donkey Kong Punch can be very satisfying to pull off if fully charged and used.

Ness Is by far the hardest character in the game to unlock. You have to beat classic mode with a stock of 3 or less without any continues. It took me a while to do this but once I did it I felt satisfied and relieved. Ness doesn’t really have a recovery move. PK Thunder is a long range traveling projectile that you can control the direction of. You can use it to launch Ness forward, sure, but it doesn’t always work in your favor. PK Fire and PK Cross are effective moves as well as his side smash, the baseball bat. He’s a good all-around character.

Captain Falcon is one awesome character for one reason and one reason alone; the infamous Falcon Punch. It feels so good to pull that off and it’s faster than it is in the later Smash Bros. games. He’s also the fastest character in the game so a character with good speed and powerful attacks equals a great fighter. Show me your moves! Yes! (He’s also one of my mains in this game)

Jigglypuff is one of my least favorite characters in the series. She just never really appealed to me and it really confuses me as to why Sakurai picked this Pokémon to be part of the original crew over other Pokémon like Mewtwo  (who was only in Melee) or even Charizard. Jigglypuff does have good recovery but her snore attack is almost impossible to pull off, which is a one-hit KO move. She does get a little better in Melee (or according to the tiers list, much better) but even then I just never wanted to use her. My guess is that Sakurai saw the resemblance between Kirby and Jigglypuff and since he created Kirby he put Jigglypuff in as well.

Yoshi is a character I just never cared for in general Smash wise. I’m not a big fan of Yoshi in general either. His Up B is just throwing an egg so you only get 2 jumps to recoverm but his flutter jump more than makes up for it. He has decent combo ability and it can be funny when he successfully eats a character and turns them into an egg, but I just don’t use Yoshi very much.  I honestly don’t really know why.

Now there are many different modes in this game. There’s the mode that would go on to be called Classic mode in later titles where you go through several rounds of fighting characters from the game (sometimes “teams” or multiples of them) and you sometimes have a character or 2 team up with you such as the level where you fight a giant Donkey Kong. The end part has you fight Master Hand, who interestingly enough has an HP rather than a percentage builder. There is also break the targets, where each character has their own level specifically designed for them to go through and break targets with their moves. Board the platforms is like break the targets except it has you reaching platforms. This has sadly not been in any Smash Bros. game since the original. Race to the finish is a short level where you do exactly what it sounds like, getting to the end before the time runs out. There are enemies and obstacles in the way. This cannot be played outside of the classic mode unlike break the targets and board the platforms. In fights you can have items, which help spruce up the fight. One of the most interesting ones is the Pokéball, which if thrown, sends out a random Pokémon that helps the one who threw the Pokéball. The only one that doesn’t actually do anything is Goldeen. You can do team battles where you and either a CPU-controlled character or your friend can team up against up to 2 other characters.  You can either do timed matches or stock matches, the former being where you set how long the battle will be and you fight until then with the winner being the one with the least deaths. The latter, stock, is where you select a number of lives each character has and the last one standing wins. Each character has their own victory taunt, but some share the same theme. They all have their different in-battle taunts, which don’t have any effects but are fun to use when you KO an opponent. You bet this game has great gameplay. It has tons of variety and ways to play that equal hours upon hours of fun. This game doesn’t even have half of the stuff the later Smash games have.

Soundtrack

This game’s soundtrack is awesome. It has great remixes of themes from the game franchises that are represented in this game and awesome original themes too. My favorite tracks are the intro theme, the character select theme, the remix of the Zelda theme, and the remix of the Great Gourmet Race theme from Kirby.

