Cognition Dissemination: A Kid Icarus: Uprising Remaster Would Be Very Cool

There’s a good chance that a remaster of Nintendo 3DS classic Kid Icarus: Uprising is coming. It’s about time.

Director and designer Masahiro Sakurai provided a barely-disguised hint in one of the latest episodes of his excellent “Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games” YouTube series, videos worth the attention of anyone with even a passing interest in video game development, especially for Nintendo games. The episode titled “The Fiend’s Cauldron” focuses heavily on Uprising’s development and the design process behind the titular Fiend’s Cauldron feature that let players adjust the difficulty to their liking, with the rewards being improved depending on the difficulty players completed chapters on. It’s the kind of system seldom seen in video games, one that didn’t humiliate anyone for making the game easier for themselves.

Sakurai, in a twist, ends the video with this gem: “It sure would be nice to play Kid Icarus: Uprising on a home console. I wonder if someone out there will ever port it?”

That sure seems like a big hint! Considering Sakurai’s history with hints, I’d be surprised if development on an Uprising remaster hadn’t already started. They’ve often led to real announcements, and it’s unlikely that he and Sora Ltd. would need to push Nintendo into doing anything given his popularity. The only thing throwing me off a bit here is just how unsubtle this is compared to, say, the Smash Bros. character hints. But that’s not enough to dissuade me from thinking it’s happening.

Speaking of Smash Bros.: There was an even larger hint regarding this remaster that went under several radars. Bandai Namco started hiring for the remaster of a 3D action game for Nintendo in April. The company wasn’t involved with the original Uprising’s development, but they have heavily worked with Sakurai on the last two Super Smash Bros. titles. It doesn’t appear that Sakurai plans to go ahead with a new Smash Bros. installment in the near future, assuming he’ll even be the one spearheading the next title. Given the overwhelming success of the Smash Bros. games, and how they undoubtedly generated heaps of revenue for Bandai Namco in addition to Nintendo, they’ll want to keep this relationship going. Bandai Namco has proven capable of handling action games, so an Uprising remaster would be fitting for their resume.

Here’s one thing I can definitely say about the mere potential of an Uprising remaster: It’s about goddamned time. Uprising was primarily a twin-stick shooter while occasionally being a twin-stick actioner, and while I had plenty of fun with it, the fact that it arrived with so many possible control methods showed how it was never a perfect fit for the system. Playing it with the stand that was included with the game in a large box was my preferred method, with the Circle Pad being used to control Pit in conjunction with the  stylus being used for shooting and overall targeting, but it was far from optimal. There were other control options, but they felt even more awkward. Controlling with the Circle Pad and the face buttons didn’t work as well as it sounded on paper. They could have also ported it to Wii U, but the team really wanted to take advantage of the glasses-free 3D technology of Nintendo’s then-current handheld.

None of the options, basically, were substitutes for the more “traditional” method of having two analog sticks. And that’s not getting into how hellacious the control methods were for people who weren’t right-handed. Nintendo eventually released 3DS models with right analog nubs, but Uprising was never updated to utilize them, perhaps due to the nub not being made for intense usage.

Uprising had one of the prettiest presentations for a Nintendo game on 3DS, complete with a great art style that shimmered on a low-powered system, great voicework, a sublime soundtrack, and solid camerawork throughout the game and its cutscenes. These elements will all shine even more through a remaster. If Sakurai and Nintendo are seriously going through the bother of hiring Bandai Namco for this, I’m hoping for a serious visual upgrade that will be on par with the comparison between the Super Smash Bros. 3DS and Wii U titles.

In fact, I’ve been hoping for a good while that Sakurai would tackle a brand-new Kid Icarus work following his hiatus (if not outright retirement) from Smash Bros. A remaster of Uprising would be essential not only due to the potential of being on a system where it can be controlled by humans, but also thanks to how it will be on a console besides the largely-dead 3DS. It’s long been out of print physically, and the digital version didn’t include the stand. It would help if this game is available on a current platform before Nintendo fully embarks on a sequel, which could also feature Bandai Namco’s involvement.

But I won’t get too ahead here. The better idea would be to wait until the remaster is fully revealed before venturing into wishes about what a sequel could resemble. But if the remaster exists, and I’ll be very shocked if it doesn’t, it will be a sign of greatness to come for the Kid Icarus franchise.