The surprising development history of the original Kid Icarus

Known in Japan as Myth of Light: Palutena's Mirror, Kid Icarus was the brainchild of Toru Osawa. Although not as widely known as Metroid's Yoshio Sakamoto or Zelda's Eiji Aonuma, Mr. Osawa's hand can be seen at work in a number of famous titles, including Super Metroid, where he designed Kraid, Mother Brain, and the map system; his directorial work on The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time; and the dark humor of For the Frog the Bell Tolls, which he co-wrote with Mr. Sakamoto.

Born in 1962 in Kyoto, Osawa studied arts and animation at Kyoto Seika University before joining Nintendo in 1985. Less than two years later, he asked to create his own game and was given the chance, although he was, as he put it, “neglected.” As a result, Mr. Osawa developed the entire game single-handedly throughout most of the development process. He wrote the design document, drew all the sprites, brought it to an external company for testing (Tose Co., Ltd, according to Mobygames), and saw the game through to completion. It wasn't until Metroid was completed in August 1986 that Osawa received a helping hand from the rest of Nintendo's R&D1 staff, and then only because Yoshio Sakamoto saw the game couldn't possibly meet its December deadline, which by then had been set in stone.