The miNEStry: An NES Podcast
The miNEStry founders, Archbishop Dracul and Father Avram, seek to inspire their 8-bit parishioners through methodical and ceremonial scrutiny of the library of games on the Nintendo Entertainment System.
The miNEStry: An NES Podcast
"Kid Icarus"
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Tonight we are reflecting on Kid Icarus, a 1986 Japanese release for the Famicom Disk System that was developed and published by Nintendo and was later released for the NES in North America in July of 1987. Nintendo’s R&D 1 team was previously known for developing titles for the NES like Metroid, Mario Bros and Donkey Kong. Tonight our guest is Som.
The miNEStry founders, Archbishop Dracul and Father Avram, seek to inspire their 8-bit parishioners through methodical and ceremonial scrutiny of the library of games on the Nintendo Entertainment System.
Good evening and welcome to the ministry. I am Archbishop Dracul, and alongside me is Father Abram. Our creed is to inspire our parishioners with reflections on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Tonight we are reflecting on Kid Icarus, a 1986 Japanese release for the Famicom Disc System that was developed and published by Nintendo, that was later released for the NES in North America in July of 1987. Nintendo's RD One team was previously known for developing titles for the NES like Metroid, Mario Brothers, and Donkey Kong. Tonight our guest is Heathen Som. Welcome.
SPEAKER_03Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_01Satoru Okada, director. He was also the chief director for Metroid in 1986, the director for Wrecking Crew in 1985, and also in 1985, he was actually an uncredited director for Balloon Fight. And what a great game Balloon Fight is. He did object design for Super Metroid in 1994 for the SNES. And the coordinator in 1990 for Game Boy's Balloon Kid. I don't know anything about Balloon Kid, actually. But uh the name sounds familiar to me.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I don't know much about it either. Super Metroid is you know what can you say about that? It's super and Legend of Zelda or Karina of Time, like classic after classic being listed here. What a pedigree. Yep, for sure.
SPEAKER_01Uh please proceed, Father Abram. Hirokazu Tanaka, music and sound. Uh he also uh I think he did music and sound for all of these, and I'm just gonna list them.
SPEAKER_00Balloon fight Tetris And Metroid.
SPEAKER_01There's man, where so many classics on this list. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And like such great music, like that last track in Metroid where you're after you beat the mother brain, you're escaping the the mother brain's lair, like you're climbing up the that chute.
SPEAKER_01Man, so well done. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Okay, so to be fair, I can't remember the balloon fight soundtrack at all. It it's very simple.
SPEAKER_04It doesn't have very many tracks on it, I would say, like in in the traditional sense. But like Tetris is has fantastic music.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, they're all remakes of classics, right? Of like classical music, I think.
SPEAKER_04Not all of them. Almost all of them, right? There's one that's kind of has a watery soundtrack to it. You can definitely tell that it was the guy who composed Metroid.
SPEAKER_01Oh, interesting. I don't know if I've ever heard that one. I'm sure I have. I just can't recall it.
SPEAKER_04I think it was type C, if I'm not mistaken. Ethan Psalm, you have anything else to s to add?
SPEAKER_03I think it you have to say something too about like introducing classical music to the masses via a video game, right? Like who's not doing like the da da do, right? Like how like a lot. Imagine I got all those kids that were introduced to that. I mean uh you're not like sitting in the back of the school bus going like, you know what, I think I'm gonna listen to some Chaikowski. So I tip my hat to you, Mr. Tanaka.
SPEAKER_04The average of three official reviews put it at 63%. That to me is after playing the game again after so many years, that to me is kind of low. This was pre-Nintendo Power. Uh, and we could we couldn't find any advertisement based on the NES game, so the only thing we were able to find was a commercial for the Famicom disc system version. In this in this commercial, a man is playing Kid Icarus and he gets turned to stone by Medusa.
SPEAKER_02That's horrifying. That does seem kind of low to me, but whatever.
SPEAKER_01The rating you mean? Yeah. Yeah, I was gonna say for an average of 63%, like that that I what was the lowest rating, do you remember, Archbishop? I think it was like a 50. Oh wow. So that means that mean the high one wasn't even that much higher than 63. That then that means that uh what? The high the highest one would have been like high seventy seventy-six. That's my average rating as a person, so I'll take it. What alleyway did you find this street urchin from, Archbishop?
SPEAKER_03I was shucking some scallops down by the bay, and the archbishop found me, the noodling with a sloth. You see?
SPEAKER_04So don't judge Father Abram. Let us now discuss the seven categories for which we execute judgment on Kidicarus. Category one is the narrative.