Overall

Super Smash Bros. is a great game. It was the start of something amazing and while it’s a very modest start compared to what was to come for this amazing series, it was still a very solid start to probably the best franchise in gaming. It’s sometimes refreshing to go back to this game after playing Melee or Brawl to experience a more simple Smash game. I recommend this game to pretty much anyone out there as I don’t see how you could not enjoy Smash Bros. I guess it boils down to preferences, but this game is a blast to play and a great classic. If you have a Nintendo 64, you likely already have this game, but if you don’t, get it. If you have a Wii you can get this on the virtual console and of course you can also download a ROM of the game. The next review of the Smash-a-thon will be Melee, and all I have to say is that I am going to put my ALL into these next 2 reviews. I am going all out and putting in my heart and soul into the Melee and Brawl reviews as these games are worthy of such effort in reviewing.  Not to say I don’t already put plenty of thought in these, but just to say that the Melee and Brawl reviews will be extra special. See you next time and happy smashing!

Kirby Triple Deluxe review

It's only been about 2 weeks and I have another Kirby game I'm reviewing! I got Triple Deluxe last week and finished it in just 2 days. I'm still playing through the aftergame. So how does this game stack up to Return to Dreamland, which is a game that I absolutely love? Well, let's see.

Graphics
I was quite surprised to see that this game kept the same relative framerate as Return to Dreamland seeing as Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D had the same graphics as its Wii counterpart with a slower framerate. This game taken great advantage of the 3DS' capabilities, including the 3D effect. The background parts of levels that you have to go to add some great depth to this game. The graphics are great!

Plot [spoilers!]

The plot is very simple. One day a giant beanstalk grows around Kirby's house and a bg-like creature named Taranza captures Dedede. Kirby goes through 6 worlds and finally catches up to them, only to have Dedede possessed and turned into Masked Dedede, which was a welcome comeback from Superstar Ultra. Queen Sectiona is then awakened and after an abosultely epic boss fight, Dreamland is saved. After beating the mains tory, which is actually really short, you unlock The Arena and Dedede Tour, which is similar to Metaknightmare Ultra but with Dedede and harder versions of all the bosses.
The plot is good. It feels a bit too short but the extra post-game content makes up for it.

Gameplay

This game takes the fun of Return to Dreamland and mixes it in with some sheer creativity! The level design is amazing. Not only are they well-made levels, but they can be insanely creative and can tend to creatively utilize the 3D effect and gyroscope of the 3DS such as part where you have to tilt a glass of water to make a flower grow. Most of the Return to Dreamland abilities are back in action, but along with a few older abilities like Wheel that were absent in RTD, there are 4 new copy abilities: Circus, Bell, Archer, and Beetle Kirby. They are all very fun to use. Kirby has a new ability, the Hypernova inhale, which allows kirby to inhale ridiculously large enemies and objects and it always feels great to swallow large amounts of enemies and objects. I can't really pick between this ability and the super abilities though in terms of which one I like better. The boss battles are great as always and again the 3D effect is very good use. There are 2 new minigames; Dedede's Drum Dash and Kirby Fighters. Kirby Fighters is a lot like Smash Bros. but with Kirby's abilities, and it's pretty fun. Drum Dash is nice, but I don't think it's something I'll be going back to very often. You also collect these keychains that are old sprites of Kirby characters. They're good to collect. The gameplay is awesome. It takes the fun of the previous game and makes it even better, which I thought was impossible.

Music
This game has some great music. I don't really have any particular favorite tracks in this game, but it does have some great remixes of old themes such as Masked Dedede's theme or The Arena's battle theme. Music is great!

Overall

Overall, Kirby Triple Deluxe is awesome. It is my new favorite Kirby game. It's everything Return to Dreamland was with more creative levels and great homage to older kirby games. I recommend this game to the same people I recommended Reutrn to Dreamland to and I also think you should buy this game at full price if possible. So yes, this is one of my favorite games of all time. Ignore the negative IGN review and get this game, it's a blast from start to finish. Here's to a good E3 this year for not only Nintendo but the other companies too. I hope to see Zelda U and more Smash characters! Now if you'll excuse me, I'll go back to Mario Kart 8.

