Video Game / Kid Icarus

"Will Pit be able to restore Palutena's light and return it to Angel Land?
Only you can answer that question."

— Digital instruction manual for 3D Classics: Kid Icarus

A series of platformer/shooter games made by Nintendo, known by the title Hikari Shinwa: Parutena no Kagami^note Myth of Light: The Mirror of Palutena) in Japanese. They take place in Angel Land, though largely influenced by Classical mythology, in which a Goddess named Palutena (either a mistransliteration of "Parthena", or a portmanteau of Pallas-Athena) rules the heavenly Skyworld and Medusa rules the Underworld. Medusa invades Skyworld and kidnaps Palutena which leaves her Kid Hero bodyguard, the erstwhile angel Pit (artistically based on the putti and Cupid), to escape from the Underworld, gather up the three sacred relics, and defeat Medusa and her legions of demons, a few of which were inspired by Greek/Roman mythology, and... life-energy sucking aliens called Komaytos, which aren't even trying to hide the fact that they're based on Metroids (the game was designed by Metroid creator Gunpei Yokoi, used the same engine, most of the development was done by Toru Osawa who also worked on Metroid and, in international releases of the first game (except the 3D Classics Updated Re-release, which has a save feature worldwide), similar password systems are used for resuming games).

It was followed by a sequel for the Game Boy (Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters) in which Pit had to train himself to use the sacred relics once more to defeat an invading army of demons lead by Orcos. The character also starred as a member of the Five-Man Band of Captain N: The Game Master. After that, the series dropped completely off the radar for over ten years, despite a small but regular desire for a sequel pretty much since the days of the SNES.

Then Pit was included in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, complete with a radical makeover, and the crowd went wild. A new title, called Kid Icarus: Uprising, was released for the Nintendo 3DS in March 2012, using and expanding on the character redesigns from Brawl and giving new personalities and voices to many of the characters. The gameplay retained its shooter aspects, but shifted to a 3D third-person perspective, and gave Pit access to many more weapons and powers. Pit would then return for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, along with Palutena (in her first playable appearance) and Dark Pit, a new character from Uprising; naturally, many of the elements from that game found their way into Smash. All three games were headed by Masahiro Sakurai, with both the Smash and Kid Icarus series tying into each other pretty well at that point.

Put all tropes specific to Uprising on its own page.

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Tropes that apply to the series as a whole

• The Anime of the Game: Three shorts based on the series were released to promote Uprising. While two of them mostly served as Uprising side stories, one of them (Medusa's Revenge) is a prequel to the first game, fleshing out Medusa's transformation into a monster at Palutena's hands.
• Always Chaotic Evil: The Underworld monsters. Only one's been introduced, but presumably those who dwell in the Evil land too.
• Anachronism Stew:
  • The sticky talons wear sunglasses.
  • You can acquire a credit card.^note And not an early 1900s charge account card either, it clearly has a magnetic strip for an electronic card reader.
• And I Must Scream: Collin, an enemy in the games, is a soldier of Palutena that had his body taken over by Medusa, and monsters pop out of his body!
• Art Evolution: The franchise's characters and aesthetics were redesigned in a more realistic, anime-like style when Sakurai brought them back for Brawl (which continued into Uprising). Unlike The Legend of Zelda, Kid Icarus was stagnant and largely unknown for almost 20 years; Pit's Brawl redesign was based on the premise of evolving over the years in the same manner as Link, but the contrast is much more noticeable due to Link still having gone through Art Evolution himself while Kid Icarus was dormant.
• Artifact of Hope: The Arrow of Light, the Mirror Shield, and the Wings of Pegasus, known collectively as the Three Sacred Treasures, are a set of weapons and armor under the possession of Palutena before they were stolen by Medusa's army and protected by Twinbellows, Hewdraw, and Pandora. After Pit regains them, he then uses it to fight and defeat Medusa.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: Mostly played straight. The benevolent Palutena fits this trope like a glove, being a beautiful goddess. While Medusa is just as beautiful at first, Palutena turns her into a monster for her evil deeds, further enforcing this trope.
• Big Bad: Medusa in the first game and Orcos in the second. Uprising brings back Medusa as the Big Bad Wannabe, with Hades as the primary threat.
• Big Good: Palutena, in all three games. She's the Goddess of Light and ruler of Skyworld; in Uprising, she actually lives up to this trope and assists Pit throughout his quest.
• Body Horror:
  • Getting turned into an ambulatory eggplant? Oh, that's creepy. Particularly if you can't get to the hospital.
