Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters

European box.

Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters is a platform action adventure game developed by Nintendo R&D1 and Tose and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy 0n 1991-11-05. Although the game is the second title in the Kid Icarus series, which started in Japan, the game strangely did not see a Japanese release. The game takes place in Angel Land, where the goddess Palutena has charged the angel Pit to travel to the Underworld and work his way back up to Angel Land as training to become strong enough to find and use three sacred treasures. With these, he might become strong enough to defeat the evil demon who is threatening the land, Orcos.

I have always wished that Kid Icarus: Angel Land Story was a better game. I love the idea of it, but it has too many flaws which prevent me from enjoying it fully. After learning that there was a sequel made for Game Boy, I tried it out, but, after finding it very similar to the NES game, I didn't give it a fair shake. However, after learning that Game Boy titles are generally easier than the NES games they're based on, and once again seeing this title high on people's favorite for the platform, I decided to try it again. So, I played the game through and beat it on 2019-12-14.

Status

I don't own this game, but I've beat it.

Review

6	6	4	5	4

Best Version: 50%

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• Rather than be a sequel, the game is more like a refined and simplified version of the original with the majority of the rough edges smoothed out.
• The game isn't nearly as grueling as the original. It offers far more health refreshers (they even drop from enemies occasionally), hearts are more plentiful, and, probably the most important, you can no longer die from falling.
• Player control has been improved quite a bit. You don't have a strange floaty jump, and you can now use your weakened wings to glide as you fall, slowing your descent and allowing more control over where you land.
• The key, which allows you to reenter a door, is a very helpful item.
• The manual is very detailed.

Bad

• Although the graphics are passable, their large size only allows a tiny window of the game world to be visible. This makes it very easy to accidentally fall into spikes or other hazards.
• The thief monster was brought back. He's not quite as horrible as in the first game because he's a little easier to avoid, and items are cheaper to buy-back, but it's still annoying.
• The mapping system is still underwhelming. By the time you have found the map, pencil, and torch, you've already probably explored half the fortress anyway, and, since they don't even show room types or exits, it's not that useful. However, at least in this game, you don't have to buy all three items, they can be found in centurions.
• I would have appreciated a bit more uniqueness to the game rather than have it follow the original so closely. I love most of the refinements, but all the levels are laid out the same, the items are the same, and the enemies are the same (though renamed).
• The enemy rooms are even more pointless than in the first game. At least in the original, each Specknose yielded a large heart, here, the bats only give half hearts. And, since you can farm hearts very easily in every map, there is no need to ever enter the monster rooms.
• Once again, Pit isn't allowed to use the sacred treasures, making them unimpressive rewards for defeating the fortress bosses. However, the fortresses are so much easier this time around, you shouldn't expect much.
• Shops still lock their doors after you leave, a terrible business tactic, but, at least in this game, they let you buy more than one item!
• The first three bosses are very similar to each other, and I wish the first form of the final boss wasn't the same at the third boss.
• The game's story is ridiculous and contrived.

Ugly

• It's very easy to accidentally waste a key on a room you didn't want to re-enter. A simple confirmation prompt would have fixed this.

Media

Box Art

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  All regions use this box art. Although the cartoon is quite childish, it's quite fitting to how the game plays.

Documentation

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  English manual.

Maps

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  Underworld, stage 1.

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  Underworld, stage 2.

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  Underworld, stage 3.

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  Underworld, fortress.

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  Overworld, stage 1.

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  Overworld, stage 2.

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  Overworld, stage 3.

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  Overworld, fortress.

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  Sky World, stage 1.

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  Sky World, stage 2.

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  Sky World, stage 3.

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  Sky World, fortress.

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  Final stage.

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  Final stage, boss form 1.

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  Final stage, boss form 2.

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  Treasure rooms.

Videos

• youtube.com/watch?v=iBc0ywBktHw - Longplay.

Credits

The game doesn't have credits, but these are the personnel involved who gamers have identified.

Role	Staff
Executive Producer	Hiroshi Yamauchi
Producer	Gunpei Yokoi
Design	Masafumi Sakashita
Programmer	Hideyo Kawaguchi

Links