Kid Icarus

Kid Icarus: Angel Land Story
Also known as: Hikari Shinwa: Palutena no Kagami (JP) Developer: Nintendo R&D1 Publisher: Nintendo Platforms: NES, Famicom Disk System Released in JP: December 19, 1986 (FDS) Released in US: July 1987 Released in EU: February 15, 1987 This game has debugging material. This game has regional differences. This game has revisional differences. This game has a Data Crystal page

Kid Icarus is the story of a winged angel named Pit (not "Kid Icarus") who is sent to protect Angel Land from an onslaught of beasts, most recognizably Eggplant Wizards.

Reaper Hidden Sprite

The Reaper enemies shoot out sprites which correspond to their sight hit detection. These use tile #$5F, which is normally blank; replacing the empty tile with any other graphic (e.g. a checkerboard in the above screenshot) will make them visible. Because sprites can't be used for collision detection on NES hardware, it's likely these sprites were assigned a visible graphic during development for debugging purposes.

These sprites are shot in an alternating high/low pattern, as seen in the screenshot. These sprites will disappear if they touch any non-empty background tile, at which point the Reaper immediately throws out another one.

Game Genie code ZEXEXVYS will modify the routine that writes tile #$5F to use tile #$0A (a placeholder square) instead, rendering the sprites visible.

(Source: DukeDonuts, Rusty)

Regional Differences

To do: Rip more of the NES and FDS audio to compare.

Music

The Japanese/Famicom Disk System version notably has more instruments than its NES counterpart due to using the FDS's extra wavetable sound channel. Interestingly, these tracks would become the variants which would also be referenced in Kid: Icarus Uprising.

Title Screen

Famicom Disk System	Nintendo Entertainment System

Lose a Life

Famicom Disk System	Nintendo Entertainment System

Victory/Stage Clear

Famicom Disk System	Nintendo Entertainment System

Title Screen

FDS	NES

The original Japanese title is 光神話 パルテナの鏡, Light Myth: Palutena's Mirror. Besides the title change, the English logo uses a heart piece and a pegasus wing for a stylized "i" and "r". In addition, the green decoration received darker shading, the clouds and copyright were repositioned, and the trademark symbol was redrawn.

Select Screen

FDS	NES

The Japanese version features a File Select screen with three save slots, which displays your score and how many hearts you've collected. A top five high score list is also present. The NES version uses a tedious password system instead.

Menu Screen

FDS	NES

The Menu Screen in the FDS version displays your file name at the top of the screen. The blue bricks were changed to gray and instead of only white text, the NES version received blue and beige colored text. Also, the MAP text is always visible in the NES version. In the FDS version, it only appears when you have obtained one.

Additionally, the "Check Sheet" (MAP) text is green colored in the FDS version.

Endings

The ending requirements were changed between versions. In the FDS version, your Strength, Endurance, and Continues determine the outcome (+10 points for each level-up in Strength and Endurance, -1 point for each Continue); in the NES version, your Hearts, Strength, Endurance, and Weapons determine the outcome (the ending improves with each maxed-out stat). Also, the FDS version contains a "worst ending" which was removed from the NES version, while the NES version contains a "best ending" that is not in the FDS version:

FDS (Worst Ending)	NES (Best Ending)

The light of peace has returned to Angel Land!
However, your fight doesn't end here.
You must keep battling to protect this peace!

All five endings in the FDS version consists of a screen with Pit and Palutena against a black background. In the NES version, some nice graphics were added and the best ending and the other four endings background differed slightly from each other. In addition, the message was instead moved to a separate screen and a staff roll was added.

• The Japanese version was only released for the FDS, and that version contains not only an enhanced soundtrack made in mind for the Disk System's improvements over the base unit, but took advantage of the controller's microphone to haggle with the shopkeepers (in the NES version, you do this by holding A and B on Controller 2). The 3D Classics release on the Nintendo 3DS is mostly based on the FDS version with the save system and audio intact; however, the last level, endings and haggling method are more similar to the NES version.
• A few changes were made to the last level in the American version: the screen scrolls automatically rather than based on the player's movement, you no longer have to hold the Jump button to fly, you can fly through the bricks and pillars, and enemy patterns have been changed. To compensate for the earlier difficulty reduction changes, players will need to hit enough enemies to face the final boss. Additionally, when you defeat the boss, the eyeball reveals a collapsing Medusa.

Revisional differences

As revealed in Nintendo Power #10's "Classified Information" section, there's a password that starts the game on stage 2-4, enables invincibility, and has a pretty ridiculous score multiplier:

ICARUS FIGHTS
MEDUSA ANGELS

Unfortunately, for some reason, this password doesn't work on the Rev. 1 version of the game, nor the Virtual Console version (which is based on Rev. 1).

(Source: Original TCRF research)