Handheld Wars Week 24 - Kid Icarus Vs. Wonder Boy

We already did a battle between these series on Console Wars. However in my opinion these games were a 100 times more suitable for handheld systems. In fact, the creator of Kid Icarus is the designer of the Game Boy. As iconic as Kid Icarus was for the NES that game was ment to be enjoyed on the GameBoy. I would go as far as to say that what Mario was to the NES, Kid Icarus was to the original Game Boy.

Nintendo knows this, and when they rebooted Kid Icarus with Kid Icarus Uprinsing, they have the perfect consoles with motion conttols for it, the Wii, and the Wii U, but despite that, Uprising was not released on consoles, and instead it was released on a handheld system which is the 3DS, they even put a platform for those that wanted to hold the system down to a table in order to play it. In my opinion, Nintendo simply wanted to honor the true nature of the IP.

Before Sonic, Wonder Boy was notoriously referred as Sega's mascot, their Mario you would say, it is just that Sonic became so popular that people left behind the once Master System king Wonder Boy. Just like people left behind the wingy platforming of Kid Icarus for jumping Mario.

In a way, I always thought of Kid Icarus as the Nintendo's direct response to the initial success of Wonder Boy. Kid Icarus for the Game Boy was the result, which to me was a true legendary 10 out of 10 game, from the mythos, to the music, to the puzzling enemy traps, and the vertical platforming level design.

Dragon's Trap is one the most iconic Wonder Boy entries, so it was not a surprise that it came for the Game Gear too. It was also remade recently for modern platforms, as it was a nostalgic entry for many Wonder Boy fans, so the game is quite accessible nowadays. Kid Icarus also was released on the 3DS on 3D, and just like the Sega 3D Classics, the 3D effect really enhances the visual experience of the game, but there is nothing wrong with the originals.

For me of course:



Not many things come close to that awesomeness.

MeleeMonk just vote based on watching a CGR review, we won't judge you, it is more than enough qualification. The more votes the better.

When I make these threads I'm just following what the preset standard was when I took over handheld wars as best I can.

I'd personally prefer there was no poll at all, that way if anyone wanna "vote" they'd have to actually post and say what game they like and why.
Makes a thread a lot more interesting with actual comments than a poll with votes that get no explanations [and mostly silence in general] as far as comments go.

I'd gladly go back and remove the polls from handheld wars. At best they've added little to nothing of positive value as the participation level for handheld wars is mostly abysmal anyway. I was under the impression that having hidden poll results was originally the result of the idea to get people engaged and try out the games so they could then vote and see the results. I mean even now you could just vote and detract your own vote to see what others have voted and then remove your own vote afterwards again as if nothing has happened. The votes don't lock so you can add, change and remove your vote at any time.

Yep, even though I rarely have ever played any of the games shown here (I've not played many portable games), I really like how this series is presented.

Out of curiosity, is Kid Icarus GB a port or a new game? I didn't enjoy the NES original a lot, but some aspects of it had potential, especially as a handheld game (side note: the 3DS one is really great besides the awkward control scheme).