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Kid Icarus: Uprising gets Circle Pad Pro support

But only for lefties.

Nintendo's forthcoming 3DS franchise reboot Kid Icarus: Uprising will support the Circle Pad Pro peripheral, creator Masahiro Sakurai has confirmed.

However, the inclusion is only to accommodate left-handed play - you'll still have to move protagonist Pit with one hand and use the stylus to aim with the other.

"The way we are using the Circle Pad Pro in the game is to provide support for left-handed gamers," Sakurai told Official Nintendo Magazine.

"We've made it possible to use the right circle pad in place of the left one."

He added that the development team hasn't included an option for twin analogue control as it ran out of time.

"I didn't know the specs of the Circle Pad Pro, or what it looked like, until Monster Hunter 3G was announced, so we weren't able to do anything big with it in the time we had. Even if we had known about it from the start, I don't know whether we would have used both Circle Pads in that way.

"This would end up being just the same as controls on other platforms and I think the quick aiming possible with the touch panel suits the game best."

The circle pad/stylus controls came in for some stick when Eurogamer's Ellie Gibson went hands-on with the game last year.

"At first it doesn't feel too intuitive - instinctively I found myself tapping the stylus on the touch-screen in an attempt to fire, as I'm used to doing with iPhone shooters," read her Kid Icarus: Uprising preview.

"But it quickly becomes apparent that attacking is easier if you keep the stylus in contact with the screen at all times, sliding it around to target different enemies.

"You can also use the stylus to make Icarus dash and dodge by drawing short slashes. However, this tends to interrupt the flow of the gameplay. When faced with a screenful of moving enemies it doesn't appear to be much use for anything other than causing confusion."

You can find out for yourself how well the controls fare when the game launches in March.

The Circle Pad Pro add-on launches alongside Resident Evil: Revelations on 27th January.

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