  • Medusa was turned into a monster by Palutena.
• Cain and Abel: Palutena and Medusa have this type of relationship. It's not hard to guess which one is the evil one. It's subverted in that Palutena did not kill her herself, she only turned her into a monster and banished her. The angel Pit finished the job.
• Covers Always Lie: Despite the manual artwork of Medusa as an overweight woman, she is actually a Gorgeous Gorgon version of Medusa cursed into a hideous cyclops head.
• Dark Is Evil: The residents of the Underworld including Hades are Always Chaotic Evil, and Medusa is the Goddess of Darkness.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Throughout the series, Pit defeats all manner of powerful gods and Eldritch Abominations.
• Enemy Summoner: The Grim Reaper enemies are very hated for it.
• Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry: Palutena, which is more apparent with her redesign.
• Fantasy Pantheon: Has a mix between this and Greek/Roman gods.
• Fictional Disability: Pit has the classic "flying being that cannot fly" disability for some unexplained reason. All Palutena says is "his wings don't work right". It's quite the sore spot for him. In Kid Icarus: Uprising, Palutena can grant Pit the Power of Flight to guide him places as if he were flying, but not for more than five minutes at a time, or else Pit's wings will come aflame. By contrast, his Evil Knockoff Dark Pit gained limitless flight under his own power by slaying Pandora and plundering her powers until he travelled to the Rewind Spring, where Pandora revived herself from said powers.
• Fluffy Cloud Heaven: While it's probably not actually supposed to be heaven, Skyworld certainly looks the part.
• Forced Transformation:
  • Not an animal, but Pit can be turned into a eggplant in all three of the games (though in Kid Icarus: Uprising it wears off without the need for a hospital). In the bad ending he is turned into a Specknose.
  • In the first game and as seen in Medusa's Revenge, Medusa was turned into a hideous monster by Palutena as punishment for her evil deeds.
  • There is also the harp item which turns enemies into hammers. They will change back if you don't grab them quickly enough.
• God of Evil: Medusa. Before humanity appeared she was just the goddess of darkness, after that she dedicated her life to ruining theirs.
• God of Good: Palutena becomes this specifically because Medusa becomes evil.
• Gold and White Are Divine: Palutena, further cementing her status as the Goddess of Light.
• Good is Not Nice: Palutena seems to like to turn people into monsters as punishment. She also gives the sacred treasures to monsters in the Game Boy game, because she knows they will fight Pit when he tries to reclaim them. This side of her personality would be emphasized more in later games, where she became an outright Troll despite her status as the radiant Goddess of Light.
• The Goomba: Shemums serve this role throughout the series, being the most common enemy and able to be taken out with a single arrow in the 2D games.
• Gorgeous Gorgon: Medusa was originally as beautiful as Palutena, but Palutena turned her into a hideous Gorgon. However, it looks like her spell is wearing off somewhat. It's implied the form seen at the end of the original Kid Icarus was actually her goddess form, as it resembles Palutena's sprite.
• Heaven Above: The angelic protagonist of the games serves the very literal Skyworld and its benevolent goddess, Palutena. The realm is overflowing with clouds, brave soldiers with wings, and glowing white temples dedicated to Palutena. In case you forget where the good guys work after all that, every level in Uprising ends with the protagonist being surrounded by Rays from Heaven and flying straight up towards the realm of Palutena.
• Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Averted: Pit wears a helmet in the last level of the first game, even though it wasn't one of the mentioned treasures he collected. The Silver Armor comes with a helmet in Of Myths And Monsters. In Uprising and for his Final Smash in the fourth Smash Bros., Pit wears a helmet again (along with a full set of armor) due to his having collected the Three Sacred Treasures.
• Hijacked by Jesus
  • The games are themed after Greek mythology, but the Underworld, Overworld, and Skyworld that make up the setting are collectively referred to as "Angel Land", and Pit is an angel. Overworld even has graves with crosses on them in the first game.
  • A putto is not out of place in a Greek Mythology world, and while putti in Greek myth were much different from angels, that did not stop Italian artists from treating them like angels during the renaissance period, meaning the hijack predates Kid Icarus.
  • That Medusa is a goddess (in the classical tales she was the only Gorgon not to be immortal) may refer to Hellinism highjacking Berber culture. Some historians argue Medusa was an aspect of Athena in Libya before Greek scribes got their hands on her.
• Invisible Bowstring: The games feature a curious example: Pit's bows do have strings, but only when he is shooting an arrow. They strangely disappear when not in use. Smash not only omits the bowstring, but allows him to separate the bow into two swords, which plays even more into this trope.