SPEAKER_01A reading from the manual. Let us go back to the distant past, to an age when the gods and man lived together in harmony. There was once a kingdom called Angel Land. This kingdom was ruled by two beautiful goddesses. Palutina, who administered light, and Medusa, who ruled darkness. Palutina lived in the palace in the sky and administered light so that man could live in happiness. And bathed in this light, man grew food and lived in peace. However, Medusa, the goddess of darkness, was different. Medusa hated mankind. She took great pleasure in drying up the crops that man took great pains to grow, and in turning people into stone statues. In her anger, Palutina changed Medusa into an ugly monster and banished her to the deep, dark underworld. For being changed into this ugly monster and forced to live in the underworld, Medusa promised to take over the palace in the sky where Palutina lived. So great was Medusa's anger that she joined forces with the monsters and evil spirits of the underworld, and Medusa's army soon began to surpass Palutina's army strength. Medusa led a surprise attack on Palutina's army, which could barely fend off the attack. Palatina's army suffered major losses and was heavily defeated in the final battle. What's more, Medusa's army took the three sacred treasures, the Mare Shield, the Arrow of Light, and the Wings of Pegasus away from them. Almost all of the warriors in Palatina's army were turned to stone statues, and Palatina herself was imprisoned deep in the palace in the sky. The peaceful realm of Angel Land came to be inhabited by foul and terrible monsters and was turned into a land of darkness ruled by the wicked Medusa. Locked in the depths of the palace in the sky, Palatina's strength was drained to its last. As a last resort, she sought the help of the angel youth Pitt, who was being held prisoner locked in a deep dungeon in the underworld. Pitt was a valiant warrior who used to be in charge of Palatina's bodyguards. Armed with the bow and arrow brought to him through Palatina's magical strength, Pitt attempted an escape from the underworld. The guard at this time was low in number, as Medusa's army had advanced to the palace in the sky. Pitt succeeded in his escape to set out on his long adventure to rescue Palatina. Yet, to defeat Medusa, he had to get the three sacred treasures. Will Pitt be able to restore Palutina's light and return it to Angel Land? Only you can answer that question. This is a reading from the manual. So this is a very lengthy story for its time. The longest one, I think, to date that we have covered.
SPEAKER_04Well, Deadly Towers does give it a run for its money, but it's it doesn't have the the same rated G tone this does.
SPEAKER_03I loved this game. However, I did not read the manual. Nor did I know any of this story. I'm dead serious. I'm dead serious. I've beaten the game. And none of this I remember.
SPEAKER_04That is fantastic because it'll give us an interesting perspective on how you managed to do so. This game is difficult. Notoriously difficult.
SPEAKER_03But, I mean the thing I'm laughing because it's like you you literally could play it, right? Like other than like the maze section, right? It's pretty much like a platformer. You go up, right? Well, I didn't need to know the backstory. I just tried to get up.
SPEAKER_01Somebody really put a lot of effort into this backstory. I know. It's pretty well written, too. It's not like it feels like you're reading, you know, like some sort of, you know, short story kids novel type type style.
SPEAKER_04This was the work of Toru Asawa, who was actually not I don't know if he was credited as the game designer, but I don't know why he didn't come up as as the the the main designer for this game.
SPEAKER_03I'm stealing this whole story from my profile. Change pit.
SPEAKER_01Very much like Heathen. Um I never really knew the story either. I actually read the in-game story, which is shorter, um, from the title screen, if you let the title screen run. Um it's much shorter. So I had some semblance of the story, but this is this is detailed. And so somebody took a lot of time to put this together. And after playing through the game and looking back at it, they did a pretty damn good job. Like they had like the the game actually I don't know whether the story came first, I'm guessing it did. But the game design actually, and we'll get into this later, but the game design, just as it pertains to the narrative, uh, really kind of fleshes out this story, which is which is really cool, I think. It doesn't not ever not every game does that. Usually the the story is just some sort of weird add-on that they've either written around the game or just some sort of like starting point that then they add a bunch of stuff to it.
SPEAKER_04You're absolutely right, especially back then. This came out a year after Kung Fu.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. It's not surprising though, given m given that we're talking about the Metroid team. It's it's really not surprising. Agreed.
SPEAKER_03But, you know, what was this, 1986, right? 86, yep. Yep, so remember being 86. I mean arcades were still in fashion, right? I mean, they were kind of dying down. Right, but arcades were still kind of a thing. And so, like, nobody's gonna go in an arcade and expect like a whole backstory. So a lot of times, like these games in like mid eighties and stuff like that, like stories like this weren't a very common thing. It was more about gameplay, you know what I mean? That would kind of pull the people into playing it. So the fact that somebody went in and made this huge backstory about this is the credit to them in their detail.
SPEAKER_04And correct me if I'm wrong, but Nintendo isn't very well known for their like d really in-depth stories to this magnitude, I would say, back then. Like they they were very short and to the point. Just like me, yes.
SPEAKER_01I mean that's true, but I'd have to say, honestly, I think Metroid had a pretty good story. I would agree, I would agree. I mean, I think honestly, as far as like appeal, I kind of feel like this is on the same level, I think. Like the narrative, I'd say, is on the same level as Metroid. But as far as like detail in the story, yeah, this this actually takes one step further than Metroid. And that's just using Metroid as a comparison, right? Just because I think Metro Metroid is probably one of the I'd say one of the best written uh storylines in on the Nintendo. So I mean it it's in a class of its own, to be honest.
SPEAKER_04And and it's it was the sister game to this, actually. They were both uh they were both marketed as password packs. And but we'll get into that uh during the box art presentation. Let us move on. Let us proceed to category two, which is audio. Known in Japan as Myth of Light, Palutina's Mirror, on the Famicom Disc System, the game was almost identical to this North American NES release, except the music was optimized to meet the limitations of the NES. The music is epic and has a lot of atmosphere. Uh there it even has small variations that I that I found during the underworld, which was really cool. So it doesn't so you're not always listening to the same exact thing over and over again. Enemies moving to the beat of the music and the labyrinths were a nice touch. And um I was a really big fan of the death sound effect. Like when you get hit, he does this little scream. My legs my legs are on fire. But in the labyrinths, if he if he if his last hit point is done by a skewer, it holds in the first note. And he screams before falling off the screen. It's morbid as hell, but funny at the same time.
