Kid Icarus (history and reception)

Famicom Tsushin's issue of 12 December 1986 listed Hikari Shinwa: Palutena no Kagami, Nintendo's game for the Famicom Disk System, as planned for release on 15 December 1986, at 2,600 yen on a Disk Card. Its issue of 14 November had planned it for early December. kid-icarus-history/release-japan

Both dates are planned ones (予定). The 28 November issue's data box (famitsu-0012, printed p. 95) prints 12月上旬発表予定, an announcement planned for early December. No source read prints the day the game went on sale in Japan.

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The Japanese release is titled Hikari Shinwa: Palutena no Kagami (光神話 パルテナの鏡). Famicom Tsushin reported on 14 November 1986 that Nintendo had renamed the game, until then announced as Angel Land (エンジェランド), a working title, Palutena no Kagami. kid-icarus-history/title-japan

The manual is primary for the title; the renaming rests on Famicom Tsushin's report (T1).

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Kid Icarus came out for the NES in North America in July 1987, by Nintendo of America's release list. kid-icarus-history/release-na

Computer Entertainer reported it shown at the Consumer Electronics Show in its June 1987 issue and reviewed it in September 1987 (see ces-1987 and ce-review).

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Computer Entertainer's June 1987 issue reported that Nintendo introduced Kid Icarus and Metroid at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago as "Password Paks" at $39.95 each: the game gives a password, and entering it continues where the player left off. kid-icarus-history/ces-1987

The same issue in another copy is the record computer-entertainer-1987-06 (Atari Compendium scan), whose pinned copy has no text layer; this record's copy holds the quote.

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The game is Nintendo's: Famicom Tsushin called it Nintendo's action game, and the North American manual is copyright 1987 Nintendo of America Inc. kid-icarus-history/maker

No source read names the developing team or its staff.

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The player is Pit, an angel youth. In the manual's story the goddess of darkness, Medusa, has taken the Three Sacred Treasures (the Mirror Shield, the Arrow of Light, and the Wings of Pegasus) from Palutena, the goddess of light who ruled Angel Land with her, and imprisoned Palutena in the Palace in the Sky. Palutena calls on Pit, held prisoner in a dungeon in the Underworld; he escapes to rescue her, and to defeat Medusa he needs the treasures. In the Japanese manual's story the same two goddesses, Palutena of light and Medusa of darkness, rule. kid-icarus-history/hero

The title names no character: Computer Entertainer's review calls the player's angel "Kid Icarus", and the manual calls him Pit.

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Angel Land is divided into four worlds. Worlds 1 to 3, the Underworld, the Overworld, and the Skyworld, each hold three areas and a fortress, and a world is cleared when Pit defeats the fortress's Gatekeeper; each Gatekeeper holds a sealed casket, and the three together hold the Three Sacred Treasures. In the fourth, the Palace in the Sky, Pit can fly, and with the treasures he is ready to fight Medusa. kid-icarus-history/structure

The manual's diagram (printed p. 17) names the worlds Underworld, Overworld, and Skyworld; its page 18 lists them as stages 1 to 3. The manual also says "Each stage is divided into 4 areas" (printed p. 14), counting the fortress as the fourth.

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Previewing it in November and December 1986, Famicom Tsushin described an action game on Greek mythology in which the angel boy Pit, armed with a sacred bow, defeats Medusa and saves Palutena. Its three stages, the Underworld, the Overworld, and the Sky World, scroll vertically and horizontally and are laid out like stairs; the fortress at the end of each is a maze, and Pit climbs toward the temple in the sky collecting Palutena's three treasures. kid-icarus-history/famitsu-preview

The previews count three stages and treat the Palace in the Sky as the goal, not a fourth stage.

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Pit shoots arrows with B and raises his shield when the button is let go; he can aim upward and climb ladders, squat, drop through floors, and jump, and Start opens a menu of his data and possessions. kid-icarus-history/controls

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Defeated enemies leave hearts, which Pit spends on items, up to 999 at a time. A shopkeeper trades goods for hearts; the black marketeer's goods are expensive, and a credit card lets Pit buy from him on credit, once until the debt is repaid. In a treasure chamber each of the eight pitchers costs 5 hearts to break, and the God of Poverty, hidden in one of them, takes away the items Pit found in treasure chambers. kid-icarus-history/hearts

The black market's goods are called expensive in the chamber listing (printed p. 23); the credit card's entry names the black marketeer.

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Pit grows stronger as he goes: his strength meter gains sections with his score at each checkpoint, up to five; a god in a sacred chamber gives him arrows that raise his fighting power, depending on how well he has fought; and completing a training chamber earns a weapon. The manual's weapons are flaming arrows, the Sacred Bow, and the Protective Crystal, and Pit can use them only with enough strength. kid-icarus-history/growth

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Along the way Pit enters chambers: treasure chambers, enemy lairs he can't leave until the enemies are destroyed, shops that exchange goods for hearts, sacred chambers where a god gives him arrows, a training chamber that ends with a weapon, a hot spring that restores his strength, and a hospital that cures him when an Eggplant Wizard's spell has turned him into an eggplant. In a fortress a mallet frees his friend Centurian to fight the Gatekeeper beside him, and a check sheet maps its chambers. kid-icarus-history/chambers

The manual spells the friend "Centurian".

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On the NES, play is resumed by password: at game over the game shows one, and entering it from Continue resumes from the last checkpoint passed, with Pit's strength, possessions, hearts, and points. kid-icarus-history/password

The North American manual is the source; how the Famicom Disk System release keeps progress has not been read.

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Computer Entertainer gave Kid Icarus four stars of four for graphics and three and a half for game play, and recommended it. kid-icarus-history/ce-review-score

{
 "review": "Computer Entertainer",
 "of": 4,
 "scores": {
  "graphics": 4,
  "game play": 3.5
 }
}

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Computer Entertainer's September 1987 review called it Nintendo's second new adventure game, mixing Greek mythology with exploration, full of whimsical touches for younger players but not childish. It praised the detailed graphics, the animation, and the music, and found it "just plain fun to play"; like Metroid, it noted, it is a Password Pak. kid-icarus-history/ce-review

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Computer Entertainer's Top Ten Videogames, top sellers from telephone polls of retailers and distributors, put Kid Icarus eighth in its October and December 1987 issues. kid-icarus-history/chart-1987

The November 1987 issue (vol. 6, no. 8) also lists it, but has no source record yet.

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