Kirby's Return to Dreamland Review

Hey guys! So I'm using a new layout for my reviews from here on out. I am no longer reviewing games on a number scale as I feel that what I'm replacing it with is more effective for writing a review. I'm gonna say whether an aspect of the game is awful, bad, ok, good, great, or awesome/amazing and use that same verdict for the overall game. I'm not doing an average thing where I take the word I used to most. I'm giving my final verdict based on what my overall opinion of the game is. I'm also going to say whether you should get the game or not depending on your preferences. You'll see what I mean.

Anyway, on with the review! Kirby is a series that got me into trying other game franchises other than just Pokémon. I went through a phase where that was the only thing I would play. The first Kirby game I played was Super Star Ultra, which is a great game. I instantly wanted more after finishing the game and when I looked up stuff about the supposed Kirby title coming out for Wii, I was really happy. This game has been delayed and has been through a lot of different phases in development, but once 2011 came, Nintendo and HAL finally released the long-awaited console traditional Kirby title experience that we didn't truly have since Kirby 64. This is what all of that delaying and uncertainty has lead to. Was it worth the wait? Is it another Duke Nukem Forever? I'm here to tell you that today.

Graphics

This game looks pretty good for a 2D sidescroller title on the Wii. Everything runs at a smooth 60 fps and the presentation can be real top-notch at times. The game looks great!

Plot [SPOILERS]
Now is your time to skip ahead if you don't want spoilers for the game!

Kirby games are never known for their plots. It's usually something along the lines of  all of the food being stolen from Dreamland and Kirby needing to get it back from some demon-like character. Well, this game's plot is no different....for the most part. They actually stepped things up considerably with the plot of this game. A ship crashes onto Dreamland and it was apparently the ship of a martian-like character named Magolor, who flies a ship known as the Lor Starcutter. He needs Kirby, Dedede, and Meta Knight to get the pieces of his ship back. They go through 7 worlds and rebuild his ship. Just when you think it's all over, you actually go back home with him to the planet Halcandra. At the end you face Landia, who is basically the love child of Hydreigon and Spyro. After defeating Landia, a crown falls off of him that Magolor takes. All this time he was manipulating Kirby and the gang and goes all super powered on them. After an epic boss battle that is possibly one of the best in gaming history, Magolor and his soul are defeated and they all go home. It's still a rather simple plot, but the whole twist with Magolor completely surprised me and because of that this game has a good plot.

Gameplay

This is where things get good. I mean real, real good. This game is SO. MUCH. FUN. Most Kirby games are fun because of how you're basically playing through levels as an overpowered pink puff, but somebody at HAL decided that you weren't power happy enough and put Kirby ON STEROIDS. Seriously, Kirby is practically unstoppable in Return to Dreamland. They gave him a super inhale which lets him inhale larger enemies and objects just by shaking the wiimote a little while inhaling. As if that wasn't enough for you, he now has super abilities. You heard me right, super abilities. Using the super abilities in this game to plow through parts of levels is some of the most fun I have ever had in a video game. Super abilities are abilities Kirby can get that are very powerful. They're used creativley in the levels. I always feel a huge sense of joy playing through the levels of this game. All of the levels are expertly crafted to the point that there is nothing that feels cheap about the levels, which trust me, is almost impossible to do in a platformer. There's also 4-player multiplayer in this game, a first in the series for the time, and the multiplayer can be real fun, You can either have Meta Knight, Dedede, Waddle Dee, or a different colored Kirby join you in these levels. Holy crap this game is so fun...

There are also mini-games you unlock where you clear rooms with certain copy abilities that you unlock by collecting spheres found in the levels. Speaking of copy abilities, the copy abilities in this game are all great. The new ones include Leaf, Whip, and Water (about time!). Almost every ability has a super charge move, which adds to the whole steroids ideology I feel in this game. They seriously buffed the Plasma ability to ridiculous levels though, and while that's not a bad thing, it's worth pointing out. After clearing the main game you unlock The Arena, which is returning from Super Star Ultra, and a second quest which is the same game but this time you have less health and there are revamped versions of every boss you faced in the first playthrough. After beating The Arena, you unlock The True Arena, which was introduced in Super Star Ultra and I'm very glad to see it return. There are also a couple of mini-games like usual. Ok, this game's gameplay is definitely awesome. Like I needed to say that anyway.

