I don’t know if it’s due to a lazy Friday afternoon, or because people were discussing Retro Studios next big move earlier today in David’s post on Infendo or what, but today I started thinking about how a developer would go about remaking Kid Icarus.
At first, for some crazy reason, I imagined a FPS, but that quickly died out. It wouldn’t make any sense, as I would want to see Pit on screen firing arrows or flapping his ineffective little wings or whatever. Plus, I like playing FPS’s like I like experiencing herpes outbreaks: Once a year. Wait, that didn’t come out right…
On a serious note, more of my lame brain ideas are hidden beneath the fold, after which I encourage you to add to the discussion.
No, a FPS wouldn’t do for this game. Not at all.
So how about a serious take on the title, kind of like a God of War art direction that takes advantage of the Wii’s motion controls? Pit would be all grown up (battle-scarred and whatnot), fighting serious enemies with the potential to cause serious pain. It would be a third person perspective, and the levels would be large and detailed, but you’d be constantly going up — just like in the original. Falling to your doom would be just as easy to do as it was in the 1980’s, with the difference being it’s in 3D and 480p. It’d be risky, but I can see it drawing in both new fans and old.
But then I started thinking about the original, way back in the 80s, and the look and feel of it: Kind of serious, but kind of cartoony. I thought maybe we could update that with a Smash Bros. type art scheme. The levels would be third person and full of color and enemies and other characters that were full of life and personality. I’m not talking Sonic Team cartoony here with crappy voice acting and over-the-top Saturday morning cartoon type BS — I’m talking a mature look like Smash Bros. that doesn’t mind going quirky every once in a while.
Finally, there’s an approach that many people out there think should have been taken with the Metroid series: keep it 2D. I myself have no qualms about 2D — I love platformers like Mario Bros. and pseudo-3D platformers like Battletoads, so I am completely cool with a 2D update to Kid Icarus. Give it a slick grpahical update and then let the old Kid Icarus engine kick and carry the gameplay upwards until pit gets his armor and fights Medusa on Mt. Olympus. Or something.