Review No. 16 Kid Icarus Uprising - 3DS (12+)

Strong Points:
Brilliant Storyline
Lots of weapons
Humorous conversations
Good online modes
Good twists
Lots of cameos
Good vehicles
Amazing collectibles
Great music


Weak Points:
Controls are difficult to get used to
Can hurt wrists if you don't use the stand
Can sometimes get repetitive
Conversations can sometimes get repetitive

In-depth Review:

Release Dates:
Japan: March 22, 2012

North America: March 23, 2012

Europe: March 23, 2012

Australia: March 29, 2012

Controls: http://strategywiki.org

Air sections:

Circle Pad: move Pit/move quickly to roll

L Button: attack/hold to rapid fire/press after not firing for about a second to fire a charged shot/press when an enemy is close for a melee attack/tap repeatedly for a melee combo

Touch Pad: aim/tap blue orbs on screen for a special attack.

Land sections:

Circle Pad: move Pit/move quickly to dodge/hold to dash

L: Attack, hold to rapid fire/press after not firing for about a second to fire a charged shot/press when an enemy is close for a melee attack/tap repeatedly for a melee combo

Touch pad: aim/swipe across the screen to move the camera

R: quick turn camera

Left and Right Buttons On D-Pad: select miracle powers

Down Button On D-Pad: use miracle powers

This game comes with a stand and was released 25 years after the last game in the series. The player takes control of Pit and is tasked with destroying the god Medusa among other enemies. There are nine weapon types in total: bows, claws, blades, clubs, orbitars, staffs, arms, palms, and cannons each with their own advantages and disadvantages. You also have powers to help in you in the game and items (food, grenades etc.) which help you by restoring health, dealing damage etc. At the beginning of the stage you can put hearts (the currency) into the 'intensity cauldron' to increase or decrease difficulty. The higher the difficulty the better weapons you can collect in the stages. There are 25 stages with several twists and surprises along the way.

There is a lot of extras including: powers you collect fill up the power portrait, you can collect trophies of different characters, use Augmented Reality cards to fight with certain enemies, give hearts to either the goddess Palutena or Viridi and change the music. There is also Street-pass and Spot-pass functionality which allows the exchange of weapons. The Spot-pass feature was deleted early this year. 

There is also two multiplayer modes which allow up to six players to fight online or through local wi-fi. There is a free for all mode which allows all six players to fight each other or Light VS Dark mode which tasks 2 groups of 3 players to fight each other with one of the players turning into either Pit or Dark Pit. The first team to beat the other team's Pit wins.

Conclusion: a brilliant game which was let down slightly by fiddly controls. Sadly the creator behind this wonderful game has stated he has no plans to make another game in the near future.

Rating: 96%

Thanks for reading, Satamer.