WELCOME TO THE STARFOX GAME EVERYONE'S ALWAYS WANTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: Kid Icarus Uprising
Seriously. By the end of this review, I will have described exactly the Starfox game people have wanted since assault, except instead of a fox, you have Pit, and Greek gods. It's an AWESOME game, and I highly recommend it to those who have 3DSs. So here we go!
Gameplay
For those of you who have played Starfox Assault, the gameplay mechanics are nearly identical, except without a jump button and better in almost every way.
The game is a strange form of a first person shooter, using medieval and magical weapons instead of regular guns. Each weapon can perform melee and ranged attacks. Whether you do melee or ranged upon an opponent depends on the distance from your opponent; once you get close enough, your cursor will change shape indicating that you will perform a melee attack. The advantage of ranged attacks is survivability, as you'll get hit less, and with melee attacks you can perform combos, dealing more damage quicker. You can do one or both, you can generally use either in most situations, though some bosses and enemies are fought easier with a specific type.
There are all different kinds of weapons you can use, though the one you select at the beginning of each mission is the one you stick with. You can buy stronger weapons with hearts (the game's currency), or merge them together to change or improve your weapon.
Each weapon has a vastly different playing style. The club, for example, is mostly a melee weapon that can only perform ranged attacks with a charge attack, but it very strong and can knock away certain ranged shots. The staff, on the other hand, is mostly a ranged weapon, as it can perform melee damage but sucks at it, and it's shots deal more damage the farther away the opponent is. The cannon is a somewhat melee and mostly ranged weapon that shoots large exploding shots. There are lots of different kinds of weapons, so it's highly likely that you will find one that suits your needs. All of them look awesome, by the way.
There are three parts to each stage, or level.
The first is aerial combat. Pit always starts each mission from Palutena's tower, and can fly for a total for of five minutes. This works almost EXACTLY LIKE CLASSIC STARFOX, except that you can use melee weapons. The screen moves for you, and you move pit around to dodge and and move the cursor around and hit enemies.
After about five minutes (or whenever the first phase ends), you have the land phase. Now the controls are ALMOST EXACTLY LIKE STARFOX ASSUALT'S GROUND BATTLES. Combat works the same except you now move pit forward and backwards instead of up and down, you move the screen, and you can sidestep and use items.
Finally, there's a boss phase. Every level has a boss, and occasionally you'll fight more than one per level, it just depends on the level. The combat will depend whether or not it's an aerial or land boss. Some bosses you fight on the ground, some in the sky, it just depends on the boss.
Even though the phases are almost always in the same order and rarely get moved around, it never really get boring, and it's nice to see so many bosses. It always makes you feel satisfied upon completing a level.
Difficulty (part of Gameplay)
One of the coolest features of this game is something called "Intensity". When you begin any mission, you select your intensity, or difficult. Higher intensity means the damage will be higher and they'll be more enemies and harder attacks, but the rewards gained increase, giving more cause to the extra pain.
It's nice, as usually raising the difficulty just makes things harder with little benefit, but this game rewards you for your hard work, giving you more treasure chests to open, more hearts, and the equipment you find will be stronger.
Overall, the gameplay is REALLY solid for this game. There are little trophies you can collect, there's a Boss Challenge you can try to do once you've beat the game, and it's both challenging and fun to play. My only gripe is that there are times where melee weapons are almost unusable, which is annoying, but they are very few and far between.
Story
Despite what you might think, being mostly a combat oriented-game, the story is actually pretty good! It bounces between different what I'd like to call "Sagas" a lot. It keeps things interesting, and you end up with quite a few surprises before you finally reach the end. I actually thought the game was literally 9 chapters long, until I was surprised with a 10th chapter which began a whole new plot. It even momentarily backs away from plots to others occasionally, and then snaps back again. It keeps the story fresh, and you always wonder what's going to happen next.
Characters (part of story)
I'm not gonna cover all the characters, as explaining some of them would involve spoilers. I'm just going to cover the main couple characters.
Pit
Our majestic hero returns from the world of Super Smash Bros to save his own dimension from the terrors that has come upon them! He also missed his food eaten directly off the ground and the healing hot springs. ESPECIALLY the healing hot springs. They're pretty much a couple.