Soundtrack

This game has a beautifully orchestrated soundtrack. Some of my favorite themes from this game are C-R-O-W-N-E-D, Cookie Country, the Super Ability theme, and the theme that plays when facing some of the bosses in The Arena. The soundtrack gets an amazing.

Overall

In short, Kirby's Return to Dreamland is plain awesome. It is up there as one of my absolute favorite games of all time. It takes almost everything Kirby has done right over the years and put it  into one huge funfest of a game. The fun in this game is almost tangible! The insane amount of fun I get from this game alone is why it's one of my favorite games. It's definitely my favorite Kirby game. I recommend this game to anyone who's looking for a fun time and doesn't care about a game being easy and of course Kirby fans. I also recommend it to those who have been really pushing themselves lately whether in gaming or in life and just wanna kick back, relax, and have a good time playing a game that isn't too difficult. If you immediately look at a game with bright colors and happiness and not like it, then you're obviously not gonna want this game. If you have a Wii and not this game, get it. Get this game at full price if you can because it is worth every penny. This game is also great to play at parties. I picked this game to review right now on purpose as I am soon getting Triple Deluxe, which looks like it borrows a lot of ideas from Return to Dreamland. Expect a review of that game in the near future. That's all for now, have a nice day!

Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze Review

I’ll be honest here: I’m not a huge fan of the Donkey Kong Country series. Yes, the games are really good and all, it just doesn’t quite tickle my fancy in the same manner as other game franchises. I also haven’t played many of the games. However, with that being said, it is still a really good series of challenging platformers. Back in the 90’s there were the original 3 games on the SNES. The next 2D side-scrolling Donkey Kong Country game wouldn’t come out until 2010 with Returns on the Wii, which later got ported onto the 3DS, which is the version I have. At a first glance, one may mistake Donkey Kong Country Returns as another New Super Mario Bros. in that it’s an updated version of an old formula for the new generations. When people got Returns, they found it to be a great game that took the big ape back to his roots like how the original New Super Mario Bros. did for the Italian plumber. After that, Nintendo continued to make more and more New Super Mario Bros. games since the first one was so successful and they are all seen as nothing but copy-paste sequels made on the cheap. When Tropical Freeze got revealed at E3 2013 during the Nintendo Direct as the game Retro had been working on for so long, many people feared, including me, that the Donkey Kong Country series was going down the same path. So when this game finally came out after being delayed twice, did it end up being the sequel we all thought it was gonna be or did it manage to surprise us? Today I’m reviewing Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze and will give it a verdict that will answer that very question.

Graphics

The graphics for this game are… average. They look nice and crisp in HD, yes, but when looking at other games on Wii U this game doesn’t look nearly as good. For it being a 2D sidescroller, this is to be expected. The cutscenes do look really nice though, so because of that I’m giving the graphics a 7.

Plot

This game’s story is very simple; Donkey Kong’s home is taken over by a tribe of arctic animals known as the Snowmads and Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Dixey Kong, and Cranky Kong must run them out. I don’t assess a game’s plot strictly on the story, but I also assess it on the main campaign mode that it takes you through. This game has 6 worlds with bosses at the end of each one. It’s a considerably good length, and if you played the game at the pace I played it at then it should take you about a month to complete this game. The plot gets an 8. It’s decently lengthened to the point where it’s not too long but not too short either. I thought it would be a shorter game when I first heard about it only having 6 worlds but after playing the game I was gladly proven wrong.