SPEAKER_01Little little uh anecdote to that is I think that the scream sound, it's a if it's not the same, it's extremely reminiscent to the ghost sounds in Ghosts and Goblins. It's much higher pitched in Ghosts and Goblins. I don't know. It r it reminds it reminds me of it. I wonder if that was on purpose or if it was just some sort of weird programming accident. It's got some dark humor to the game for sure. I really liked the music. Uh the the only the only music that I actually don't really like is the um uh what is it, the challenge room music? Yeah. It's very repetitive and very like droning. You know? That's what the that's with the the iron plates, right?
SPEAKER_04That's that's what you're gonna do.
SPEAKER_01The iron plates, yeah. There's also like the the the little floating uh mustaches and eyeballs? Yeah, the little mustaches, yeah. You know what's my favorite? Yes.
SPEAKER_03The Grim Reaper. Heck yeah. My absolute favorite. I don't know why.
SPEAKER_01Grim Reaper's weird, man. I'm gonna start using that in my daily life. It's almost kinda like like the Grim Reaper's sound and like the sound choices there, it's almost like correct me if I'm wrong here, but it feels like anime.
SPEAKER_03Well the thing is, it's supposed to be an annoyance, and I think it's Does that successfully without actually like really annoying you. Like it's it the thing it's such a juxtaposition of the of the the the theme throughout the level. And then it's like the and then you're like, oh, you gotta like smite him. I I just like I always liked it, but I mean I didn't like fighting them, but success to whoever composed the lovely notes to torment me while platforming upwards.
SPEAKER_01That would be uh praise Tanaka. A reading from the manual. Angel land is divided into four worlds. Worlds one, two, and three each contain a fortress. Each world is cleared when Pitt defeats the gatekeeper of the fortress. Pitt's strength increases with the score at each area. Stage one underworld. Stage two overworld stage three Sky World Stage four palace in the sky. Chambers Treasure Chambers. These chambers contain eight pitchers filled with treasure. Shoot the pitchers with the arrow and the treasure appears. Remember, you need five hearts to break a pitcher. Enemies layer. In some places you won't be able to escape unless you completely destroy the enemy. Get as many hearts as possible in this chamber. Store. A shopkeeper will exchange goods for hearts. Black Marketer. They may be expensive, but you can get your hands on some valuable goods. You can also use the credit card. Sacred Chamber. A friendly god will give Pitt arrows to increase his fighting power depending on how well Pitt has been fighting. Sacred Training Chamber. In this room, a god will make Pitt go through training. When he has completed this training, Pitt will receive a weapon. Grin and bear this training. Good luck. Hot Spring Chamber. A dip in the hot spring will revive Pitt's strength. Weapons fire, flaming arrows, sacred bow and protective crystal. This is a reading from the manual. Praise be Nintendo.
SPEAKER_04So uh for me my gameplay pros. I only have one. The difficulty is hard but fair. The control is tight, so if you die, it's totally your fault, for the most part. But there are some design decisions that cheapen the experience. And I have a pretty good list here of uh things I'll go through. The uh the first three levels are absolutely brutal. The game actually has a reverse difficulty curve for the most part. During the climbing level, the screen scrolls up with you. Should you hit the bottom of the screen, you die, even if a perceived platform is just below it. Get the feather wherever you can on the climbing levels. I hate the fact that you can't duck without falling through the floor on on certain platforms. Platforms that are not explained at all. You just do it sometimes and you'll fall through. It serves no purpose in the game, in my opinion. Uh while while extremely clever, I hate hate, hate the eggplant wizards. The instruction manual even says turning into an eggplant is a quote fate worse than death. Apparently, Torosawa had an obsession with eggplants, but he ultimately created the eggplant wizard as a celebration of getting his summer bonus. It's like I just got a shit ton of money. Now how can I really f over the player in my game?
SPEAKER_01Wait, before you move on, um, I want I want to know what the connection is.
SPEAKER_04I don't know the answer to that question.
SPEAKER_01I getting a bonus and and doing an eggplant wizard. Like, is there is some sort of cultural thing with eggplants that mean like money?
SPEAKER_04I don't know the answer to that question. Most of this information I got was from a 2012 article by Nintendo WorldReport.com called Making of a Myth: The Grueling Development of the Original Kit Icarus by Devin Monins. We'll be referencing that a lot. Or I will be anyway. It is a a good question. Like, is there some sort of a a cultural connection between the two things? I I don't know. Um moving on with my pro my cons. I also loathe the Pluton and the Pluton fly bandits. You can you can't kill them, and one collision will result in one of your weapons being stolen for good if you have any. Sure, you can buy them back from the on the black market, but if you don't have enough hearts and you the door closes once you leave, what's the point? It proves that the special weapons in the game are just nice to have. And lastly, Hoodra, the second fortress uh boss, is the hardest boss in the game. Far more troubling than Twin Bellows in the first b in the first labyrinth or Pandora.
SPEAKER_01Is that that bouncing dragon guy?