• Kill All Humans: Medusa's goal in both of her appearances.
• Kill the God: Pit kills Medusa, the Goddess of Darkness; T(h)anatos, the God of Death; and Pandora, the Goddess of Calamity. Since Death Is Cheap (especially for Thanatos, who has certain perks from being the God of Death), they're able to be revived in Uprising, only to be soundly defeated again.
• Level 1 Music Represents: The Underworld theme is the most iconic music of the series. Though given the time you'll spend there it's not too surprising.
• Light Is Good: Palutena, in direct contrast to Medusa, is the Goddess of Light.
• Medusa: The Big Bad of the first game and the third game at first.
• Never Trust a Title:
  • Despite the western name of the series being "Kid Icarus", nobody is actually referred to as an Icarus of any sort in-universe. Ironically, there are Icarus characters in the Japanese version — the original name for a Centurion is Ikaros.
    • The original game used it as a Character Title, calling the main character "Kid Icarus" on the back of the NES game box and then referring to him as "Pit" in the manual. Captain N called him "Kid Icarus" exclusively, apparently having never read the manual.
    • Of Myths and Monsters tried to reconcile both names, also on the back of the box, by indicating the game title was an epithet: "Pit, the original Kid Icarus". It also nods to the Centurion's original name by referring to the combined forces of the Centurions as the Icarus Army.
    • More modern titles have started distinguishing Pit from the title. Uprising invokes and lampshades the title confusion in one of the tutorial videos, where Pit wonders just who this "Icarus" guy is, and when he'll get to meet him. Palutena tells him not to worry about it. It happens again in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, where the cast mentions the naming confusion in relation to Samus being called "Metroid".
  • The Japanese title, which can translate to "Light Mythology: Palutena's Mirror", also suffers this, in raising the question of what exactly Palutena's Mirror is or has to do with anything. The likeliest candidate would be the Mirror Shield of the Three Sacred Treasures, but this is never made explicit in any case.
• No "Arc" in "Archery": Though it's justified, since Pit's arrows are made of light when using the Three Sacred Treasures, and several other weapons such as the Palutena bow. His first bow and a few others like the crystal bow are purely A Wizard Did It cases.
• Our Angels Are Different: Pit resembles Cupid and the putti of the Renaissance art. His proportions would sometimes be baby-like and sometimes child- or teenager-like, before finally settling on the latter for his redesign.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Hewdraw is little more than a sea serpent. In Uprising he becomes a flying hydra.
• Praetorian Guard: Rare example of this trope not belonging to the Big Bad. Palutena has one in the form of the Icarus Army. Pit, the goddess' most loyal servant, is their leader.
• Production Throwback: As a nod to its sister game, one of the enemies that shows up in the first and third games is the Komayto, short for "Little Metroid."^note In Japanese, it's spelled as "Kometo": short for "ko metoroido." The resemblance is stated outright in Uprising. This doubles as a dev team in-joke, since Kid Icarus was built on the same game engine as Metroid and shared the same staff.
• Progressively Prettier:
  • In the manual and Japanese advert, and even in the final battle, Medusa is depicted as a giant, overweight cyclops monster, even so big that she takes up a whole wall in the final stage. Once defeated, however, she returns to being the same size as Palutena, and kinda cute. This version of Medusa is more prominent in Uprising, where her monstrous form is a last-minute transformation.
  • Both Pit and Palutena received brand-new, anime-styled redesigns for Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which were retained and further refined for subsequent games.
• Rapid Aging: Pit grew rapidly from child to adult in the good ending of the first game. Post-series revival, he remains a young teenager, so this ending is widely assumed to be non-canon; however, a younger Pit appears in the anime short Medusa's Revenge more closely resembling his appearance in the early games, which brings the whole thing into question (whether the ending is truly non-canon or whether he aged naturally for 25 years).
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Medusa, the God of Evil Big Bad, has snakes growing in her hair. The snake-like Shemum are The Goomba, while Hewdraw and T(h)anatos both have serpentine forms in the first game.
• Sacred Bow and Arrows: Pit is able to use the holy Light Arrows, once wielded by the goddess Palutena.
• Sadly Mythcharacterized: The game is filled with obvious draws from Classical Mythology, but plays fast and loose with how true it is to the source material. Uprising expanded on the cast and made a few more draws that were notably closer to the source material, even if not exact.
