Archview #42: Kid Icarus Uprising

 At least, it makes for a great showpiece.

 Kid Icarus Uprising is the third entry in the Kid Icarus series, which have starred Pit since the NES era. This is also the first time that the series has made the jump to the third dimension, Smash Bros not withstanding. Deviating from previous games, which were 2D adventure games, Uprising is half railway shooter half third person shooter, with only a couple of rewards for exploration.
 In this installment, Medusa returns from the dead, and it's up to Pit, guided by the goddess Palutena to stop her. Most stages start off with the on-rails segment, in which you move around to dodge bullets and obstacles, while shooting at your agressors. These are, arguably, the most fun segments of the game, controls for this "mode" feel fantastic and responsive... then comes the on-foot segment. These segments are longer, and on paper, should be more engaging, but the controls just don't work. Aiming is done with the touch screen and shooting with the L button, and it feels fine, but moving is the stuff of nightmares.

 The issue is that they mapped too many actions to the analog nub. Walking, Dashing and Dodging are all done with the nub, and more often than not, you will dash when you want to walk or dodge. The plataforming sections in particular, can get quite annoying, specially when botomless pits lie below. Also, be prepared for hand cramps unless you are using the stand(Included with the game). Sadly, these segments tend to go on longer than the impressive on-rails shooting segments.
 Moving on, the games does something very interesting regarding the difficulty. The currency used in the game, to buy weapons, are hearts. Before each stage you can either spend hearts to make the stage Easier or bet hearts to make the stage harder, and in turn, earn more hearts. The game rewards the player for playing in harder difficulties by placing doors in certain levels that can only be opened when playing on a specific difficulty. If you die, however, not only will you lose hearts, but the difficulty will go down by one grade(It goes from 1.0 to 9.0).

 Rather surprisingly, there are many weapon types that Pit can equip(Going from Bladeguns, Bows, Cannons and Maces to Staves, Claws or Orbitars) and they all behave and look differently, even weapons of the same type have different charge shots. Weapons can be found inside chests on the on-foot segments or bought at the store in between levels, and you can even fuse them to make better weapons that inherit skills from the weapons fused. It's not too complex, and it can be interesting to fuse powerful weapons. Pit can also equip skills, equipped in a grid before each level, that can be used by touch their icons in the touch screen, and range from adding effects to Pit's attack to healing him or makin him jump.
 The game looks very pretty and colorful. While enemies are a bit on the simple side, the stages look very interesting and attractive. It goes from great to spectacular when playing in 3D, it really does make make a difference. The music is also great, as expected from a game made by Nintendo, but the real treat is the voice acting. Every stage has back and forth banter between Pit, Palutena and the boss of the level, it's incredibly funny and full of references to other games and breaking the fourth wall. Later levels even add Hades and Viridi to the conversations. Hades deserves a special mention, pulling off a very charismatic and smarmy villain.

 Finally, there's a lot to do in the game. There are hundreds of "Idols", figurines of sorts, to collect. And there's also 450 "challenges" of sorts, that reward you with songs, idols, powers or weapons. There's also a Multiplayer mode, of which I played only a little, it's a fun diversion, if you can stand the on-foot controls.
 Kid Icarus is a great package, it looks great, it's funny and has a lot of content, but it's a bit hard to recomend due to the on-foot segments. Movement there can and will get annoying. Still, if you can get over them, there's a really fun game beneath. And if you can't, you can still marvel at the on-rails segments in 3D, they make a great showcase of the system!
 7.5 out of 10.