SPEAKER_04Yeah. But there's a lot to talk about here. I mean, like going back to the the reverse difficulty of the game, I found anyway that you really like the concept of grinding for hearts is very important during this time. During the f specifically in the very first and second level. Like when I was a kid, I didn't realize that you could power up in between levels because I wasn't trying to get hearts, I was just trying to get through the game. And once I realized, once I read it in the manual that you can do that, you can power up, and I started grinding for for hearts, the game opened up to me. And I don't know. It's just so it's it's just so strange how in a in a time when games were brutally difficult anyway, or uh or were are brutally brutally difficult by default, they actually made it more difficult the beginning than the end. I'm still grinding for hearts.
SPEAKER_01I think I I agree, grinding is fun once you realize you need to do it, actually. Um I think once I realized it, um it wa it like you said, the game opens up and for me I I kinda like the grindy stuff, so um the game kind of went from a platformer to honestly more of like a um like a character progressive type of feel.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it had it had some RPG elements for sure.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. So it's it I I thought the grinding was really fun. I want to also agree that with the platforming being really tight, there are no infuriating jumps in this game. There it once you figure out how to jump, sure, like some of the jumps can be challenging, but there's no jumps that are like, oh man, I can't get by this jump unless I do it perfectly. It just doesn't exist in this game. But what can really screw you up is that ducking and falling through platforms. Um ducking is almost not even necessary. Except for when those things come out of the ground and shoot at you. But the flames Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but most of the time it's just easier to either jump over them or just or just take it, you know. Uh you also uh mentioned, um at least I think you mentioned or maybe you didn't. Uh the the the the labyrinths the labyrinths in this game uh are very difficult to navigate. And the map pencil feather mechanic is freaking horrible.
SPEAKER_04You mean map pencil torch?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, sorry, map pencil torch mechanic is freaking horrible. It's it's like even once you get the map, right? So it you you can't it's useless without the pencil, because then it that marks where you've been, and then the torch marks the current position that you're at on the map. But even with all of that, uh you still have to kind of remember your way because the the there's no semblance of like walls and entrances or exits on that map, it just slowly becomes like a solid color of red, right?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and you have to buy these things, which sucks. Yeah, except for the map, not yeah, except for the map, but you have to buy the torch and the pencil, and once you use them, they're only good for one labyrinth. You have to buy them again for each labyrinth.
SPEAKER_01Right, and they're they're generally pretty cheap, they're like 120 hearts or something like that. Uh, but still, yeah, yeah, it's once you actually start grinding stuff, the the the dungeons get easier as far as like surviving, but you still have to deal with the navigation, and then God forbid that you get smacked with an eggplant, because then you gotta find the hospital. And once you get to the hospital, um a floating head and shoulders of a beautiful woman removes the curse.
SPEAKER_03It sounds like my life. I got smacked with an eggplant, and I gotta go see a girl to reverse it.
SPEAKER_01The other thing I'd like to mention is I think the passwords are horrible. Very reminiscent of Metroid. Except I think it's actually a little easier than Metroid, because Metroid has some very strange font with its characters that makes some of the characters really difficult to uh. This one has a bit of a problem. But it's not it's not as bad. It's not as bad, I don't think. I I really struggled with Metroid passwords. Um but but Kit Icarus, I I can just you know, I can generally look at the characters and and realize what I like the biggest thing, really, is the um uh the the the the zero and the o, right? Yeah that that's the biggest thing, and always the biggest thing. That was the same thing with Metroid. But once you realize that the O is square and the zero is oval, then you know you're okay. Um the other thing that really helps is that the lowercase letters are a different color. So there's no there's no uh uh mixing up one and a lowercase l, for example. I can't tell you how many times I've lost games because of these passwords. Yeah, well, that's the thing, because you can recognize it on screen, but as soon as you write it down, you're gonna write it down how you want, and then suddenly you write it down in an indistinguishable way, right? Because you decide to uh uh draw a zero and an O the same exact way, and then you have no idea what you're looking at. And so that that's the problem. That's why, with modern technology, taking a picture of the screen is the best way to do it, because then you don't have to worry about you messing up the password writing it down. You can just look at it later and and put it back in. The bosses. I had no trouble with any of these bosses. Um the the one that I had the most trouble with, that I actually died at was Medusa at the end. Um because I was trying to figure out the timing on uh dodging the projectiles and dodging the snake thing. Um and that was the most challenging boss. All the rest of them were cake as long as you just keep moving into your patient. Uh same thing with the dragon. Like the dragon, like once you actually can can kind of tell where it's going, it basically just bounces around. It never really changes its direction or path or anything like that. So as long as you're comfortable with jumping and moving around from platform to platform, it was it was fine. Um and as long as you're patient. If you've really tried to kill them, then you know you're gonna have a hard time because you're probably gonna get hit a ton. Uh also having the barrel with a bunch of potions really helps in this case as well. Uh I really liked the the items and grinding for the items. I I thought, again, like once you realize that you can grind for these things, you know, then suddenly you want to go into every door that you run into with as many hearts as possible. And it also makes you want to take on the challenge rooms. Uh, because you realize if you can just get to the other side, then you'll end up better off. And you definitely will end up better off. Uh, not only because you'll have more score at the end for a power-up, but you'll also have as many hearts as you need to buy the items that will keep you alive longer. So it really encourages you to play the game for for uh uh I guess more intensely than just sitting down for a half hour and you know trying to speed run through the levels.
