Kid Icarus: Uprising

KID ICARUS: UPRISING

RATING E for Everyone

After years of heaping attention on Mario, Link, Donkey Kong, Samus Aran and even that blob Kirby, Nintendo is finally turning the spotlight back on Pit, the spunky angelic protagonist who wowed players of the original Nintendo system in 1986 in Kid Icarus, the beloved platforming adventure that never gained the same acclaim as other Nintendo tales.

Pit is back to battle the underworld in Kid Icarus: Uprising. This time, he's doing it in three dimensions, aided by Palutena, the cheeky Goddess of Light he saved at the end of the first game. That mostly means blasting baddies with various weapons while soaring through the sky and scurrying on the ground.

Pit can only fly for five minutes at a time, so most Uprising levels begin in the air before moving to land. The aerial levels are especially wondrous when viewed on the Nintendo 3DS' glasses-free 3-D screen. It's a shame that the heroic Pit cannot keep battling eyeballs while dodging twisters or gliding over erupting volcanoes just a little bit longer.

Uprising totally falls apart when Pit's feet hit the ground. The wonky controls require players to move Pit with the analog stick and control the camera and Pit's aim with the stylus. (Lefties either have to deal with using their nondominant hand or purchase the extra Circle Pad Pro analog stick and snap it onto the back of their Nintendo 3DS.)

PLOT Time to fight underworld baddies

DETAILS Nintendo 3DS, $40

BOTTOM LINE Spreads its wings too far