  • Mostly due to the western title, Pit is a nod to Cupid^note Which is the ROMAN name of the Greek God Eros (note that the gameplay includes collecting hearts), possibly the putti (which were artistic figures rather than mythological), and the more obvious reference to Icarus, who flew too close to the sun using his father's artificial wings, only for the wax to melt in the heat and Icarus to fall to his death. (Of Myths and Monsters faithfully makes the full reference during the credits). In the first game and Uprising he also takes on the role of Perseus, who battled the original Medusa with a mirror given to him by Athena.
  • Palutena is widely considered to be at least vaguely derived from Athena, but very few depictions are as faithful to the source material as Medusa, who is fought as a hideous, cyclopean monster with a head full of snakes (and revealed to have been a beautiful woman prior to being cursed by Athena).
  • Twinbellows and Hewdraw are monsters based on the Orthrus^note The two-headed brother of the three-headed Cerberus. and Hydra.
  • Pandora, known in-universe as the goddess of calamity, is inspired by the original Pandora, who did manage to unleash all the evils in the world from their box, but wasn't a goddess in the source material. She gets an upgrade in Uprising known as Amazon Pandora, but outside of being an Action Girl, there's no further reference to the mythical all-female society.
  • Thanatos is an interesting case. In his original appearance, under the name Tanatos, he appeared as a secondary figure during the boss fight with Medusa, a single, if giant, snake that would bounce after Pit, perhaps a nod to the legendary python. Uprising retcons him to be much closer to the source material, establishing him to be the god of death.
  • The original game also had "Uranos" and "Holer", minor enemies declared to be gods of the sky and plants, respectively. Holer may be named for the Horae, goddesses of the seasons.
  • Uprising introduces Magnus and Viridi, who don't share names with anyone in Greek Mythology, but do occupy specific roles directly reminiscent of the source material. Magnus, as the World's Strongest Man, would seem to be derived from Hercules, while Viridi the nature goddess is reminiscent of Demeter or even Persephone.
  • Hades is also introduced in the third game, and while he's properly identified as the god of the underworld, he also happens to have a case of Everyone Hates Hades going for him, too.
• Shout-Out:
  • Several enemies are named after deities and beasts from Greek mythology, though many of these names have been slightly altered (or, more likely, bungled in the translation). Also look out for creatures resembling Goombas (Shulm) and Metroids (Komayto = Ko-meto = baby Metroid). Finally, one monster is called Mick and takes the form of an oversized mouth with its tongue sticking out, and the worm-like EelEye which emerges from the Collin soldiers/suits of armour is called Phil in Japan. Thus, Phil Collins.^note The English version of Uprising drops the pretense and reverts the EelEye's name back to "Phil".
  • The items Pit needs to collect on his quest are called the Three Sacred Treasures (there's four of them; the Light Arrows and Wings of Pegasus are in both games, but the Mirror Shield was replaced by the Silver Armor in Of Myths and Monsters, though it seems some kind of armor was part of the original set anyway) While they're not the Three Sacred Treasures, the naming convention for the set of items was probably intentional.
• Spell My Name with an S: Mick's name is spelled as "Mik" in Uprising, and Tanatos's name becomes a more accurate "Thanatos". The latter gets lampshaded in the English localization, with Thanatos claming that he added the "h" to stand for "HAMAZING!"
• Third Is 3D: In both the polygonal and pop-out-at-you sense. Though most people tend to forget the second game existed, just counting the first and Uprising.
• Took a Level in Badass: The two lead characters underwent this under Sakurai.
  • In Brawl, Pit got a much more physically able, realistically-proportioned design, and gained the ability to separate his Palutena Bow into dual swords or use it as a double-bladed staff. Uprising then gave him access to even more weapons and had him take down the universe's version of Hades himself, and he would bring all these traits back into the fourth Smash game.
  • Brawl also had Palutena actively help Pit during his Final Smash by summoning her army of Centurions. In Uprising, she would take an even more proactive role and aid Pit by granting him various powers and helping him along the way, and fought him directly when possessed by the Chaos Kin. The fourth Smash game then had her fight on her own, using the powers she granted Pit.
• Winged Humanoid:
  • Pit obviously, as well as Dark Pit, his not-so-Evil Counterpart in Uprising.
  • The Syren resembles a human female, except with large bird-like wings instead of arms.

Tropes that apply to the first two games

• And Then John Was a Zombie: In the Japan-only worst ending of the first game. After defeating Medusa, Palutena assigns you a new role depending on your skill and completion (how many upgrades to strength and health you've obtained against how many times you've died). If you do especially badly, she turns you into a specknose. (Due to how the points work out, this is usually a case of Earn Your Bad Ending, but is also the likeliest result of Minimalist Runs).