SPEAKER_04I think I think I saw a speedrun that was like 19 minutes, I was like, how? Yeah, I don't know. Heathen Summ, would you like to chime in on anything we discussed up to this point?
SPEAKER_03Well, I would agree with everything the father has mentioned. Um but remember we're looking back with a lens of playing modern games. Like games like this.
SPEAKER_01Do you have something stuck in your throat or something like that, Heathen?
SPEAKER_03It was the eggplant.
SPEAKER_01Oh, well let me remove the eggplant curse.
SPEAKER_03Well, in fact, I see a beautiful young woman with just shoulders and a head. Anoint me. Free me of this burden, the eggplant. Anyways, I'll carry on. Games like this. Like back then, right? So when they were making games like such as Kid Icarus, especially, when they go back to when the the Archbishop was referring to the platforming, like we would consider that a glitch these days. So how well they incorporated it into the gameplay made it a success. You know, other games of the time, like they're glaringly obvious. Do you know what I mean? So things like that that some people would kind of ding our get Icarus for. Like I would also I would look at it and be like, oh, they successfully kind of like integrated a glitch into the gameplay. You know? So you have to take that into consideration of the limitations of the programming and stuff like that. So that that that's just my two cents on the the the tight controls and and the you know the platforming in itself. And uh to you know, remark uh in it like the grinding, the maps, and so like yeah, you could say it was like you know a mishmash of different gaming styles was it successful? I think so. One of my favorite games. In fact, I slept with it every night. I would blow into its little crevice and I would tuck it under my pillow.
SPEAKER_01Okay, I think that way we've heard enough of your uh NES cartridge exploits their heathen. Fine.
SPEAKER_04Let us proceed to category four, which is graphics. For me, the graphics are clean and everything has more character than most other games of the time. And the cons are everything is portrayed well except for the things in Skyworld that I used to call bladders. When I was a kid, I had imagined Pit getting pissed on causing damage. And my last con is I wish the Skyworld used a blue background like the overworld did instead of black.
SPEAKER_01Well, the set the yeah, the overworld, the side scrolling levels, they all had that that blue background, right?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it doesn't make much sense though.
SPEAKER_01Well, isn't the vertical levels part of isn't that the underworld? Or am I am I not going to be able to do that? No, you're right about that.
SPEAKER_04Level one is the underworld, stage one is the underworld, that's the first three levels, then the fortress, then you have the overworld, which is the three side scrolling levels, then their backgrounds are both blue, and I think the third one is black, and then you go to the the climbing levels, and they're all black backgrounds. And that's supposed to be the sky world.
SPEAKER_01I mean, personally, I love games with black backgrounds. Like I actually really do. Like I think it makes everything so much cleaner, um and and makes your eyes focus on the things that matter. You know, everything else pops against it. And uh it's just it's very appealing. It's very appealing.
SPEAKER_04Some do you have anything to say about the graphics?
SPEAKER_03I'm looking at it right now. I think it works. Like, you have to admit, like, look at their color palette. The clouds are blue, the undercut, like the shadows are purple, right? So, what do you do? Make the sky red. That would kind of give the wrong kind of impression. Um, color's important. And it kind of adds to the like, you know, since it's a platformer, like you're gonna fall off into the abyss, right? But why not make it black? I think it works.
SPEAKER_01I think it just allows them a lot more freedom to do things with.
SPEAKER_04Maybe maybe I just maybe I just if they never changed it to blue, I would have I wouldn't have had a problem.
SPEAKER_03But like also think of this, right? You have limitations with the colors and the technology of the time. And so playing this, I remember as a kid thinking like, you know, black, like, you know, specifically in the levels that are colored like black, like it allowed me to kind of imagine like an abyss. Like you didn't take it so literal, the visual. Nowadays, we have to paint these worlds with all these graphics and everything, and you know, if it's real-time graphics, like all of a sudden a mountain will pop up out of nowhere. Here, you know, you were kind of concentrating on the platforming, the colorful little blue chickens that would whatever chase you. And um, it allowed for more internal like imagination. You know, I love shooting chickens. Exactly. What is that thing? Does anybody know what that is to this day?
SPEAKER_01Supposedly it's a snake. That's a snake, a snake with wings, yeah. Well, they say it tastes like chicken. It tastes like chicken. That's what they say. I wouldn't want to eat a snake, but anyway. I I I I wanna add something else to the to the graphics. The bosses were kind of lame, in my opinion. Yeah, they were. I I mean I understand what the why they made the decisions that they did. Usually from on a technical aspect, like you can't get like really awesome big bosses without doing some really interesting magic with uh tiles. It's basically constructing the boss with tiles, right? Um the and then moving the the background around. So um
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and this was an early game too, so all that sort of trickery was hadn't been figured out yet.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it just they didn't they weren't real the bosses weren't really that awe-inspiring. However, all of the little critters, all of the monsters, all that stuff, everything is done, it's so charming. Like everything has an appeal to it. There is nothing in this game that doesn't catch your eye in some way, shape, or form.
