The final milestone with Kid Icarus: Uprising has been reached. According to the man himself (courtesy of Twitter) we now know that the game has gone gold in Japan. Hopefully everybody can take a break before venturing onto the next grandiose project!

Source:

https://twitter.com/#!/Sora_Sakurai/status/160302232322060288

“Nintendo is including a free stand with all copies of the Kid Icarus: Uprising game for the Nintendo 3DS system. The stand holds the Nintendo 3DS at an angle above any flat surface and provides players with a comfortable option for playing,” the statement continues. “The game’s control scheme was designed to fit the game’s unique blend of flight, shooting and melee combat, and offers tremendous precision. Our product testing demonstrated that players found the stand to be comfortable and enjoyable.” – Statement by Nintendo of America

It seems the stand is completely free with purchase of the game, and will be available with the game for all regions of release. Sounds helpful!

Kid Icarus: Uprising – Papercraft Feature

In this video (also seen at the official Japanese site, or from Japanese Nintendo Channel), Sakurai oversees the creation of an enormous Kid Icarus: Uprising parade float featuring both the main character Pit, and the goddess Palutena. The float will appear in Goshogawara’s Tachineputa festival this August, carrying with it the Mii characters of those who submit their Mii on the official site for the promotion.

It seems that Masahiro Sakurai is once again in the Iwata Asks hot seat to discuss details, and answer the burning questions about the new Smash Bros. announcement. The interview itself took place before the info was made public, on May 11. It’s mentioned this date is actually the two year anniversary of the Project Sora office opening. In the interview (in Japanese), Sakurai gave a few hints about what players can expect to see in the new games.

According to Iwata, discussion of a new Smash Bros. began right after the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl on Wii in 2008; around the same time that Sakurai was asked by Nintendo to develop a new game for the Nintendo 3DS.  The interview expresses that Iwata was unsure if asking Sakurai to create a new Smash Bros. game so soon would be okay. The decision was made to have Kid Icarus Uprising be Project Sora’s initial project. From there, the team would move on to Smash Bros. as the second game. Interestingly, this plan was actually kept a secret to the team itself until they were ready to announce the new Smash Bros. titles.

When Iwata approached Sakurai with the new Wii U console, Iwata had intended to present Sakurai with an option of which platform to develop for. However, for Sakurai, a realization set in that they would need to make Smash Bros. for both platforms. He goes on to describe the appeal of a portable version, stating that the experience becomes more personal. Players may become attached to data they have built up, and collected. Thus, Sakurai hopes the 3DS Smash Bros. can have players building up and customizing their character, and then transferring it to the Wii U version for battle.

Just revealed at E3 2011, Kid Icarus will feature multiplayer modes, one of which is called Light Vs. Dark. Up to three players join up on each team, and each has their own power meters. Defeated team members lower the meter, but players may also become angels, and the goal changes to a secondary objective of attempting to defeat the angels of the opposing team.

Also revealed was an AR-card mode, currently referred to as “AR Idol Battle”. With special Kid Icarus AR cards, players can summon 3D models of the characters associated with the cards, and a simple press of the “A” button initiates a battle when the cards are faced together. So far that is all it does, but this is just for the sake of example for now. It was mentioned that this mode would probably be expanded upon to be something a bit more. Eventually, the idea is to sell Kid Icarus cards packs separately.

With the announcement  of the Wii U at Nintendo’s E3 2011 Press Conference, the audience was treated with an extra bit of information coming from Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata himself — the confirmation of two new Smash Bros. games being developed for the new Wii U and Nintendo 3DS! Masahiro Sakurai will once again head up the game with his team at Project Sora,  creating both the 3DS and Wii U versions of Smash Bros. as their project immediately following Kid Icarus Uprising.

Progress on the development seems to be very early, as the team is wrapped up with Kid Icarus Uprising still. In fact, Masahiro Sakurai suggests on his Twitter that development on the game is not actually moving yet. “We really should not have announced it to the public at this time, but we made the notice since we have to assemble staff. The future will change based on the strength of the developers gathered.” Apparently, upon gathering a team, the first job will be to port Super Smash Bros. Brawl’s engine to Wii U and Nintendo 3DS.

Via his Twitter account, Masahiro Sakurai has shared with us a look at the badge lanyard design for E3 2011 next week.

The Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary… exciting! Thanks for sharing; here’s to a great E3!

