Medusa is back and it is up to Pit and the Goddess of Light, Palutena to stop her and the Underworld Army. Kid Icarus: Uprising’s story mode is one hell of a ride containing some great twists and turns that keep things fresh and exciting. When you think Uprising is over, Nintendo and Project Sora throws an amazing twist that has to be seen to understand how great it is. Every character in Uprising is completely voiced and unlike Nintendo’s other attempts of adding voice acting to their games, the voice acting in Uprising is superb. The almost constant banter each of Uprising’s levels, which may be a turnoff for some, is highly enjoyable as it breaks the fourth wall early and often, which makes for some truly hilarious and memorable lines.
As an aid to fight Medusa and her Underworld Army, Palutena grants Pit the “Power of Flight”, which allows Pit to fly for five minutes at a time. This story element plays right into the gameplay as each level is broken into sections, air battle and land battle. Air Battle plays much like an on-rails shooter such as Sin & Punishment as you control Pit’s projectiles and position on the screen while he flies through the environment. Land Battle is fairly linear, but offers Pit more freedom to move around the environment and battle enemies. This simple formula might get tedious in lesser games, but Uprising’s levels are so diverse and unique that it keeps things from getting repetitive. Plus playing on higher intensities, which can be adjusted by offering hearts (Uprising’s currency) to the Fiend Cauldron, opens up new rooms to explore and better items to collect thus creating many reasons to replay Uprising.
Aside from the story mode, Kid Icarus: Uprising includes a full-on multi-player that is much more than tacked on. You can play locally with friends or online over the Nintendo Network in either Free for All or Light vs. Dark. Each multi-player mode plays out much like the Land Battles in the single-player, but in a big non-linear arena. Out of the two modes, Light vs. Dark is the most compelling. In Light vs. Dark, you are split into two teams, the aforementioned Light and Dark. Each time a person dies on either team, you lose a portion of the team life bar. Once a team’s life bar is completely gone, one member of said team becomes either Pit or Dark Pit, depending on if the team is Light or Dark. Once Pit or Dark Pit loses their entire life bar, the match is over. Overall, the multi-player is just as fun and frantic as the single-player and ran without any hitches for this writer. Like some have said, you initially buy Uprising for the story mode, but stay for the multi-player.
The biggest polarizing feature of Kid Icarus: Uprising is the game’s controls. You either love them or hate them. For veteran handheld gamers, Uprising’s controls are very similar to those of Metroid Prime Hunters for the original DS. You control Pit’s movements with the Circle Pad, the camera and aiming reticle with the stylus and attack and/or fire projectiles with the L Shoulder Button. It takes a bit of getting used to and might cause a few hand cramps if you play for long periods of time. The key point is that you can play Kid Icarus: Uprising, even in 3D, without the stand that comes packaged with the game. After a little time with the game, I adjusted to the controls and found them very intuitive even if the few instances they do make things a little more complicated. Other than a few shortcomings with the game’s controls, the game’s Augmented Reality features feel tacked on and more or less completely useless.
While Kid Icarus: Uprising has a couple of shortcomings with the controls and the useless AR Card Battles, the fast-paced action, witty fourth wall breaking banter, exciting story and solid multi-player sure make up for those shortcomings. It is one of the best games you can find for the 3DS and one incredible apology to those who have been waiting for a new Kid Icarus since Game Boy days. Hopefully Nintendo won’t make us wait another 20 years for the next entry in the Kid Icarus series.
No comments:
Post a Comment