'A harsh gaming system' indeed. Kid Icarus was fucking hard.

I didn't even know this game was beatable without a cheat.

God, this game.

I remember spending an inordinate amount of time becoming obscenely good at this game. I could have been figuring out how to cure cancer*, hanging out with friends, volunteering at a hospital**, or playing a better game. Instead, I played this.

* This assumes that 12-year-old-me was much much smarter than current-me.

** Contrary to what you might think, adolescent volunteers are in high demand at hospitals. Doctors like to be regaled with Nintendo-related trivia while performing their duties.

the controllers had microphones?

I only played the game boy version, wherein which the developers realized their mistakes and actually made the game beatable.

I have beat this game a handful of times. It was insanely hard. You had to basically learn every jump and arrow shot by timing. You had to draw out maps of the dungeon boards. You were rewarded with a hot version of Medusa if you beat it fast enough (no pun intended).

This game.... hurts.

Am I the only person that used to beat this game at will? I remember hanging out at a friend's house and playing through it several times in a row. We knew the closing credits by heart. Hip Tanaka did the music! I probably logged more hours on Kid Icarus than any other NES game.

I remember Hip Tanaka! Always made me laugh. I love that name.