Kid Icarus Wii – Everything we know so far

The Wii has seen the revival of numerous classic IPs – Punch-Out!!, Mega Man in the classic 8-bit style, Adventure Island, and many more have all made comebacks on Nintendo’s system. One property that has been left untouched, however, is Kid Icarus. It has actually been more than eighteen years since an original game in the series was released in North America. But there have been plenty of rumors over the past few years that Factor 5 has been developing a new title for Wii. You may be surprised at just how far back the speculation goes. Will Nintendo finally unveil a Kid Icarus Wii game on Tuesday? That’s completely up in the air at this point, but while you wait, take a look at this comprehensive listing of Pit’s rumored return throughout the years.

2005

– May 17: Nintendo President Satoru Iwata reveals that a new Super Smash Bros. game is in development.
– May 19: Shigeru Miyamoto teases the possibility of a new Kid Icarus game in an interview with IGN: “Well, I’m actually working really closely right now with the director of the [original] game. Now, whether or not when we get the Revolution all set up and everything is finalized, well who knows? That might be one of those characters where everybody says, ‘Hey, with the way our console is designed, that would be a perfect match.’ My question to you is, if we made this game would you buy it?'”

2006

– May 10: Super Smash Bros. Brawl announced. Pit confirmed to be a playable character.
– May 10: Miyamto considers the possibilities of Kid Icarus once again: “I think it opens up a lot of different possibilities. [Miyamoto could see a Kid Icarus game for Wii, controller could enhance games such as Starfox]. Sadly, though, I don’t have time to do that right now since I’m so tied to so many different projects going on.”

2008

– January 14: Factor 5 reveals that the company is working on a Wii project. IGN believes that the game is “an altogether different beast.”
– January 19: Rumors surface that Factor 5 is indeed developing a Kid Icarus game for Wii and would not use previous GameCube engines.
– January 31: Rumored Kid Icarus model discovered.
– March 9: Super Smash Bros. Brawl launches in North America.
– May 10: Concept art of the game released, though the new art had changed considerably. Plot would focus on Pit as an adult, who is “cursed for thousands of years for a crime and becomes a ‘fallen angel.'” Also includes “a tattoo on Pit’s arm bears the inscription of Pit’s crime.”
– May 15: Kid Icarus (working title) pops up on retailer list.
– May 20: On IGN’s Nintendo Voice Chat podcast summary, Matt Casamassina and Mark Bozon predict that Kid Icarus on Wii will be an action flight title. It is said that “We do know that the game exists.”
– May 27: More predictions from another episode of IGN’s Nintendo Voice Chat podcast summary indicate that Kid Icarus is nearly guaranteed to appear at E3 2008 (later turned out to be false).
– July 14: Matt Casamassina confirms Kid Icarus will not appear at E3 2008: “Uh-oh. Looks like we’re going to have to wait a little longer than E3 to see the kid fly again. Not too long, though, hopefully.”
– July 15: Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime comments on Kid Icarus: “You know, we never said he was coming. We’ve all seen the rumors and all of what we see as the desires that consumers want. Make no mistake, Mr. Iwata said quite clearly: Mario teams, Zelda teams are working, they’re bringing product out for Wii this generation. We’re going to continue to bring all our best franchises to both of our key platforms and continue driving that experience both core as well as brand new consumers.”
– July 15: Shigeru Miyamoto approached by IGN, comes close to confirming Kid Icarus: “Yeah, I’m not the producer of any Kid Icarus titles. There are some people who have some different ideas, but since I’m not the producer I can’t comment on anything. I’m not the producer of any Kid Icarus game, so I really can’t say anything. Sorry.”
– July 18: GameKings TV claims Kid Icarus for Wii is real.
– July 31: IGN’s Matt Casamassina explains why Kid Icarus was not at E3: “What is true one day is not true the next and we don’t really make the news, we tell you what we hear.”
– August 4: Casamassina basically confirms Factor 5 working on Kid Icarus.
– September 16: “New products” expected to be at Nintendo’s fall conference. Kid Icarus a possibility (later proved to be untrue).
– September 30: Speculation begins that Nintendo is reviving an old franchise, something “that everyone is waiting for.” Turns out to be Punch-Out!!.
– October 13: Matt Casamassina says Kid Icarus is coming in 2009.
– November 17: Factor 5 president Julian Eggebrecht says news on Wii projects coming soon: “We are working on several projects, both multi-platform as well as single-platform titles for the Wii which you will hear a lot more about very soon.”
– December 7: Sam Baker (Factor 5 animator) posts on his blog of issues relating to Factor 5 including workers not receiving pay – Baker later says he was misinterpreted, Factor 5 is fine, and “other projects currently underway at Factor 5 are going great.”
– December 15: Source close to Factor 5 claims 37 people were laid off.
– December 20: IGN’s Casamassina receives an email from an inside source stating that Factor 5 is closing their doors.

2009

– January 13: Rumor emerges that Kid Icarus 5 was supposed to be at E3 2008. Internal issues at Factor 5 prevented any sort of appearance, however. Nintendo was planning on releasing the title a few months after revealing Kid Icarus, but obviously this did not happen. Apparently these problems left Nintendo of America “pretty bummed.”
– January 18: More rumors: Factor 5 still working on Wii projects.
– February 1: Video of Lair engine on Wii released.
– February 2: Prototype Pit animations video released.
– April 10: Reggie essentially ignored Kid Icarus when brought up on GametrailersTV.
– April 13: Rumor appears that Factor 5’s Wii projects are not Kid Icarus-related.
– May 4: Factor 5’s Achim Moller’s LinkedIn resume says Wii game coming in 2009.
– May 14: Factor 5 announces that their San Rafael studio has been shut down, Wii titles may be unaffected.
– June 2: Nintendo announces Kid Icarus for Wii?