Other Appearances of Kid Icarus

Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters

This is the only sequel to the Kid Icarus game. It was made only for the Game Boy system. It had the same basic gameplay and story as the NES Kid Icarus game, but instead of fighting Medusa, you fought a demon named Orcos. Many of the enemies are similar to those of the NES Kid Icarus, and the levels are laid out in a similar fashion. You begin in the Underworld, which scrolls vertically, then go to the horizontally scrolling Overworld, then to the vertically scrolling Sky World. At the end of each of these worlds is a fortress maze, just like in the NES version. The bosses, however, are all new. Upon defeating them, you'll get one of the three Sacred Treasures. The final level is, once again, the Sky Palace, but the screen does not automatically scroll. Instead, you have to press the button repeatedly to make Pit fly through it. The power-up system is essentially the same. Some things were improved. First of all, the screen scrolls in all directions, meaning that if you fall down past the bottom of the screen, you no longer die! The screen will just scroll down with you. Pit's jumping control is somewhat improved, and when you leap, you can tap the A button to make Pit flap his puny wings and slow up his decent (sort of like how you can flap Mario's raccoon tail in SMB3 to slow his decent in midair.) Kid Icarus also has, quite possibly, the best Game Boy soundtrack I've ever heard! (But the fortress music isn't as good as the NES version's. ^_^) The final battle against Orcos is a lot more challenging than Medusa was. There are some things I liked better about the Game Boy version and some things I liked better about the NES Kid Icarus. All-in-all it's a great Game Boy game! It may be hard to find, but it's worth picking up! Here's a screenshot:

Tetris
(NES Version)

In the NES version of Tetris (the one released by Nintendo, NOT Tengen Tetris), select a B-Type game and choose difficulty Level 9. Complete the Level on any height, and you will see a celebration scene with various Nintendo Characters. The first one to appear is Pit from Kid Icarus, playing a violin! (Hmmm...shouldn't he be playing a harp??) Screenshot:

Captain N: The Game Master

Captain N: The Game Master was a late 80's, early 90's cartoon series about a video game player who gets magically sucked into his TV screen and visits various video game worlds. Pit was one of the main characters in the show. I liked this show a lot, but I thought Pit's character portrayal could've been better. The way he was drawn was a little strange. His head seemed too big at times, and it looked like he was wearing makeup (gack!) There were other inconsistencies that left me wondering if the writers of this show ever actually played the games or not. First of all, Pit could fly in the show, and unless he's wearing the Pegasus Wings, Pit CANNOT fly! Some people may say, "He must have been wearing the Pegasus Wings, then...", and that was a reasonable answer...until I saw an episode where they were searching for the three Sacred Treasures! If they were searching for them, then that means Pit could not already be wearing the wings!! But I guess that's a minor nitpick, considering that it would be rather lame to have a winged character in a show that can't fly. Also, they called Pit's world "Mount Icarus" (or "Mt. Olympus" in the comics) instead of "Angel Land" (though that may have been because of censorship of "religious" items.) Finally, Pit's voice wasn't too bad, but I didn't like how he added "-icus" to the end of everything. (Except that one time he called Simon "Dopius Maximus". That was hilarious!) His personality was a bit different than I would have imagined it would be like from playing the game. Sometimes, he could be really tough, which is what I pictured, but other times he seemed whiny and obsessive, which annoyed me. Pit also appeared in the Captain N comic books that were published by VALIANT, but this portrayal of the character was even worse!! Of all things, he was jealous of Captain N's dog! Geez, what were these people smoking when they wrote this?! As much as I criticized the cartoon version, it was 90 times better than the comics! The Eggplant Wizard was also a main villain in the Captain N cartoons and comics, and I liked his portrayal a lot more than I did Pit's. He actually looked like the character in the game, and he was really funny! However, there were still a few things the writers just got *wrong*. Like, for instance, there was one episode of the cartoon where he aims his magic staff at Captain N and shoots him with it. Captain N promptly turns into a......banana?! He should have turned into an eggplant. The comic book portrayal of Angel Land was pretty bad, too. I seem to remember one where it was suggested that the entire world was populated by talking fruits and vegetables. Gimme a break! I'm pretty sure the Eggplant Wizard is the only talking vegetable in Angel Land. It's a shame no one ever made a "true" comic or cartoon based on the Kid Icarus game. Yeah, I'm being a little harsh here, but for what it was, Captain N was an okay show, and I actually liked it quite a bit (particularly Season 2, though I still say Season 3 was rubbish and the comics were awful). I just wish Pit's character had been done a bit better, but such is life.

Metroid

Actually, this one is the other way around. Kid Icarus doesn't appear in Metroid, but Metroids appear in Kid Icarus! The Komayto enemies more than resemble the Metroids of KI's "companion game". Even the description in the manual implies it: "A mysterious floating creature. Nobody knows where it came from. One theory has it that it came from a planet other than Earth. It's a nasty jellyfish monster."

F-1 Race

Apparently, Kid Icarus appears on Course 8 of the Game Boy race game, F-1 Race. This entry was submitted to the Cameos Database by Mark Kelly: "Cross-Series: Before you challenge each course, except the first, you are greeted by a range of Nintendo heroes. Course 2: Toad, Course 3: Luigi, Course 4: Peach, Course 5: Link, Course 6: Mario, Course 7: Samus, Course 8: Pit (Kid Icarus), Course 9: Donkey Kong."

Howard & Nester
(Nester's Adventures)

I think every reader of Nintendo Power remembers the Howard & Nester comics. Howard was based on Howard Phillips, who used to work for Nintendo of America, and was known as the "Game Master". Nester was a cartoon creation of Howard's, who thought he was the greatest game player in the Universe. Each month, Howard and Nester would end up in a video game world and go through several hijinks, while passing on some kind of game-playing tip to the reader. Eventually, Howard left Nintendo, but the comic went on as "Nester's Adventures", with Nester flying solo through the video game worlds. In one issue, he dreams he is Pit and has to undergo Zeus's training with the tumbling mirrors. Nester is very uncooperative with Zeus, as expected. He is given a harp and Zeus tells him to play it. Nester promptly asks where to plug it in. Zeus says that if Nester plays it with skill, beautiful creatures will appear. In the next panel, there are monsters surrounding Nester, and Zeus says, "Not a good beginning, Kid Nesterus." Next, Zeus presents Nester with a question. He asks him what happened to Icarus when he flew too close to the sun. Nester says, "He got waxed, and they took away his license, I think." Finally, Nester comes to the trial of the tumbling mirrors, where he doesn't do too well. Zeus tells him that he should stand to the left (or right) and shoot straight up. (This is the "game-playing tip" of the comic.) After that, Nester wakes up from his dream and finds his schoolbooks have all been shot with arrows. This comic appeared around the time Kid Icarus: Of Myths & Monsters was released for the Game Boy.

More Howard Weirdness...

Okay, I'm really surprised no one's ever mentioned this before. Does anyone remember this? It's a letter sent in by a Nintendo Power reader many years ago, who noticed that Little Mac from Punch-Out!! resembles Howard Phillips. That may be true, but if you ask me, here's an even stronger resemblance. You be the judge:

Another Strange Look-a-like

Here is another rather bizarre look-a-like situation, this time involving the Captain N version of Kid Icarus:

Flint from Alundra 2

Kid Icarus

All Flint really needs are the wings. Is this coincidence? Most likely. But Flint's voice in Alundra 2 is very similar to Kid Icarus's voice in Captain N. (Though it's not the same voice actor, as far as I know.)