Most of you have probably heard, but just a couple of weeks ago, an new game was released: Kid Icarus: Uprising


A BRIEF HISTORY ON KID ICARUS
Kid Icarus had appeared to have a theme of Ancient Greece (Strongly demonstrated by mention of Greek monsters such as Pandora and Medusa and the underworld ext.).
It's setting is a place called Angel Land, where God/Goddesses co-existed with mortals, and lived together in harmony.
The two who governed this land were Palutena,goddess of light, and Medusa, goddess of darkness.
While Palutena loved all lives and helped the people, Medusa despised them, and in her hatred, demolished crops and turned people into stone.
Of course, the consequence of her actions, was a furious Palutena, and therefore turned Medusa into a hideous monster (reflecting her personality of course) and banished her to the underworld.


Obviously, she would not remain there without craving revenge, so, she began creating hoards of demons and monsters, and executed war against the goddess of lights army.
Unfortunately, she did not fare well and concealed herself inside her castle.

While this was happening, a young angel named Pit was inside the underworld...
Using all her remaining power, she managed to grant Pit a magical bow and gave him the all important task of killing Medusa and defeating the underworld forces.

Of course Pit defeats her ext, and that's leads us to where we are now in KI:U....

[Original Kid Icarus Box art, North America]


MAIN PLOT
The plot is set 25 years after the events of the first game.
The goddess of light, Palutena, has returned, but unfortunately, so has Medusa.
Not only is Medusa back, but she's brought an endless supply of underworld troops with her.
It is now up to the protagonist of our game, Pit, an angel, and Palutena's most loyal servant.
There are endless varieties of monsters ranging from flying frogs to tempura eating wizards, so it won't ever feel dull.
The Bosses are well thought out also, and are definitely a point to mention.
There are 25 chapters and all of them are amazingly constructed.

Rating for Plot: 9.0/10
(It doesn't sound as much to get a 9, but I didn't want to include to many spoilers. :$)

GAMEPLAY

Okay, so lets take a look at the controls.

The controls take a while to get use to, but once you do, it's quite easy and in all honesty, it didn't take too long.

L=Ranged/Melee Attack
L+ Analogue Stick (^)= Forward Dash Shot/Melee Dash Attack
L+ Analogue Stick (</>)= Side Dash Shot
L+ Analogue Stick (v)= Backward Dash Shot

Analogue Stick (^,v,<,>)= Move{Forward, Backwards, Left, Right}
Analogue Stick (^,v,<,>)+ R= Face Direction In Which You Are Walking

Touch pad= Slide To Aim/Face Certain Direction/Touch A Box With Picture Inside To Activate Power/Choose Power

Arrow Pad (^)= Same Value as L
Arrow Pad (</>)= Scroll Through Powers
Arrow Pad (v)= Activate Power

My Terminology:
(^,v,>,<)= Directions-In Order= Up, Down, Left, Right
+= Together/As Well As
/= Or/Instead

Basic Gameplay
This game varies from easy to hard.
There are 10 modes (intensities)
Intensity 0
Intensity 1 }
Intensity 2
Intensity 3
Intensity 4 }
Intensity 5
Intensity 6
Intensity 7 }
Intensity 8
Intensity 9 >

Intensity 0-2
These are the easy levels.
Even at level 2, it isn't much harder than 0.
The enemies are a breeze to defeat and the weapons for completing the level are very low of value, so this is directed at beginners.

Intensity 3-5
A bit harder, 3 is about the same as two, the weapons are slightly increased in value but the enemies are still easy to beat.
At 5 it gets a little more difficult, but it's about equivalent to average and again the rewards are slightly increased.

Intensity 6-8
The weapon value and amount of weapons available are greatly improved, and the enemies skill has increased with it.
The hearts you bet are harder to get, but when you complete the level, you get your hearts you bet back x2 and with some interest.
(This comes from enemies you beat).
Even though the same happens in lower levels, the hearts you obtain massively decrease.

Intensity 9
Nothing harder.
The weapons and hearts are dramatically increased by value.
Keep in mind, it is very difficult and much harder to beat the chapter.

(You change the intensity with sliding the fiends cauldron up and down.)




What Can I do With Hearts?
Hearts are like the currency of the game, the more hearts, the more weapons you can buy.

In conclusion, I thought the system worked out very well, and a truly worth while experience.



EXTRAS
I enjoyed trying out the different weapons and still so many more I need to try.
(Tip:The higher the value of the weapon, the stronger it is)
There is no ultimate weapon as such, and it is mostly a case of what weapon suits your style.

AR Cards
AR cards are not mandatory, but make the experience all the more fun.
It is estimated there are almost as many AR Cards as there are models, so hundreds, if not thousands of things to collect, which is a good thing, if you enjoy collecting as much as myself.
Another perk of the AR cards, are the battles, which the cards have against one another is placed together.
It is also quite nice to take pictures of them, especially in a scenic place.


Rating for Extras: 6/10

Multiplayer
Now we have reached the highlight of the game, multiplayer.
Exquisite, you would expect nothing more from it.

Free for all:
Free for all, The stages are amazing, it's layout is suburb.
Basically, the main aim is to kill the opposing 1-5 players as many times as possible, (you and the players all have infinite lives) to score points.
(The amount of points will vary by how much damage you took off your player you defeated, the rest of the damage points go to the other person who helped defeat him).
A nice extra is that time to time, bonus weapons/powers are given out, and remember, higher the value, stronger the weapon.

Light vs Dark:
Yet again, amazing stages and layout.
The objective is to get the opposing teams gauge bar down to zero.
The opposing teams gb goes down by there players being defeated.
The last person to be killed turns into Pit/Dark Pit (depending which team) and the other team try to kill him to bring victory to there team.
May sound complicated to some, but it is pretty straight forward once you try it.
A more detailed "how to play:




Multiplayer Rating: 9.5/10

CONCLUSION
All in all, KI:U is a must buy for fans of the series, even more so if you've played Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
I think it lives up to the expectation of the fans, and has even attracted some newcomers.
It's definitely worth a try, it would be a shame to miss out on such a game.

Overall Rating: 8.8/10

Thanks For Reading. :]