Gameplay

This game plays almost wickedly smooth. I never played Returns on the Wii so I can’t judge the leap between that game and this one, but the way it controls feels very similar to the 3DS port of Returns, which was already well done in my opinion. You play as Donkey Kong, but you can have Diddy, Dixey, or Cranky Kong as your partner character. You can only play as the partner characters in multiplayer mode and in the challenge mode you unlock after beating the game. Diddy Kong uses his barrel rockets to glide. Dixey Kong, who is my absolute favorite kong to be partnered up with, gives you a little hover with her ponytail that is actually very helpful for avoiding hazards or bottomless pits. Cranky Kong gives you an extra spring in your step with his cane. You can use him to bounce off of enemies and even hazardous things like spikes like a pogo stick. You can build up momentum with this technique given the right opportunity. If you defeat enough enemies to fill up this new bar, you can perform a special attack with your partner character. With Diddy Kong you turn enemies into balloons, which give you extra lives. With Dixey it turns enemies into yellow hearts that give you even more hits that you can take, which is very helpful for bosses. With Cranky it turns them into banana coins that you can use to purchase stuff at Funky Kong’s shop.  At Funky Kong’s shop you can buy extra lives, potions that give you immunity to certain things, shields, barrels with partner characters in them for you to have with you, and things of that nature. You can get these little trophy-like things that have viewers that remind me of the trophy viewer in Smash Bros. The levels are very dynamic and will often change up the way they play. Not too much unlike a level in an action game like Kid Icarus Uprising. For example there’s one level that starts off with you walking around and then you hop into a mine cart. About halfway through the level you fall off the rail and ride on a little boat through the water, and then eventually back to the mine cart with a saw blade carving the path for you. These chaotic levels are very fun to play through and feel like a huge step up from the last game. There are underwater sections in this game like in the SNES DKC games. In this game you have a breath meter that you can either fill with these balloons you buy at the shop, surfacing, or by getting bubbles. The underwater sections are handled rather nicely and they don’t cripple you as much as other games do when you’re under water. Now this game is HARD. REALLY, REALLY HARD. The first few worlds aren’t that difficult (except for the bosses!), but once you get to World 4 it gets even harder. World 6 has one level particular with electricity in it that is one of if not the hardest level I have ever played through in a video game. Do not let the kid-friendly look and feel of this game fool you, it is not a game for noobs. You have to have at least some experience with platformers before playing this game or you will struggle to survive. It does have immunity potions and what not but I recommend that you don’t use those because the feeling of satisfaction you get when you beat a really hard level without using anything to dumb down the difficulty is totally worth the struggle. This goes for video games that are like this in general. Sometimes the camera will give you a 3D view in some of the levels. There’s a rail grinding section like this where you have to constantly switch which track you’re riding on and another for a barrel shooting sequence. They feel quite exhilarating. Like the last game you have your 5 puzzle pieces and KONG letters to collect. If you get all the KONG letters in a level you can unlock a secret level.  The only gripe I really have with the way this game plays is that in some parts (especially the electric level) I face questionable deaths, so because of that this game’s gameplay gets a 9.

Soundtrack

This game has an awesome soundtrack.  Every theme compliments the feel of the level/boss that they’re the themes of while sounding great. Special mentions go to Windmill Hill, Grassland Groove, Hijinx Homecoming, and the remix of the classic theme of the Donkey Kong Country games.  The soundtrack gets a 10.

Overall

Overall, Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze is a really good game.  It takes what made Returns good and expands dong on it with more imaginative level design, partner characters with different attributes, and chaotic and vibrant levels. It does feel very much like Returns, yes, and another Wii U game which is 3D World which was quite different from its predecessor 3D land did a better job at being different than this game, this game is still worth a go. If you have a Wii U, buy this game. It’s one of the best games you can get for it right now and it’s a fun experience. Tropical Freeze gets a 34/40 and an average of 8/10. Good job, Retro. I hope you’re hard at work on a new Metroid or something else that will blow everyone’s minds.

