A mature Kid Icarus reboot is one of those phantom internet rumors that appears periodically and returns to hibernation once more when everyone realizes that no new details have arrived. Along with cancelled and belabored films, game projects with the same pedigree have a weird appeal among a lot of fans eager to know more about their favorite franchises coupled with the slightly morbid bystander effect of watching a trainwreck happen. That very allure is what makes Unseen64’s cancelled games project so interesting.
Recently they covered in video form the confirmed details and murky history surrounding Factor 5’s attempt at a Nintendo partnership to bring back a full Kid Icarus game with an older, darker slant to the winged hero. The video is pretty comprehensive and offers not only details but context to what happened and what went wrong, not only with Kid Icarus itself but also with the eventual shuttering of Factor 5 as a studio.
So what did go wrong exactly? A lot of stuff, but the majority of Factor 5’s efforts with it are described more in terms of vague experimentation and disengagement with Nintendo’s vision. One person associated with the project stated, “with Icarus, I feel like we were missing the point. Nintendo sent us the model of Kid Icarus, very much like the one that appears in Smash Bros., but we didn’t use it. We made our own version and it was more mature. Maybe even a little bit dark. It felt more like Devil May Cry. I knew Nintendo would never go for the adult version of Pit. In fact, I’d wager they took it as an insult that we didn’t use their version.”
Unseen 64 did a fantastic job compiling and explaining this failed attempt, as well as several others games in the same vein. Losing yourself in the rabbit hole of failed projects can be a fun way to kill a Sunday and ignore that yard work that’s glaring at you through the window.
