Other Appearances of Kid Icarus
Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters
This is the only sequel to the Kid Icarus game.
It was made only for the Game Boy system. It had the same basic gameplay
and story as the NES Kid Icarus game, but instead of fighting Medusa, you
fought a demon named Orcos. Many of the enemies are similar to those of
the NES Kid Icarus, and the levels are laid out in a similar fashion. You
begin in the Underworld, which scrolls vertically, then go to the horizontally
scrolling Overworld, then to the vertically scrolling Sky World. At the
end of each of these worlds is a fortress maze, just like in the NES version.
The bosses, however, are all new. Upon defeating them, you'll get one of
the three Sacred Treasures. The final level is, once again, the Sky Palace,
but the screen does not automatically scroll. Instead, you have to press
the button repeatedly to make Pit fly through it. The power-up system is
essentially the same. Some things were improved. First of all, the screen
scrolls in all directions, meaning that if you fall down past the bottom
of the screen, you no longer die! The screen will just scroll down with
you. Pit's jumping control is somewhat improved, and when you leap, you
can tap the A button to make Pit flap his puny wings and slow up his decent
(sort of like how you can flap Mario's raccoon tail in SMB3 to slow his
decent in midair.) Kid Icarus also has, quite possibly, the best Game Boy
soundtrack I've ever heard! (But the fortress music isn't as good as the
NES version's. ^_^) The final battle against Orcos is a lot more challenging
than Medusa was. There are some things I liked better about the Game Boy
version and some things I liked better about the NES Kid Icarus. All-in-all
it's a great Game Boy game! It may be hard to find, but it's worth picking
up! Here's a screenshot:
Tetris
(NES Version)
In the NES version of Tetris (the one released
by Nintendo, NOT Tengen Tetris), select a B-Type game and choose difficulty
Level 9. Complete the Level on any height, and you will see a celebration
scene with various Nintendo Characters. The first one to appear is Pit
from Kid Icarus, playing a violin! (Hmmm...shouldn't he be playing a harp??)
Captain N: The Game Master
Captain N: The Game Master was a late 80's, early 90's cartoon series about a video game player who gets magically sucked into his TV screen, and visits various video game worlds. Pit was one of the main characters in the show. Personally, I really didn't like the way this show portrayed Pit (as well as many other video game characters and worlds.) I didn't like the way he was drawn. His head was too big, it looked like he was wearing makeup, and he had bright orange hair (gack!) There were other inconsistencies that left me wondering if the writers of this show ever actually played the games or not. First of all, Pit could fly in the show, and we all know that unless he's wearing the Pegasus Wings, Pit CANNOT fly! Some people may say, "He must have been wearing the Pegasus Wings, then...", and that was a reasonable answer...until I saw an episode where they were searching for the three Sacred Treasures! If they were searching for them, then that means Pit could not already be wearing the wings!! Also, in that episode, they called Pit's world "Mount Icarus" instead of "Angel Land" (though that may have been because of censorship.) Finally, Pit's voice was awful (he sounded like a girl), and his personality was nothing like I would have imagined it would be like from playing the game. Pit also appeared in the Captain N comic books that were published by VALIANT, but this portrayal of the character was even worse!! Of all things, he was jealous of Captain N's dog! Geez, what were these people smoking when they wrote this?!
The Eggplant Wizard was also a main villain in
the Captain N cartoons and comics, and I liked his portrayal a lot more
than I did Pit's. He actually looked like the character in the game, and
he was really funny! However, there were still a few things the writers
just got *wrong*. Like, for instance, there was one episode of the cartoon
where he aims his magic staff at Captain N and shoots him with it. Captain
N promptly turns into a......BANANA?!! WTF?! Why didn't he turn into an
eggplant?! Again, did these writers ever actually play the game?? I don't
think either the cartoon or the comic portrayed Angel Land very well, either.
It's a shame no one ever made a "true" comic or cartoon based on the Kid
Icarus game.
Metroid
Actually, this one is the other way around. Kid
Icarus doesn't appear in Metroid, but Metroids appear in Kid Icarus! The
Komayto enemies more than resemble the Metroids of KI's "companion game".
Even the description in the manual implies it:
"A mysterious floating creature. Nobody knows
where it came from. One theory has it that it came from a planet other
than Earth. It's a nasty jellyfish monster."
Howard & Nester
(Nester's Adventures)
I think every reader of Nintendo Power remembers the Howard & Nester comics. Howard was based on Howard Phillips, who used to work for Nintendo of America, and was known as the "Game Master". Nester was a cartoon creation of Howard's, who thought he was the greatest game player in the Universe. Each month, Howard and Nester would end up in a video game world and go through several hijinks, while passing on some kind of game-playing tip to the reader. Eventually, Howard left Nintendo, but the comic went on as "Nester's Adventures", with Nester flying solo through the video game worlds. In one issue, he dreams he is Pit and has to undergo Zeus's training with the tumbling mirrors. Nester is very uncooperative with Zeus, as expected. He is given a harp and Zeus tells him to play it. Nester promptly asks where to plug it in. Zeus says that if Nester plays it with skill, beautiful creatures will appear. In the next panel, there are monsters surrounding Nester, and Zeus says, "Not a good beginning, Kid Nesterus." Next, Zeus presents Nester with a question. He asks him what happened to Icarus when he flew too close to the sun. Nester says, "He got waxed, and they took away his license, I think." Finally, Nester comes to the trial of the tumbling mirrors, where he doesn't do too well. Zeus tells him that he should stand to the left (or right) and shoot straight up. (This is the "game-playing tip" of the comic.) After that, Nester wakes up from his dream and finds his schoolbooks have all been shot with arrows. This comic appeared around the time Kid Icarus: Of Myths & Monsters was released for the Game Boy.
More Howard Weirdness...
Okay, I'm really surprised no one's ever mentioned this before. Does anyone remember this?
It's a letter sent in by a Nintendo Power reader
many years ago, who noticed that Little Mac from Punch-Out!! resembles
Howard Phillips. That may be true, but if you ask me, here's an even stronger
resemblance.
You be the judge:
Super Smash Bros. Melee
There's a rumor that Pit may be in a playable character in the upcoming GameCube game, Super Smash Bros. Melee! It is not known at this time if he will be a main character or secret character, or even if he'll be in the final version at all. Here's a pic:
For the full story go to ign.com.
As you are probably aware by now, Pit did not make it into the final version of Super Smash Bros. Melee. It was disappointing to me that characters such as Pichu, Mr. Game&Watch, and the Ice Climbers were chosen over characters like Pit, Wario, and Little Mac. SSBM may be a good game, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the next Smash Bros. (if there ever is one). UPDATE: However, I am told he does appear as a trophy in SSBM. I guess that's better than nothing. Now here's hoping he'll either be in the next SSB game, or he'll get an all-new game of his own! =)
Japanese Kid Icarus Commercial
Click here to view this Japanese commercial for the Famicom version of Kid Icarus!
I got this courtesy of Hobbes from the 8-Bit Toaster. He has a whole section on his site for Japanese game commercials. He also asked me to credit the site where he got this from, but I don't know what it is...As soon as he tells me, I'll put the link up.