Kid Icarus Uprising Review

Masahiro Sakurai is a great video game developer. I take a great deal of inspiration from him, more than Miyamoto believe it or not. He’s made Kirby, Smash Bros., and the game I am reviewing, Kid Icarus Uprising. Kid Icarus was a long forgotten game franchise from Nintendo that goes as far back as the NES. Another game came out on the Gameboy, but people didn’t think much of Kid Icarus back in those days. It was one of Nintendo’s lesser-known IPs. That all changed when Brawl came out with Pit, the main protagonist of Kid Icarus, was made playable. He was given a totally new design along with Palutena, who wasn’t playable but was rather just there in the background. It seems like there was more demand for a new Kid Icarus game after Pit’s inclusion in Brawl, and in E3 of 2010 when the 3DS was announced, Kid Icarus Uprising was revealed to many people’s surprise. It featured beautiful 3D environments, voice acting, and a ton of potential. Then in 2012 the game came out as has gone on to become a cult classic. It was a gigantic step up in every possible way for the series and today I’m here to take a look at how this game has opened the door for so many more possibilities for Pit and Palutena’s army.

Graphics

Oh man this game’s visuals are something else. These are hands down some of, if not the best graphics I’ve ever seen on a handheld game. Everything is detailed and colorful and flying feels great because of the great feel you get when flying through large and beautiful environments. It looks great on the ground too but it just looks even nicer when you’re flying.  The enemies and characters blend in perfectly with the world too. Graphics get a 10.

Plot

[SPOILERS!] This game has an amazing plot. It has tons of twists and turns that you will never see coming if it’s your first time playing. The basic plot is that Medusa and her underworld army have returned and Pit must stop her. Palutena grants Pit the gift of flight since he cannot fly on his own, but he can only fly for 5 minutes.  Once Pit defeats Medusa and the credits start to roll, you think you’re all done but then the credits are torn away and Hades reveals himself as the true bad guy. Hades is a great villain, with funny dialogue, witty remarks, and a great personality.  A war between the Earth and the underworld breaks loose. Eventually Pit is knocked unconscious for 3 years and Palutena’s army goes missing. Pit is for some reason a ring that takes control of whoever picks it up. Magnus ends up getting him back to his old body, only to find that Palutena has been corrupted by the Chaos Kin and he must snap her out of it. Luckily he is still able to fly due to Viridi, the goddess of nature, being able to fill in for Palutena. Pit snaps Palutena out of her corruption and eventually finds out that in order to defeat Hades he must collect the 3 sacred treasures to create an awesome suit that he uses to take down Hades in an epic and climactic showdown. The characters are great in this game and have very witty remarks, which can sometimes distract me from the gameplay part. They also break the 4^th wall a lot. The voice acting is some of the best I’ve ever heard in a video game too .My favorite chapters have to be the one where Pit becomes a ring, the one where Pit fights Palutena, and the final chapter. Plot gets a 10.

