New Kid Icarus remind anyone of anything?

[crux]

I'm glad some people are meeting this game with skepticism. Everyone was quick to denounce Microsoft and Sony (for good reason, mind you), yet Nintendo was met with applause for offering rehashed IP after rehashed IP. Kid Icarus: Uprising is being lauded because of its history and how long the IP has been ignored, not that a 3D conversion has anything to do with the original and couldn't be better suited with an entirely new IP altogether. Nintendo is playing it safe, yet they're being met with praise for their safety.

[Ivo]

Nintendo is playing it safe, yet they're being met with praise for their safety.

IMO the DS wasn't "safe" and neither was the Wii. The huge success they had with those is what makes the 3DS seem "safe", despite the failure 3D has been in the past.
The 3DS may just be Nintendo once gain pushing relatively "new" technology into the mainstream (this time it is accessible 3D without glasses that just works; they did accessible motion controls without strings that just work, and touch screens that just work before mostly anyone else as far as I'm aware - for a reasonable definition of "accessible" and "just works" ).

It's not like they just made a DS with more graphical prowess and threw in an analog pad and called it a day, right?
Move by Sony seems really like a better Wii, if that; it may work very well and much better than the Wii motion plus, but it looks really derivative.
Natal / Kinect by Microsoft is IMO relatively innovative from what I've seen and I'd really like to see some good games come out for it but doesn't seem to be inspiring trust in many gamers (there is the potentially huge issue with sitting down).

I really think Nintendo earned their praise, and it seems the developers agree with my opinion... Look at the line-up of upcoming games for the 3DS. Yes, many are ports / remakes, but there is some major 3rd party backing there regardless.

This new Kid Icarus game is a 1st-party launch title for the 3DS that probably wants to demonstrate the 3D; Space Harrier is a classic and it too used to demonstrate 3D (with glasses though, I think it even did so on the Master System). It is not so surprising Nintendo is going for a game like that (or like Rez, or like Sin & Punishment).

Despite the old games, I think the IP is appropriate for this kind of game (consider the last level of the original), just like I think that Metroid was appropriate for the Prime games. I bet they could easily make up new characters for Prime and for this, but why not include a little bit of fan service.

As long as the game doesn't suck they're not really harming anyone by using the known characters here, there isn't really the worry of messing up the continuity / canon of Kid Icarus or is there?

Ivo.

[crux]

Well, first of all, I only regarded IPs, and only meant to refer to E3 2010. I don't think I made that clear. DS or Wii have nothing to do with my commentary. I look forward to the 3DS as well, but only presuming it truly brings something new to the table. (The 3D is a neat effect, but who knows how well it will be used. I've yet to be impressed with motion controls despite the fact that I was a very early adopter and am a HUGE fan of novelty controllers, for those that haven't seen my collection.)

As far as rehashes are concerned, however, they mark the prevailing trend that safety is better than ingenuity. New IPs are risky and E3 2010 made it very clear that very few developers are willing to take any risks. Fan service is only evidence of this, whether Icarus deserves my scorn or not. Had this game not been stamped with Kid Icarus' wings and his name, would it have been met with such enthusiasm? Surely not. So far all we can tell is that it's something of a rail shooter - a genre the Wii is oversaturated with because of the system's ease in pointing.

Kid Icarus alone isn't the source of my scorn, but Zelda, Mario Sports, Wii Party, Golden Sun, GoldenEye, Kirby, Dragon Quest, Metroid, Donkey Kong Country, and Kid Icarus most certainly are. That's not quite a subject for this topic though, so I just decided to support skepticism for this title instead.

[SplashChick]

You can't make new IPs without successful ones first. =|

The DS and Wii may print money but they don't do magic.