• The Artifact: Centurion statues in Of Myths and Monsters. In the original, Pit had to release centurions who were turned to stone by Medusa's gaze. In the sequel, Medusa is absent and breaking the Centurion statues with a mallet only releases items.
• Bag of Spilling: The second game feels more like a prequel in this regard. Pit has no strength levels, health extension or times from the NES game and is told he is not ready to use the three sacred treasures even though he can use them for free in the first.
• Bandit Mook: The invincible Pluton would steal one of Pit's special weapons and could not be destroyed. Even worse; there was a flying variation. Sticky talons too, but they are destructible.
• Bottomless Pit Rescue Service: The Angel Feather in the first game. If you fall down with at least one in your inventory, Pit will slowly fly back up. You have to land him on a platform before the Feather's effect wears off, or else he'll actually die.
• Broken Angel: In the ending of Of Myths and Monsters, Pit's wings fall/rip off in front of a overly happy-looking sun, presumably leaving Pit to plummet to his death. No wonder it's called Kid Icarus.
• The Cameo: Pit has been making cameos for several games in his 8-bit form.
• Damage-Sponge Boss: The boss battles in the first game are relatively simple, but Twinbellows has 100 HP, Hewdraw and Pandora have 200 HP, and Medusa has 150 HP. The damage dealt by Pit's arrows is determined by his strength; if Pit hasn't received any strength upgrades (whether the player is doing a minimalist run or is simply not skilled enough at this Nintendo Hard game), then he has to hit Hewdraw and Pandora 200 times to defeat them, making for a long and grueling war of attrition against these bosses. The fortress bosses can be mitigated by Centurions, who can help dish out extra damage, but they're more likely to die instantly and leave Pit to fight the boss on his own.
• Damsel in Distress: Palutena in the original game is imprisoned by Medusa and her Underworld army. Apparently, being a goddess does not make one immune to this trope.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: On certain platforms (such as ice and clouds), Pit will jump down to a lower level when the player presses Down. However, Down is also used for ducking, which is an effective means of dodging enemies. In the heat of an enemy-infested screen, a player might press Down to avoid an attack... only to drop off the platform instead, likely leading to Pit falling down a Bottomless Pit and dying.

• Dem Bones: The Overworld fortress guardian in Of Myths And Monsters.
• Denial of Diagonal Attack: Considering what Kid Icarus shares its engine with, it is not surprising.
• Difficulty by Region: The American version made a few changes to the last level of the original game: the screen scrolls automatically rather than based on the player's movement, you no longer have to hold the Jump button to fly, you can fly through the bricks and pillars, and enemy patterns have been changed. These differences make the American version a little easier.
• Directionally Solid Platforms: Most surfaces are solid, but certain platforms (including those made of ice and clouds) allow Pit to jump through them from below, which are useful for vertical scrolling levels and fortresses. Pressing Down while standing atop these platforms will drop Pit down; this is useful in fortresses, but less so in other levels.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: Palutena having a dream about her palace's destruction is what kicks off the Of Myths And Monsters plot.
• Drop the Hammer: Pit can collect hammers to use in the fortress. Hammers deal a good deal of damage to enemies but the main usage is using them to free stone Centurions. Who are mostly useless. Hammers were much more useful in the sequel.
• Early Game Hell: The Underworld, despite being the first couple levels, is very difficult due to the lack of powerups and health, combined with the infamous vertical Ratchet Scrolling and Bottomless Pits. The game becomes more manageable after the first fortress, with the Overworld being a traditional sidescroller, and Pit having plenty of powerups and health by the time Skyworld goes back to the vertical scrolling. Gets a lampshade in Uprising, with Pit and Palutena reminiscing about how deadly the Underworld is.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The pre-Sakurai era can seem rather bizarre to people who got acquainted with Pit through Smash and Uprising. Character designs were very simplistic and cartoonish (mostly apparent in-game with Pit's sprite), Pit could only fight with his bow (which he couldn't even split into two swords like in Brawl), and he had to go to hospitals to be transformed back from an eggplant^note granted, Uprising would introduce different anachronisms, but not to that extent.
• Earn Your Bad Ending: In the Famicom version, to get the bad ending where Pit turns into a monster, you'll have to either do a Minimalist Run or do a lot of dying.
• Emergency Weapon: Due to a loss in the form's mobility, Of Myths And Monsters lets Pit use hammers to defend himself if struck with the egg plant curse. This does not remove any need to get to a nurse to complete the fortress but makes the trip bearable.