Gameplay

While this game has great visuals and a great narrative, the gameplay falls a little short. I’m mostly talking about on the ground gameplay here when I say that though. Pit controls perfectly fine when in the air and it feels great to shoot at a bunch of enemies while flying through many different kinds of environments, and in this game the places you’ll be flying at change quite often. The huge variety of weapons is great. It makes me wanna replay levels with different weapons to see which ones I like and which ones I don’t. You can also fuse weapons, how cool is that? You select the difficulty you wish to play a level at for a sacrifice of hearts that you collect from defeating enemies. The higher the difficulty setting, the more hearts you will need to sacrifice. Some hearts you collect restore your health bar, which if it goes out, you’re given a few more hits before you go down. If you die, then the difficulty you play at decreases and you have no choice but to play at a lower difficulty. I don’t really mind that. It sometimes stops me from spending too many hearts and makes the game slightly less frustrating. You can pick between 2 different control settings; using the R button to shoot, the touch screen to toggle the camera view on the ground and to aim for targets on the sky, and the circle pad to move around. This is the default setting by the way. The alternative, which is my preference, is using the ABXY buttons to move around, the R button to shoot, and either the touch screen or D-pad to toggle the view or aim. There’s a stand that comes with every physical copy of the game to make it easier on you to control the game. Lots of people complain about these controls and personally I feel rather indifferent to them since you have the ability to switch them, albeit not necessarily to your liking, but still able to switch to an alternative that may or may not be better for you. I wish Skyward Sword and other Wii games that are motion control-focused had this. Now on the ground it feels pretty clunky. Having to constantly change your view can be annoying and I might accidentally dash into something that I take a hit from that I didn’t mean to dash into. If you run for a certain amount of time, which is done by double tapping because this is a Sakurai game, you will tire out and will need to walk. I don’t like that and I wish I could just run indefinitely. This game has some of the same problems that Skyward Sword does. However it does do most of them better like the controls. You can either attack from afar, which is called a ranged attack, but on the ground you can also get up close to an enemy and use melee attacks. Sometimes it quite honestly feels like I’m just mashing the R button when doing melee attacks. I tend to feel a little dizzy after playing this game, but it doesn’t make me feel that nauseous so I’ll give it a pass. You progress through the game’s story via chapters, and each chapter has a boss at the end of it. Most bosses are complete pushovers, but most of them are pretty fun. The final boss battle is especially awesome and feels legitimately difficult without being cheap. After defeating Hades once and for all you unlock a boss rush mode, which is exactly, what it sounds like. Because this is a Sakurai game, there’s a break room between each boss with health replenishing items.  This game really does have that Kirby/ Smash Bros. like feel to it with all the extra content and things like the boss rush. The menu screen even resembles Brawl’s menu screen! Sometimes in levels you can get into vehicles or mechs and go through the level in that way, which is mandatory. The vehicles for the most part control well and feel great to be in. My only problem is with the car where backing up and getting on the right track can be a pain in the ass. AR cards come with every physical copy of the game. You can use them in an AR viewer. There’s also an idol viewer very similar to that of the trophy collection from Smash Bros.. I assume you unlock an idol from using an AR card. There’s a collection factor to these cards. Personally, I don’t really care much for the AR viewer.  There’s also an online mode where you either go against other players in teams of dark and light or a free-for all where you try and beat the shit out of other players to the best of your ability. It’s good for what it is. So the gameplay gets an 8. For the most part this game plays perfectly fine but in some places it feels clunky.

Music

This game has very good music. While it is a bit difficult to hear over all the commentary, it sounds really good for what it’s worth. There are some great remixes of themes from past Kid Icarus games as well as great original themes. The soundtrack gets 9.

Overall

In conclusion, Kid Icarus is a great game. It took a not very popular IP and breathed a ton of life into it. It has opened so many doors for possibilities for the Kid Icarus franchise and it is such a huge step up from what we had previously. It’s a beautiful game with tons of charm, loveable characters good and evil alike, tons of options for the combat, great replay value, and good music. It’s an overall fun time and one of the best games on the 3DS right now. I recommend that you pick this game up if you have a 3DS and you like rail shooters or any game made by Sakurai. Kid Icarus Uprising gets a 37/40 and an average 9/10. After seeing the Smash direct earlier this week, I am more hyped than ever for the next game Sakurai is making, which is Super Smash Bros. 4.

Announcement!

Speaking of which, I’m announcing here and now that I am gonna dedicate an entire month to Smash Bros. eventually. It depends on which month the 3DS version comes out. I might do another one for the Wii U version but I’m not sure. What I have planned for Smash month so far is a review for the original game, Melee, Brawl, and the 3DS version of Smash 4, characters that are requested that I don’t think will be in, top 10 Smash characters, 5 characters I want in the game, and impressions from already confirmed characters. I might do some of it a month earlier or later so I have more time, but needless to say, I’ve got a lot of work to do. I will probably do other months of/marathons for other franchises but for now I just have Smash planned. I hope you look forward to Super Smash month!