Kid Icarus: Uprising 3DS stand coming to UK

By Tom Phillips Published 25 January, 2012

Free with every copy of the game, coming 23rd March.

Nintendo will bundle Kid Icarus: Uprising with a 3DS stand when it launches in the UK on 23rd March.

It allows gamers to rest their 3DS on a flat surface, freeing up both hands for playing.

The peripheral was first revealed earlier this month by Kid Icarus: Uprising designer Masahiro Sakurai via his Twitter account.

The game's touch-sensitive airborne shooting can "work better" when the screen is "secure", Sakurai wrote. He suggested gamers try it with other 3DS games too.

Nintendo has also revealed new gameplay information about Kid Icarus: Uprising. The angelic shooter will see Medusa, evil Queen of the Underworld, return. Each level's difficulty can be customised by something called the Fiend's Cauldron. It allows players to adjust a chapter's Intensity Rating from 2.0 (standard) in 0.1 increments from 0.0 up to 9.0.

At some point in the game, hero Pit will also be able to drive a tank.

Kid Icarus: Uprising also supports the 3DS Circle Pad Pro device, which launches alongside Resident Evil: Revelations this Friday.

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About Tom Phillips

Tom joined Eurogamer in 2010 and has quickly made his mark writing news and columns and coming up with puntastic straplines. Questionable beard. @TomPhillips151 on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Phillips archive page.

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Comments (20) Latest comment 4 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • LazyDan #1 4 months ago

    I'm reading this as 'they haven't fixed the ground based controls', because yes, it was a pain to play while holding the 3DS. This is going to be painful. Literally.

  • RawShark #2 4 months ago

    How does this "free up both hands for playing?" Your're still holding the thing with your left hand and poking at it with your right.

    I hate this thing. The 3DS is supposed to be portable and this detracts from that. If anything they're highlighting issues with the 3DS design rather than addressing them.

  • Gaol #3 4 months ago

    Wouldn't it be better for them to fix the control scheme, rather than bundle in another awkward accessory that makes the 3DS less portable?

  • Muddtallica #4 4 months ago

    To those who've tried it: is Kid Icarus any more painful to play than, say, Metroid Prime Hunters was? The two games seem to have similar controls, and I remember a lot of people complaining of hand cramps with Metroid, but I never had a major issue with it. If Kid Icarus is comparable, then I suspect I'd be fine with it...

  • natureboy #5 4 months ago

    As long as it plays fine people wont mind

  • Rangerwave #6 4 months ago

    @RawShark - it frees up your hands insofar as you're not having to balance the back of the 3DS unit with the back of your left hand, which is what you had to do with the old DS stylus intensive games like Metroid Prime Hunters. To the extent that you no longer have to do that, I can see what he means by freeing up your hands. Does this mean I think it's ideal? No, but it's one way to play, I guess.

  • insincere_dave #7 4 months ago

    Glad to see Nintendo are finally making a stand on this issue.

  • Cowbomb #8 4 months ago

    If you've made a handheld game that benefits from a stand and a circle pad add-on, then you've pretty much failed at making a portable game, and should question why you didnt just stick it on a console.

  • wizlon #9 4 months ago

    I won't be buying this game because of the lack of proper support for the circle pad pro. Support your own hardware Nintendo.

  • BigDannyH #10 4 months ago

    Is this purely for comfort when controlling the game? Or does it also help with the 3D effect by keeping the 3DS stable?

    If the main reason is to make the control scheme usable then that's such a major design flaw. The 3D is going to be a gimmick for most games and you can turn it off, but needing a stand to help control a game is insane.

  • Toothball #11 4 months ago

    @Cowbomb

    The Circle Pad only lets you switch to play left handed with this game, so it probably won't benefit most of the righties in the crowd.

  • menschenfracht #12 4 months ago

    Actually, if you think of different handhelds as of different subspecies of living organisms, then 3DS got its '3D' DNA sequence from the Virtual Boy strain. Little did Nintendo know that this sequence also contained 'inability to play the damn thing on the go' gene, which became apparent only during puberty (in this case 1 year after 'birth'). In other words, it's no big deal, moving on, could be worse.

    Of course, if you think of handhelds as of living organisms, you are pretty crazy to begin with.

  • JoeGBallad #13 4 months ago

    A solution to the problem that doesn't need a stand: play it with your hand rest on a table. That'll take most of the strain away.

    A lot of DS games (Metroid in particular) needed one hand to hold the device but also push buttons while the other hand used the stylus, and I found that testing it on a surface, like a table, while playing worked a treat.

  • kirinnokoshin #14 4 months ago

    I think it's pretty dumb whining things like 'design flaw' and 'I'm definitely not buying this' until the game has been properly reviewed. In the meantime, online Mario Kart 7 3DS'ers!

  • beelzebozo #15 4 months ago

  • Drygore #16 4 months ago

    Seriously.. Wtf are Nintendo doing? First the circle pad, and now a big 3ds stand.. I own a 3DS and i like it, but i'm losing interrest in it more and more, Nintendo messed up imo. The Vita Seems so more "right" in every way tbh. It has everything (except the 3D), and i really hope it sells well. It won't outsell the 3ds ofc, Weirdly enough when you think about it. But the Marios, Zeldas and Pokemons will always sell tons of machines..

    I honestly think the Vita deserve to sell more than the 3DS, by alot.
    Looking at the Vita, im starting to realize just how big of a miss the 3DS really is.

    How could Nintendo mess up so bad..?
    Im not even going mention the mediocre online functionality of the 3DS..

    Bah.. Rant over

  • jaguarwong #17 4 months ago

    Thank the lord!

    I thought for a moment I would be forced to hold my handheld...

  • eviroboy #18 4 months ago

    I like it. If you don't then that's just dandy, but quit knocking it based purely on your own biased opinions.

  • vert1go #19 4 months ago

    Nice to see them...
    ...
    ...supporting the device.

  • pooface #20 4 months ago

    Game features:

    - Amazing Fiend Cauldron: allows players to adjust a chapter's Intensity Rating from 2.0 (standard) in 0.1 increments from 0.0 up to 9.0!!

    - At some point in the game, Pit will drive a tank!!

    - Supports up to 2 cumbersome designer accessories!

    - Comes with all the superfluous plastic thing: sidestepping the obvious opportunity to create a really cool bespoke game box that would fulfil the same function!!