General Gameplay Info
- Ground locations include a medieval castle and an interstellar space-pirate vessel
- Fight with projectile attacks
- Can hide behind pillars/rubble
- Close-range melee combos
- Dash attacks
- Can take your time to explore in these sections
- Lots of hidden treasures
- Secret life-restoring hot springs
- “levels are frenetically paced and full of surprises”
- Sakurai calls this “escalating the situation”; piling action on top of action to keep players off balance and engaged
- Vehicle example: Exo Tank
- Grinding gameplay made possible by Palutena’s magical rails
NPC's and Dialogue
- There are times in which NPCs appear abruptly to fight by your side
- Recurring villains like Dark Pit appear from time to time
- Constant stream of dialogue to give players a better idea of what’s going on
- Dialogue is usually between Pit and Palutena or Palutena and the villain at the moment
- Dialogue “works like a charm” because of “clever writing and strong performances”
- “necessary plot explanations and strategy tips are buried deep within a stream of smart, self-aware banter”
- There’s a moment in the game in which Pit finds an item from the first Kid Icarus and Palutena says that it’s less pixelated than she remembers
- A comrade-in-arms will express shock that Pit would be so reckless as to open treasure chests left in plain sight without suspecting a trap
- “strong characters and a rollicking plot without ever pulling players out of the action to watch a non-interactive event scene or read a screen full of text”
- Palutena will show cute artwork and screenshots from the original Kid Icarus (reminding Pit of how enemies used to look) on the touch screen, though “the game rarely gives you a chance to peel your eyes away from the action unfolding above”
Length and Replayability
- At least 8 chapters; Nintendo Power reached this point and said there was “no end in sight”, hinting that there are many chapters
- Uprising isn’t the type of game you play once and then put on the shelf
- Can replay levels to gather hearts and open treasure chests
- Sakurai hinted at high-level challenges: “We’ve added a certain unique system to address the original game’s reputation for being quite challenging.”
- “more weapons than anyone could realistically hope to use in a single trip through the game”
Weapons
- Massive arsenal in the game
- Unique, legendary, superpowered weapons
- Nine weapon categories
- “when you switch to a new weapon category, it almost feels like you’re playing an entirely different game”
- Individual weapons, some with very different properties in each category
--- Burst Blade unleashes a flurry of short-range bullets that are great for clearing a room
--- Viper Blade sends out smaller, longer-ranged bullets that poison their targets
--- Samurai Blade is weaker at long range, but has a fast and deadly melee combo
--- Royal Blade is slightly weaker on offense, can send unleash a deadly blast attack to cover your escape when you dash backwards to evade an enemy
- Obtain 1-2 random weapons from treasure chests
Weapon Shopping and Upgrading
- Collect hearts and use them to purchase weapons from a random assortment at Arm’s Altar
- Access the Arm’s Alter between levels
- There is a practice range at Arm’s Alter
- Random assortment of special abilities for each iteration of a weapon
- Examples of the above: One random Royal Blade may have a small defensive boost, an extra bullet on each side-dash attack, and a chance to paralyze foes; another Royal Blade may feature a speed boost, enhanced long-ranged shots, and an improved combo attack
- Practically an infinite amount of randomly generated weapon variations
- Pass a “seed” of a good weapon you find through StreetPass; let your friends buy it in their own games
Magical Powers
- Pit can find magical powers that may be equipped between levels
- Powers include summoning a meteor shower or firing a massive laser beam (offensive)
- Defensive powers include a high-jump or the ability to recover some health
- Powers take up space on Pit’s power grid
- Find powers in high and low-level versions
- Bring only as many powers into combat as you add to the grid
- Use a power only a certain amount of times in each level
Other Collectible Items
Quote:
- Pit can pick up single-use items in addition to weapons
- Examples of the above: A centurion that follows Pit around firing arrows at foes, a shield that protects Pit’s flank from enemy attacks
AR Cards
- AR Cards were originally intended to be the Kid Icarus equivalent of Smash Bros.’s trophies
- Nintendo hasn’t said how the cards will be distributed
- Gather cards to unlock more more content in the game (nothing that can’t be unlocked through standard play)
Multiplayer Deathmatch
- When a player is killed and then reborn, his team loses some energy from a communal bar
- When the bar hits zero, the last character to fall is reborn as an angel (Pit or Dark Pit)
- Enemy team then gets a new goal: hunt down the enemy angel to win the game
- Other two teammates become immortal, giving them a good opportunity to even the odds by emptying the enemy team’s bar