SPEAKER_03Agreed. Yeah, yeah. If I may make a remark, your holiness. Um yes, the bosses did seem like an afterthought, but like I think it's the type of game that, you know, focused more on the platforming and the puzzles and the maps. And like that's what the the driving force behind this title. You know, so it's like, what do you do? You know, uh, they had to give you some fruit to like go to the arduous jumping of clouds, and and maybe they perhaps they fell short. Uh, but you know, like you were alluding to, as a whole, a wonderful game. Charming, colorful, delightful.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. This is definitely a game that I will continue to come back to uh throughout my life.
SPEAKER_04And I'll say again, there is so much character in the graphics. There is so much character in everything. It's it's so well done. And like back then, that was a huge, like, huge breath of fresh air.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, because we've definitely been inundated with some shit.
SPEAKER_03What give for an example? The heathen needs an example. Deadly Towers. Deadly Towers. Okay. The Heathen agrees. The Heathen agrees. That was a turd.
SPEAKER_01I love how we both said that at the same time. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I have a I have a love-hate relationship with that game. Point taken, point taken. But I mean, I'm just gonna like I told, you know, the Archbishop here, this is one of my favorite games, so I may be a little biased.
SPEAKER_01It's actually one of my favorite games, too. And again, there's a reason there's a reason.
SPEAKER_03Everything to do with the graphics, honestly. Okay, it's just like how many pixels makes up Pitt.
SPEAKER_01I I think he's probably two by two tiles, I think. So 16 by 16.
SPEAKER_03It's just I was enamored with the whole, like, you know, style of it. Like I said, so much so, didn't even read the backstory. Just I was just like back then, it was like if it looked good, I wanted to play it.
SPEAKER_01And there's there's a lot of variation, too. There's a lot of variation in the in the maps.
SPEAKER_03The color palette alone.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like there's the there's so many Nintendo, there's so many Nintendo games out there that just do like maybe three or four tiles for an entire level. Right? But this game, there's variation all over the place. And and you see it progress as you go through the level. Like the level will change as you go through the level. The only exception to that, usually, is uh the labyrinth, which tends to be more consistent, but even in there, you can go into different sections and suddenly the labyrinth looks different. So just everything, the way they handled everything in this in this game with the graphics is just especially for the the the the time when it was made. Just amazing. Agreed.
SPEAKER_04I also agree. So to me, the box art is fantastic. It's almost identical to the original NES black box designs, except they ditched the Starfield background for a solid silver color. Mark it along with Metroid as a password pack. I love it. I keep going back to that day in January of 1988 when I was in Woolworth in the North Dartmouth Mall. And I had three games on the table. I had Metroid, Kid Icarus, and Chubby Cherub. Thank God I didn't choose Chubby Cherub. Yeah, that would have been a tra a tragedy. But it came down to Metroid or Kid Icarus. And the funny thing is, is even though I didn't buy Kid Icarus that day, I rented it constantly. It was like always in our house growing up.
SPEAKER_01So I would like to applaud the fact that they didn't use the Starfield here. What was the last game we just did that had the Starfield that I didn't like? Kung Fu. Kung Fu, that's right, yeah. So when they used the Starfield on Kung Fu, I was like, what the hell is this? This doesn't make any sense. If they had used the Starfield here, uh it would have been the same thing. Would have been like, what the hell is going on here? Uh so I love the fact that they didn't use the Starfield here. Why didn't they remove it for Kung Fu? I don't know. But either way, uh the box art's very clean. I don't see all of the fudging of the pixels as mentioned with some of the other uh black box uh games. Um technically it's a gray box game, right? It's it's part of the black box series, I think, but it's actually not a black box, right?
SPEAKER_04Well, the black the black box series was the launch titles. This isn't a launch title.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I thought it was. Okay. My bad. Um but yeah, so it's so I don't know. It's going back to this, that with some of the other NES titles, uh they fudged the graphics as mentioned in the previous episode with Kung Fu. They had like smearing, they added extra pixels. Um if they did that in here, which they probably did, they didn't do it at a noticeable level. Everything's very square, everything's very clean, there's no smudges. Um I think, you know, other than the fact that maybe some things are at some interesting angles, um, I think they like rotated pit a little bit. Um it's it's not it's not a horrible uh cover. Um uh you know, as far as fudging the graphics is concerned. I like the screenshot selections that they used in the back. Everything's really formatted well. I kind of wish that they had put one boss in the back. Um I feel like that would have I think that would have been a lot, you know, uh a boon, as it were.
SPEAKER_04And may I just say we we were gonna read the back of the box, but it was very similar to the story, so to save time, we decided against it. Yep.
SPEAKER_01So that's that that's pretty much all I have to say about uh box art in presentation.
SPEAKER_03Who wouldn't get excited when you walk into child world and see this box art? It's very nostalgic, very on-brand for Nintendo.
SPEAKER_04Let's proceed to category six, which is Fun Factor. So the game for me offers a variety of gameplay unseen on the NES at the time, a hybrid of Metroid and Zelda. And it doesn't take itself too seriously. For instance, there was a credit card in the game, which was a fantastic idea, but it completely broke the theme as a pop culture reference. How do you even get the credit card? You have to get it, I believe, by winning the treasure room and not getting the caught up the god of poverty.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that's right. I've just never done that.
SPEAKER_03What do you think Kidaker's credit rating is? I don't know. I think he's above a 750.
SPEAKER_04The enemies are rather quirky. Specno's design was inspired by the game's composer, Hirokazu Tanaka's large nose. There's a jellyfish called Mick that has a large iconic mouth, which I figured was Mick Jagger from the Rolling Stones. And the Kamaitu in Skyworld are Metroids. The manual even says they came from another planet.
