Kid Icarus: Uprising

Kid Icarus: Uprising is a Rail Shooter/ Third person Shooter which was released on March 22, 2012 in Japan, the 23rd in US and Europe, and the 29th in Australia.

After 25 years in the vault of Nintendo, deep under Japan, Pit is back in action with the goddess of light Palutina to banish the Underworld forces led by the revived Medusa. So does this dusty old angel have what it takes to take on this venture or has the midst of time made his wings feeble? Let's find out!

Story:
25 years ago, the Evil Medusa plunged Skyworld into Darkness and Chaos. As the goddess of Light Palutina sends Pit, the head guard in Palutina's grand army to defeat her Commanders and eventually Medusa her self. Of course that was then, this is now where Medusa is back and Palutina brings out Pit and sends him on many different levels of Excitement and Adventure.

On his adventure's he meets allies like Magnus, the most experienced swordsman around, the other gods of Olympis and Dark Pit.

Also (Spoiler Alert) the story dosn't stop there, it stops with 25 levels.

Gameplay:
The level is divided into 3 parts, Air battle, Land Battle, and Boss Battle. The air battle is a rail third person shooter where you must dodge enemy attacks, and shoot at the enemies on the screen.

The land battle gives you more control in where Pit can go through the level, and can either fight from afar or go close up and personal and melee the opponent.

To control the game you move with the circle pad, aim with the stylus and shoot with the L button. This can really cramp your hands after a while, but that is what the option to change the controls are for in the options.

You can use a different variety of items, listing them all

• Blades
• Staff's
• Bows
• Arms
• Cannon's
• Orbiters
• Claws
• Palm
• Club's

Don't worry about having the same weapon over and over again. Nintendo put the feature of "Weapon Crafting" where you mix to different weapons and the special perks, and a new weapon comes out with some of the perks on the old weapons.

Kid Icarus is also paired with Nintendo Network, an online service which will be used with the Wii U and future 3Ds games. Meaning that Kid Icarus has multiplayer. I shall come back to that later in the review.

The game also includes 7 AR cards that can be used in-game to battle each other, and a stand for your 3Ds.

Art-style:
The art-style was made by the most famous of Nintendo's studio's Project Sora which was founded by the president of Nintendo Saruto Iwata and a former Hal employee Masahiro Sakurai, the creator of Kirby and the Smash Bros series. The looks of the character's and the levels have high amount of details and the characters are portrayed by anime drawings on the bottom screen.

Music:
The Music was composed by
   -Motoi Sakuraba
   -Yuzo Koshiro
   -Masafumi Takada
   -Noriyuki Iwadare
   -Yasunori Mitsuda

When it comes to soundtracks, Nintendo does not screw around. Their hard work is definitely evident in Uprising with many varied original pieces that bring bring back the sense of nostalgia while at the same time sounding new and refreshing. The link below gives a bit of insight towards their work on the game's soundtrack:
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/3ds/akdj/music/music04.html

Multiplayer:
The multiplayer has two modes that can be played online. One is free for all and the other mode is Light VS Dark exemplified here:

In the past, Nintendo has not been the premium service when it comes to lag free presentation online (coughBrawlcough). However, in Kid Icarus: Uprising, the gameplay is surprisingly smooth with little to no lag in online matches allowing you to enjoy the intriguing multiplayer to its full extent.

Final Verdict:
Kid Icarus: Uprising is a superb title and is by far one of the greatest 3DS games released so far. Its story along with its presentation compliment the other leaving you with a more than satisfied experience. This is highly recommended to any 3DS owner out there.

Story: 8/10
Gameplay: 7/10
Artstyle: 9/10
Music: 9/10
Multiplayer: 9/10

Final Verdict: 8.5/10