Kid Icarus: Uprising Multiplayer Hands On – Becoming Dark Pit

Multiplayer in Kid Icarus: Uprising splits players up into two opposing teams: Light and Dark. In multiplayer mode, you play as a group of knight-like characters.

The first thing multiplayer demo had me do was select one of nine weapons. Not knowing the difference between the bows, swords, giant gauntlets, etc. — and informed that I could not change weapons during the course of the battle — I chose what I thought looked the coolest: the claws.

My attack range was severely limited by my choice of weapon, making my experience one of evasion (and repeated death). I had to roll everywhere, dodging enemy attacks, and getting close enough to slash at my opponents with L. 

My lack of ranged attacks was remedied by bombs that were scattered around the map. I could pick the bombs up by running over them and then toss them at people using the touchscreen. These were quite helpful in taking down my enemies on the Light team, especially because the explosion would knock enemies down long enough for me to run up and slash them.

Kid Icarus’ multiplayer is structured in a way I haven’t seen before. Both Light and Dark teams essentially have team health bars at the bottom of the screen. As players on either team are defeated, the gauge depletes. When a team’s gauge is emptied, a player on that team will respawn as either Pit or Dark Pit. As I died quite frequently, my clawed angel was finally reborn as the giant-gauntleted Dark Pit.

While this transformation made me more powerful and the gauntlet had more range than my claws, the sudden change of weapons forced me to change strategies. The survival of my team rested on my shoulders. Unfortunately (as I noticed when one member of the Light team became Pit), an icon onscreen revealed my location to my enemies. With my gauntlet ineptitude and the opposing team making a rushing me, my health started dropping rapidly, putting my entire team at risk of a loss.

So I ran. I took out a couple members of the Light team in the process, but eventually, Light Pit caught up to me. I turned around and tossed a bomb at him, starting our face-off. Despite my best attempts at explosive use, he had the health advantage and a longer-ranged weapon, so in about five seconds, I was annihilated, and the match was over.

Kid Icarus: Uprising will be released for the 3DS sometime this year.