Another Kid Icarus game seems unlikely, Masahiro Sakurai says
Pit against the odds.
It's unlikely we'll see a follow-up to Kid Icarus: Uprising, director and writer Masahiro Sakurai has said.
Sakurai made the comments in the latest episode of Game Concepts, a series on his YouTube channel in which he discusses the development of various games.
Uprising released in 2012 for the 3DS and is the third game in the Kid Icarus series, released 21 years after the previous title Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters. A future release in the series, whether in the form of a sequel or re-release, "seems difficult", Sakurai has said.
Sakurai recalls the history of Uprising's development in this new video, stating that then-president of Nintendo Satoru Iwata had asked him to create an exclusive for the unannounced 3DS console. Sakurai said Iwata asked him to use a character included in Super Smash Bros, leading him to eventually pick the Kid Icarus franchise.
"I had also just given [Kid Icarus protagonist] Pit and friends a renewed visual style for Smash Bros. Brawl," Sakurai said - and it was on this basis the game was chosen.
The game's development was "fraught with challenges," Sakurai admitted, but he concluded he now believes it turned out to be a "showpiece title".
"It's a shame it's only lived on 3DS," he added, "as I'd love to play on a bigger screen with smoother graphics.
"Without a team around to work on it, crafting a follow-up seems difficult."