SPEAKER_02No.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Many games like God of Poverty Room, which we mentioned, and the training rooms give a nice gameplay variety throughout. And the little things like bartering with the shopkeepers using the A and B on the second controller is a fun little gameplay mechanic. Um I I I don't have any cons for fun factor for this game. I I never had a problem playing this game.
SPEAKER_01The only thing that really kills the enjoyment. Um, but once you you know well, the only thing that kills the enjoyment is falling through the platforms and you don't mean to, but that as soon as you train yourself out of that, it's fine.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I think that's part of the fun. Like I can remember it being hard, but not so hard that you would like snap the controller over your twelve-year-old knee, you know? Like now games are way too easy, look pretty, and not as fun. Why? Too easy. So the balance, like they achieved with this title, a piece of resista. The sprinkles on my Sunday. Very nicely put.
SPEAKER_04Let us proceed to our last category, which is technical. I never I never encountered Sprite Flickering. Um, I don't know. Did you gentlemen encounter sprite flickering ever?
SPEAKER_03Not in this game, down an alley, maybe.
SPEAKER_01Uh, not that I if if there was, it wasn't noticeable.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. The cons. We are going to touch on something we never have touched upon on the ministry, which is the development process. As I said earlier, uh, I will be referencing the article making of a myth, the grueling development of the original Kid Icarus by Devin Monins. And um, it was written in 2012, and it was about the journey that Toru Osawa took to make this game. And I'm gonna read, I'm gonna read the I I basically truncated some parts down, but um it's mostly paraphrase. Um Torusawa created the design the game design document, character sprites, and had walking and shooting mechanics working when he brought the game to an outside company called Toes for testing, TOSE. He felt neglected by Nintendo and was developing his game single-handedly until August of 1986 when Yoshio Sakamoto and Nintendo's RD1 team joined the project after completing Metroid, where they spent three months in development hell in order to meet the December 19th deadline. People were pulling all nighters and sleeping under their desks on collapsed cardboard boxes. Nintendo turned off the heat in the autumn months.
SPEAKER_01So hold on, wait, wait. So this this game right here, this game right here set the precedent for the blight of crunch time that has plagued the video game industry to this day.
SPEAKER_04As we know it. We don't know how how many other companies were doing that beforehand. I assume it was, I assume they were all doing it. So they had a December 19th deadline. On December 16th, Osawa was told if it doesn't have any bugs, it's finished. There was no time for the creation of a staff role in the Famicom Disc System version, despite Osawa's pleas. The North American release in 1987 received a staff roll, but Osawa was left off of it. What? Yep. Insanity. I know, man. That's it's a it's I I don't like to hear that kind of thing about a game I love so much. Moving on, the last level was added at the very last minute to surprise the players, according to the article. It certainly does feel like an afterthought. A looping level, unless you get 50 enemies, unless you kill 50 enemies. Give me a break, it's minutiae. I'd much rather have been a single screen boss fight.
SPEAKER_01This is this is really interesting to me because I'm so glad you brought up the last level. Because I was gonna say with with technical for me, and it uh uh we can get back to the article in in just a second, but I'm just it's a good place to interject what I was gonna say in my piece, which is there's so much variation in this game. I mean, I said it with the graphics, you know. You have you have a labyrinth level where you're going, it becomes like Zelda, right? You're going from room to room, you can go up, down, left, or right. Uh there's vertical levels, these were your climbing platforms, there's side-scrolling levels, and then you have this side-scrolling shoot him up level at the end. Can I just take a moment to say this is almost a totally different game? It's like it's like they coded a whole new game. I know that's not really true in some regards. Um, like, you know, they reused uh some enemy sprites and stuff like that, but the engine driving the level is totally different. It's gotta be. It's auto-scrolling, the controls are different, uh the the different player character. Um, you know, it's everything is different about this level. There's no platforming, there's no jumping. Um it turns into a shoot 'em up. And and so it's like they just added a whole new game at the end of this one.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, new player sprite too.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, a lot simpler, granted, not really any animation other than the wings, I think, right? But but still.
SPEAKER_04I have two more cons. Uh I experienced slowdown from time to time, specifically when the reapets appeared after aggravating the the Reaper. Yeah. I experienced that too. And the collisions are a tad wonky. I would use I would sometimes land in the middle of a platform when I jumped up. And some people use that during their speed runs to actually go through walls and stuff. It's pretty crazy. Um there's also no clear distinction as to when you get hit from things like the thorns when you're climbing. Like the thorns that stick out of the walls when you're climbing.
SPEAKER_01Yep. I noticed uh one one of the the wonky things about the collision that I'm grateful for is that the arrow seems to be a lot bigger than what it actually is. So you can hit something that is lower than your arrow, for example. Um and without that, that would have been that would have made the game so much harder. Yeah, I agree.
SPEAKER_02Let us proclaim the hints and cheats of our game.