If you thought Pit was annoying in Brawl, you might not think the same of him in this game. He has the same energetic, kiddish attitude, but things are a little different. Since he actually talks instead of blurting out small phrases, you get to see the real Pit here...AND HE IS HILARIOUS. Even the characters in the game make fun of his many stupid moments, obsessions, and his long pre-battle speeches. He's overdramatic, not in an annoying way, but in a funny way, and you get attached to him pretty quickly.
Palutena
Palutena, the Goddess of Light, and Pit's queen/friend/possible love interest. She's the one who allows Pit to fly, and seeks to keep life peaceful and happy. So that means she's a boring, serious, mystical character that is almost always right and wise, correct?
HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No, she isn't at all. She does have a fairly mature feel, but she's actually quite childish, somewhat like Rapunzel from the Disney movie Tangled. She's more of a close friend than Goddess to Pit, and she picks on him quite frequently. The conversations between her and Pit are often some of the funniest.
That's one thing I forgot to mention earlier. The conversations. On the bottom screen of the 3DS, or touch screen, occasionally conversations will appear on their during battles, similar to Starfox, Dynasty Warriors Gundam, and such games. These conversations are how most of the plot and character development is done, and it's very interesting and funny to listen to. Also, since it happens on the bottom screen, it doesn't clutter up the top screen, so you can still see everything in battle while watching the Gods and Godesses talk with each other and you.
Magnus
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Immediately upon meeting Magnus, you know immediately that he is FREAKING AWESOME. He's the only human character that has importance in the game, but he makes up for it. He's very tough, serious, and just boss as he wields that way-too-large-to-carry sword.
He doesn't actually appear that much, but each time is fairly memorable. There's one time you even play as him, and that's one of the most memorable times of the game in my opinion.
IT'S SUCH A HUGE SWORD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(was literally crying from laughter playing as Magnus)
Dark Pit
Another one of those anti-hero characters...and possibly my favorite of all time. Dark Pit is unlike any "shadow" character I've ever seen. He's a more serious version of Pit, but not to the level that Shadow the Hedgehog went. He's more of a selfish character, fighting for his own ideals rather than others, unwilling to fight for the side of good OR the side of evil. He is a caring person, and his similarities to Pit do show occasionally, but he tries to hide it frequently, and wants to be something more than just someone's "shadow". He's really cool, and he's one of my favorite characters in this game.
The World (also part of Story)
The artwork of this game is gorgeous, and it really shows in the landscaping. This game was heavily based off of Greek mythology, and it works incredible well overall. The different worlds you travel through aren't just well done and realistic, but sometimes even beautiful.
While playing it and looking around, it occurred to me that the world is fairly reminiscent of Skyrim, and looking at it closer, I realized that it really does. There are some stages (especially in space), where it doesn't have that same depressing and calm feel, but there are quite a few moments in that game where it really feels that way, and it's awesome.
Music
Have you guys noticed anything...familiar about this game? The combat-oriented gameplay, the artstyle, the graphics? Anything familiar at all? Just like another popular game which Pit actually starred in...what was it called again? Oh yeah...
Notice anything...similar?
Yup. The makers of Super Smash Bros are the people that made this game. As if you needed another reason to like this game, the makers of possibly the largest collaberation franchise made this game. Okay, that's cool, but what exactly does it have to do with the music? It has EVERYTHING to do with the music.
The similarities between Brawl and this game are mostly shown through the music. The music sounds VERY similar to the music for the Subspace Story in Brawl, and other tracks. It's fully orchestrated, bar a few space and weird stages, and is really beautiful and epic. Good job guys, you've done another masterpiece.
Final Rating 10/10
I really don't have any gripes about this game, this is the best presentation I've ever seen of a third-person shooter, or at least in this fashion. The gameplay is unique, fun, and challenging, the characters are well-developed and lovable, the graphics are worthy of the 3DS, and the music is just awesome. I didn't even cover the awesome multiplayer battle system, or even half of the vault!
Seriously, there's all sorts of extra stuff to do in this game. This is just like Super Smash Bros: you'll never grow tired of it. Even if you've played the heck out of it, eventually you'll want to pick it up again and just have fun, there's always something to do or redo. If you have a 3DS, buy it, or at the very least borrow it. You won't regret it.