• Escaped from Hell: This is how the first game starts — Pit has fallen into Hades and must fight his way back up. In the second game he's been sent there to prove himself worthy to reuse the three sacred treasures.
• Every 10,000 Points: Your get Life Meter extensions at 20,000, 50,000, 100,000 and 200,000 points.
• The Face of the Sun: A happy looking sun appears at the end of the second game.
• Four Is Death: Most enemies appear in groups of four, most significantly the Reapettes for the association with death, but also including Shemum, Commyloose, Monoeye, Minos, Mick, Rokman, Octos, Komayto, Moila, and Daphne.
• Gainax Ending: In Of Myths and Monsters: after defeating Orcos and receiving congratulations, Pit flies upwards through the heavens, past one of each monster he's fought, until the sun comes into view and his wings fall right off. The End!
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: The manual describes certain enemies as distinct gods, such as Holer being the God of Plants, Uranos being the God of the Sky, and Erinus being the God of Revenge. However, in the game itself, these "gods" are actually just common mooks without any individuality.

• Giant Foot of Stomping: The Big Toes that fall from the sky in the Game Boy game are a little smaller than most examples. Also, Orcos shows one of the usual size.
• Golden Ending: The best ending of the first game, earned by maxing out all of Pit's stats, shows Pit growing in size and getting kissed by Palutena.
• The Goomba: Aside from Shemums, each fortress has a very basic, slow-moving, easily killed enemy commonly found throughout the labyrinth. The Underworld fortress has Kobil, the Overworld fortress has Shulm, and the Skyworld fortress has Uranos.
• Great Escape: The first world is technically Pit escaping from his imprisonment in the Underworld to go kick Medusa's ass. No wonder it was hard.
• Grimy Water: Don claims the lakes in Of Myths And Monsters are poisoned.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • Nothing in the game tells you that there is a second, hidden score counter that must be raised to certain amounts (by collecting hearts, killing enemies etc.) to get the weapon upgrades. If you don't raise this score high enough, Zeus simply won't appear in the upgrade rooms, and you will have a very tough time completing the game.
  • The enchanted weapons you get from the training rooms—the Crystal Rod, Flaming Arrow, and Sacred Bow—are not immediately functional. You must raise Pit's health to maximum first (with at least two health upgrades, which requires 50,000 points), which you probably won't be able to do until you reach the hot springs in the first dungeon. And even then, you still won't be able to use the enchanted weapon right away, because they're disabled while in dungeons.
  • It is not obvious what to do in the treasure rooms in the first two worlds (the rooms full of breakable pots.) You have to break all of the pots without collecting any of the items inside. One pot, if broken last, will contain a life potion, barrel, or credit card. Said pot is randomly selected when you enter the room, though it's possible to guarantee a win every time by breaking a few specific pots first.
• Healing Spring: Hot springs heal you, Of Myths and Monsters however is not above sticking tower-enemies in them.
• Hit Points: The fortress guardians in the first game have counters for how many hits they need to take.
• I Got Bigger: The good ending of the first game has Pit instantly grow from a young boy to a tall handsome man.
• Interchangeable Antimatter Keys: In both games, every door outside of the fortress remains shut once you've entered and exited it but the Game Boy game lets you buy one time use keys, which can reopen any door and once you've used every door in a level you can use Palutena's key to open them all back up. Even after making Palutena's key available you still have to destroy the level with hammers to reveal where it is hidden.
• Invincible Minor Minion: Plutons are Bandit Mooks that deal no damage to Pit, but in return are completely unaffected by Pit's arrows.
• Kill the God: In addition to Pandora, T(h)anatos, and Medusa, Pit is also capable of killing Holer, Uranos, and Erinus, which are also described as gods in the first game's manual.
• Large and in Charge: Medusa is larger then any other enemy in the game. Orcos from the Game Boy sequel seems to be a subversion, but eventually goes to "truly titanic" size!
• Law of Chromatic Superiority: In the first game, if an enemy has a blue version and a red version, the red version is more dangerous while also giving larger hearts and more points. This an inversion of fellow NES game The Legend Of Zelda, where blue enemies are tougher.
• Lost in Translation: An enemy named Phil has a Dub Name Change in the first game, which changes it to EelEye. Consequently, its association with the fellow enemy Collin loses the Shout-Out to Phil Collins.
• Luck-Based Mission: The second room of World 3's dungeon has you climbing down a ladder right into the crosshairs of two Eggplant Wizards. They will either hit you with an unavoidable eggplant curse the instant you enter the room, or they will decide not to. You just have to hope they don't.
• Make My Monster Grow: Orcos impressively goes up to Godzilla size. See for yourself!