SPEAKER_03A reading from the manual. What would I do to get extra strength to increase my maximum endurance? You get stronger at each checkpoint you pass through if your score exceeds a certain level. In other words, you must get a high score. Oh heavenly one. When will you give me the arrows for extra fighting power? Let me tell you how many of the enemy have you killed? How many chambers have you entered? Have you got a lot of items? And how little damage has the enemy inflicted upon your flesh? These all decide the answer to your question. Cute little man. Why can't I use my weapons? Sometimes you can't use them because you haven't got enough strength. Drink creatine. How can I get to Medusa's chamber? Well, Pitt, you must fight fiercely and win many battles. My weapon was stolen by Pluton in Pluton Fly. What can I do to get them back? Hmm. You might try bargaining with the black marketeers. Can I look forward to anything special once I've rescued Palutina? First, you have to rescue her. But once you have, many different endings await you depending on how skillful you have been. A reading from the manual. Praise be Nintendo.
SPEAKER_04GameFAQs.com also has passwords for each level as well as every ending variation. I think there's five of them or something like that.
SPEAKER_01Oh, really? I thought there were only two.
SPEAKER_04No, there's apparently you could be a farmer or a even turn into a into one of those nose characters that depending upon how poorly you do in the game.
SPEAKER_03Oh wow. You can go on to become a telemarketer. Or perhaps a podiatrist. That's my favorite ending. I like the fact I could also become an OBGYN.
SPEAKER_01And now, brethren, let us offer each other the body of price. Uh so game prices then and now. According to the 1988 Sears Wishbook, Kid Icarus was originally $39.99. Uh and just for perspective, according to data.bls.gov CPI inflation calculator, $39.99 in 1988, is worth approximately $104.23 in 2024 today. Exactly what's in my bank account. And you would gladly spend it on Kid Icarus. I would actually.com. Uh today the prices are a little different. A loose copy, cart only, twenty four ninety nine. Uh box only, just the box, ninety one dollars and thirty two cents. Is that actually is that is that is this the most expensive box that we've had to date? I don't know if it is. Yeah, I would I would think so. Um okay, here we go. So manual only. $14.22. That's pretty average. Uh complete inbox, $132.47. Uh I'm just surprised the box is this much. But the uh brand new sealed inbox. I think this might actually be the most expensive game we've ever covered. $44,744.18 for a sealed copy. Brand new inbox of this game.
SPEAKER_04I I can kinda believe that. Uh the simple reason is that day I saw Kid Acres in the store, I never saw it again after that.
SPEAKER_01It's interesting because you kind of expect these types of prices for launch titles, because launch titles, you know, everybody's open to the game, so how many exact you know, how many copies sealed must there be, right? But this is kind of this kind of throws that on its head a little bit.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's uh it's pretty staggering. Let us now execute judgment upon Kid Icarus and decide which of the seven cardinal sins it has committed. Father Avram. In regards to narrative, what is your final judgment?
SPEAKER_01In regards to narrative, Kid Icarus has committed no fault.
SPEAKER_04Heathen Psalm In regards to narrative, what is your final judgment? No fault has been seen. Very well. In regards to narrative and in the presence of this assembly, Kitacurus has been spared. Father Avram, in regards to audio, what is your final judgment?
SPEAKER_01In regards to audio, Hitokerus has committed no fault.
SPEAKER_04Even some. In regards to audio, what is your final judgment? In regards to audio, Hidicorus has no fault.
SPEAKER_03In fact, quite a few bangers. I like to play this while I'm in the shower.
SPEAKER_04In regards to audio and in the presence of this assembly, Kid Icarus has been spared. Father Avram, in regards to gameplay, what is your final judgment?
SPEAKER_01In regards to gameplay, Kid Icarus has committed no fault.
SPEAKER_04Heathen Psalm In regards to gameplay, what is your final judgment?
SPEAKER_03In regards to gameplay, Kid Icarus Play with me more than my father. I see no fault.
SPEAKER_04In regards to gameplay and in the presence of this assembly, Kid Icarus has been spared. Father Avram, in regards to graphics, what is your final judgment?
SPEAKER_01In regards to graphics, Kid Icarus has committed no fault.
SPEAKER_04Heathen Som, in regards to graphics, what is your final judgment?
SPEAKER_03In regards to graphics. Kid Icarus, such a beautiful game.
SPEAKER_04In regards to graphics and in the presence of this assembly, Kid Icarus has been spared. Father Avram, in regards to box art and presentation, what is your final judgment?
SPEAKER_01In regards to box art and presentation, Kid Icarus has committed no fault.
SPEAKER_04Heathen Som. In regards to box art and presentation, what is your final judgment?
SPEAKER_03In regards to box art and presentation.
SPEAKER_04In regards to box art and presentation, and in the presence of this assembly, Kit Icarus has been spared. Father Avram, in regards to Fun Factor, what is your final judgment?
SPEAKER_01In regards to Fun Factor, Kit Icarus has committed no fault.
SPEAKER_04Ethan Psalm, in regards to Fun Factor, what is your final judgment?
SPEAKER_03In regards to Fun Factor, just like the tickle fight in Summer Camp. Kid Icarus, there is no fault.
SPEAKER_04In regards to Fun Factor, and in the presence of this assembly, Kid Icarus has been spared. Father Abram, in regards to technical, what is your final judgment?
SPEAKER_01In regards to technical, Kid Icarus has committed no fault.
SPEAKER_04Heathen Psalm, in regards to technical, what is your final judgment?
SPEAKER_03In regards to technical.
SPEAKER_04Those who assembled are set forth to bring the fruits of the ministry to the world. Join us next month for Golgo 13 with Christopher.
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