Masahiro Sakurai Talks Kid Icarus On 3DS

Kid Icarus was the main game used to show off the 3DS at Nintendo’s E3 conference and it didn’t fail to impress. Director Masahiro Sakurai spoke with techland about the title and had this to say…

TL: Sakurai-san, they kept your presence a big secret but I’m glad that we can get some time together. So let’s start with how long have you been waiting to bring Pit back.

MS: So, the revival of Kid Icarus actually began in Smash Brothers. We brought him back for Smash Brothers and I personally did all that design work. We made a decision to upgrade and re-envision what the character was like with some more current trappings. From that time I certainly had an interest in the franchise. Now this time around, the project actually began with an original game idea, and the match seem to be a good one for the mythology and the character Kid Icarus. So it just so happened that the game idea and the franchise matched in the project then start it from there.

TL: How is Uprising going to incorporate the fiction and the continuity from previous games?

MS: In the last game, the story revolved around setting Palutena free after she had been captured and imprisoned by Medusa. This time around, Pit is actually working as team with Palutena. They have a very close type of communication and they’re working together to defeat Medusa, who has been revived after 25 years and is leading the so-called Uprising.

TL: Did you think of any other Nintendo characters besides Pit when you’re thinking about who you would like to make a game of?

MS: Yes, there actually was one other and that was Star Fox. But the problem with Star Fox was that—and you’ll see this when you see the trailer for Kid Icarus––is that the game design incorporates a lot of different views. For example, flying and shooting sideways or turning around and shooting behind and I felt that there were some restrictions with Star Fox in this regard. With Pit, there is a certain amount of flexibility that is allowed and makes a better fit for this gameplay.

TL: Okay, can we take a look at the game in here?

MS: So, I’ve really boiled down the controllers to three very pure and concentrated control inputs, and that’s L button for shooting, the slide pad for character movement and then the stylus is on the touch screen for reticule and camera movement.
You know how in FPS games that are played a DS you are forced to change your camera or your aim by moving from left to right, for example, to the edge of the screen and having to repeat that over and over and over again? That was quite an inconvenient system soo this time we’re implementing flick control for quicker turns. There are other such controls that I won’t go into, but overall it’s a very seamless control of the screen.

Thanks Techland