• Marathon Level: The final stage in the original game runs as long as it takes for you to accumulate enough points in the level to continue on to the battle with Medusa. If you don't have enough points, the stage will loop back from the start. It is a little surprising after the 'get to the end/get to the fortress guardian' goal of ever other level in the game but once you realize progression is based on how many enemies you defeat it shouldn't take more than two trips through the level.
• Medal of Dishonor: If you beat Kid Icarus (NES) in a minimalist speed-run instead of making an honest time-consuming grind, Palutena "promotes" you to serve as some kind of Janitor because she believes that you are a lucky fraud for saving Angel Land from Medusa.
• Mission-Pack Sequel: Of Myths and Monsters has updated graphics but is otherwise nearly identical to the first game for the gameplay and progression. The Centurions are even sealed in stone again, for no actual reason.
• Multiple Endings: The original Kid Icarus has a total of six potential endings, four of which are shared between the Japanese and English versions, but the Famicom Disk System original has an extra-bad ending, which the Nintendo Entertainment System version replaced with a new Golden Ending. Unlike its sister series Metroid, Kid Icarus grades you on completion rather than speed. Each version uses a slightly different metric; the Japanese version gives you ten points for each level in both your endurance and your strength (i.e. five endurance and five strength together earns you a full hundred points) and then deducts a point for every time you continue after dying, while the English version counts how many values you've maxed out (the number of hearts collected, amount of endurance, amount of strength, how many weapons were collected).
  • The worst ending of all, only available if you finish with less than 60 points in the Japanese version, ends with Palutena turning Pit into a specknose.
  • The worst of the shared endings (60 to 79 points in Japanese or no categories completed in English) shows Palutena turning Pit into a farmer with a straw hat and sickle^note Or perhaps even just a normal human child, considering the "sickle" also resembles a butterfly net.
  • The second-worst of the shared endings (80 to 84 points or only one complete category) results in Palutena turning Pit into a foot-soldier or a guard with a helmet and club.
  • The second-best of the shared endings (85 to 99 points or two complete categories) has Palutena turn Pit into a soldier captain with a galea and spear.
  • The best of the shared endings (the original Golden Ending in Japan at 100 points or three complete categories) has Palutena promote Pit into a full-grown hunk of an angel.
  • The newer Golden Ending (earned by obtaining 999 hearts, five health, five strength, and all three weapons in the English version) features Palutena promoting Pit to full-grown angel as before and then planting a Smooch of Victory and Big Damn Kiss on him, while the background lights up and angels appear to rain hearts on them.
• National Geographic Nudity: The NES game got away with Syrens having exposed breasts, likely due to being based on Classical Mythology where such depictions would be commonplace.
• New Game Plus: In the NES version only, pressing "Start" at the conclusion of the end credits restarted the game but with Pit as powered up as he had been before (minus the three sacred treasures, of course).
• Nintendo Hard
  • Like difficulty curves? Then you'll love the new "difficulty cliff"! It starts out extremely difficult, but out of nowhere it becomes easy. World 1 is the hardest in the game. It is Hell, after all.
  • For some, the last dungeon (3-4) might be a brain-wreckingly difficult.
  • Its difficulty is alleviated in the 3D Classics-port, which seems to be mainly based on the Japanese version, and thus has a save-feature (comparable to The Legend of Zelda), meaning you can just reload your savestate on the latest level reached. Additionally, you can choose between two control modes, "CUSTOM" and "ORIGINAL". ORIGINAL has Pit maneuver like in his NES-title; CUSTOM, on the other hand, gives him much smoother run- and jump-physics, a faster shooting-frequency, being able to jump while aiming up, and being able to slow his descent like in Of Myths and Monsters. Believe it or not, this makes the game much more accessible and manageable.
• Non-Linear Sequel: Of Myths and Monsters has a confusing relationship with the original Kid Icarus. Despite being an ostensible sequel, neither the manual nor the in-game text refer to Pit's fight with Medusa, and the game is actually a training mission through which Pit is meant to become worthy to use the Three Sacred Treasures, which he was able to use with no apparent issue in the first game. Is it supposed to be a Stealth Prequel?
• Off-Model: While Pit's sprites in Of Myths and Monsters generally look better than in his NES-debut, his crouching, aiming up, and◊ Death Throws-sprites look pretty weird.
• Our Minotaurs Are Different: The Underworld fortress guardian in of Myths And Monsters is the Minotaur. Few players got by him. Those that did tended to be annoyed to learn he was an Early-Bird Boss.