On the show floor of the annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, we had the opportunity to go hands on with a preview build of Kid Icarus: Uprising! The series revival was a welcome addition to the playable Nintendo 3DS line-up at GDC.  (Humorously, the in game dialogue consisted of something along the lines of Palutena and Medusa joking that it’s been over 20 years since they’ve encountered each other; about the amount of time since we’ve seen a new addition to the Kid Icarus series.)

Check out various impressions at the following sites:

http://www.siliconera.com/2011/03/07/you-dont-have-to-fear-the-reaper-in-kid-icarus-uprising/

http://gamrreview.vgchartz.com/preview/45683/kid-icarus-uprising/84409/

In his latest Famitsu column, Masahiro Sakurai reflects back on the development of the number one GameCube hit from nearly a decade ago, Super Smash Bros. Melee.

“On a personal level, Melee had an extremely grueling development cycle,” Sakurai wrote in the article, as translated by 1UP. “Some of my other games did, too, but Melee sticks out far ahead of the pack in my mind. I worked on that game for 13 months straight, after all, without a single Sunday or holiday off that whole time. During parts of it, I was living a really destructive lifestyle — I’d work for over 40 hours in a row, then go back home to sleep for four.”

The driving force that led Sakurai to work so hard? “I seriously felt like a man on a mission,” he explained. “With the original Smash Bros., there was no guarantee the game would be well-received at all. I had my hands full just trying to make it into the completely new sort of fighting game I had in mind. With Melee, though, the previous game did well enough that Nintendo and the character designers knew what I wanted in advance. And I wanted a lot. It was the biggest project I had ever led up to that point — the first game of mine on disc-based media, the first that used an orchestra for music, the first with ‘real’ polygon graphics. My staff was raring to go, and we plunged in full-tilt from the start. I pushed myself beyond any limit I could think of because I doubted I’d ever have this sheer amount of work in my hands ever again.”

Despite all of the effort poured into the game, it seems there is something about it that Sakurai has a tinge of regret for. “I had created Smash Bros. to be my response to how hardcore-exclusive the fighting game genre had become over the years,” Sakurai said. “But why did I target it so squarely toward people well-versed in video games, then? That’s why I tried to aim for more of a happy medium with Brawl’s play balance. There are three Smash Bros. games out now, but even if I ever had a chance at another one, I doubt we’ll ever see one that’s as geared toward hardcore gamers as Melee was. Melee fans who played deep into the game without any problems might have trouble understanding this, but Melee was just too difficult.”

The accessibility of gaming to all audiences is something that Sakurai has put a special focus on for a very long time.  Sakurai concludes his article with, “If we want new people from this generation of gamers to come in, then we need it accessible, simple, and playable by anyone. You can’t let yourself get preoccupied with nothing but gameplay and balance details. That’s where the core of the Smash Bros. concept lies, not on doggedly keeping the game the way it was before.”

More on this article at 1up.com.

The recent Nintendo Conference 2010 event marked the first public playable appearance of Kid Icarus: Uprising. Dengeki Online had the opportunity to sample various 3DS games available during the event, including Kid Icarus. Their chance to play it was even better as Masahiro Sakurai apparently checked out the demo area while they were playing, offering up a few comments.

The first question was concerning the reaction which Kid Icarus: Uprising was receiving with those who had the opportunity to play so far. “Although we’ve been hearing a variety of opinions, most are more positive than expected. However, I feel the height of the threshold for the third-person shooter genre, so I think we will have to come up with some ideas for this,” replied Sakurai. “There were many opinions that the aiming is difficult. We’re considering an assist feature for the final version. Also, there have been some opinions that it’s difficult to move and aim at the same time.”

In regards to the usage of stereoscopic 3D effects being necessary for gameplay, Sakurai said “There are people who dislike 3D, so we wont be putting in any gimmicks that require 3D.”

Finally, Dengeki asked Sakurai to name the games that piqued his interest at the conference.  Sakurai replied, “Resident Evil Revelations. Also, Super Monkey Ball maintains 60 frames per second, so it’s extremely smooth.”

According to Dengeki’s report, the game offered play on stage 1 (easy) and stage 4 (hard). Players were able to select three different weapons. The Dengeki writer selected the first stage. The first half was set in the air, with the second half taking the player down to the ground. It was also noted that during play of the first stage, the mid-battle conversation between Pit and the Goddess Palutena contained full voice acting.

Source: Dengeki Online (Japanese)