Kid Icarus

Kid Icarus is the 1987 Nintendo platformer that sent the angel Pit from the depths of the Underworld to the peaks of Skyworld in a quest to rescue the goddess Palutena from the villain Medusa. The game begins in a bottom-to-top vertical scrolling format before transitioning to horizontal side-scrolling stages and finally top-down fortress levels. Each section type plays differently, giving Kid Icarus a structural variety that few NES games matched.

Kid Icarus shares its engine with Metroid and several design philosophies with Zelda — towns contain merchants and helpful characters, dungeons have maps and bosses, and a shop system lets players spend eggplant hearts on health, arrows, and sacred flames. The game's iconic enemies include Eggplant Wizards, who can turn Pit into a helpless walking eggplant requiring a visit to a hospital room to cure, and Reaper enemies that summon infinite reinforcements if they spot you. Managing enemy encounters carefully is as important as platforming skill.

Kid Icarus was a cult classic that languished in obscurity for two decades before Nintendo revived Pit in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and then the acclaimed Kid Icarus: Uprising in 2012. The original NES game is genuinely difficult — the notorious first world, where Pit starts with minimum stats and enemies kill in a few hits, discouraged many players. But powered-up with high health and strong arrows from thorough exploration, the game transforms into one of the most satisfying NES experiences. Few games reward patience and system mastery as generously as Kid Icarus.