• Power Dyes Your Hair: Pit goes through different hair colors at different power levels in the NES game, with blue being the strongest.
• Public Domain Soundtrack: The Overworld theme contains a snippet of "The Girl I Left Behind Me", a marching song that dates back to Elizabethan England but which has a lot of American history, too. This is retained in the Super Smash Bros. Brawl remix, but left out of the Uprising remixes.
• Ratchet Scrolling: One of the main sources of difficulty in the first game is the fact that Pit cannot go back once the screen scrolls. In the horizontally-scrolling Overworld, it's no worse than a Super Mario Bros. level; an invisible wall at the left edge of the screen simply stops Pit from backtracking. But in the vertically-scrolling Underworld and Skyworld, the bottom of the screen becomes an instant-death Bottomless Pit, even if there is a platform just off-screen.
• Red Shirt Army: The Centurions. Turned into stone by Medusa, you spend half your time in the dungeons saving them with Hammers(?!) only to have them drop like flies when they attempt to fight the bosses, who aren't that tough anyway.
• Same Plot Sequel: Of Myths and Monsters (assuming it even is a sequel) rehashes the exact same adventure from the first game, but changes the Excuse Plot into a training mission to thwart the coming evil of Orcos rather than saving Palutena from the already arrived evil of Medusa.
• Scenery Porn: The 3D Classics-rerelease of the first game has some really nice-looking backgrounds.
• Schizophrenic Difficulty: Infamously so. The first levels are teeth-gnashingly difficult, not only because you have no power-ups, but since you're climbing upward, the Bottomless Pit is effectively chasing you. (Uprising has a nod to this, with Pit having very unpleasant memories of dying repeatedly there.) The second world is side-scrolling and quite a bit easier. The third spikes the difficulty with another upward climb, and the final level (where you have One-Hit Polykill laser arrows) is so easy it's practically a Cut Scene. In addition, each fortress is an exercise in eggplant-induced masochism, but the fortress bosses are pushovers.
• Schrödinger's Canon: The Game Boy title Of Myth And Monsters wasn't release in Japan and therefore isn't acknowledged in Kid Icarus Uprising. That being said, it has not been officially removed from the continuity, and Uprising doesn't invalidate it.
• Segmented Serpent:
  • Hewdraw and Tanatos in the first game achieve their long serpentine forms with a series of segmented sprites. It's even reflected by Tanatos's manual artwork, where his body is composed of distinct segments.
  • The Fire Serpent in Of Myths And Monsters, guardian of the Skyworld fortress. The head is different from the other parts and is the only part that can be damaged.
• Smashing Hallway Traps of Doom: Spike traps in the fortresses, sometimes going in four directions.
• Smooch of Victory: The American version took out the bad ending where Pit is turned into a specknose and replaced it with a perfect ending where Palutena kisses Pit in addition to turning him into an adult.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: The Fortress-theme from Of Myths and Monsters does not sound very Fortress-like.
• Spikes of Doom: Usually in the form of thorns or briars, they are more liberally scattered through Of Myths And Monsters.
• Sticky Fingers: Sticky Talons in the Game Boy game, who steal Pit's power ups.
• Taken for Granite: The Centurions in the first game by Medusa. Palutena in the Game Boy game by Orcos.
• This Was Her True Form: Upon the defeat of monster Medusa, Medusa's humanoid form (but still green-skinned) comes out of monster Medusa's eyeball and dies. Then inverted in Uprising, as her one-eyed, cyclops-faced form is revealed to be her true form in the game according to her idol. She has to use magic to cover up her cursed form.
• Transflormation: Pit spends an awful lot of time getting turned into an eggplant.
• Unexpected Shmup Level: In the original NES game, the final level is a Horizontal Scrolling Shooter.
• Video Game Flight: The angel feather in the second game lets you fly freely for a brief time. The wings of Pegasus let you fly indefinitely but in the first game you are limited by a scrolling screen, the second game only limits you to what can't be broken with your hammers.
• Winged Soul Flies Off at Death: In Of Myths and Monsters only.
• Wings Do Nothing:
  • In the first game, this trope is in effect until you get a powerup. In the Game Boy game, they can slow his descent and Pit is again able to obtain a powerup that allows flight. As a trade off, Pit can no longer move while crouching in the Game boy game.
  • The Kobils and Shemums can't fly either.
• Wrap Around: In the NES game, not in Of Myths and Monsters because the Game Boy's resolution, the screen scrolls horizontally.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: After defeating the Hewdraw, the water appears to turn into a hot spring. Many made the mistake of jumping in and killing themselves.

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