'Secret passwords' lost in Kid Icarus VC

That's pretty lame. Not a huge loss, but lame none-the-less.

I dunno. Do you want a 4-color, 8-bit "JUSTIN BAILEY" booty that badly?

[Doesn't mention that he has an official Nintendo Pin-Up calendar with Unsuited Samus]

Its as inconsequential as the Ghost Data

Yes i wish it were there, but i don't care THAT much

But i didn't get this, i got Ice Climber :P

not as neccesary unless you want to compete against someone else, because you can freeze your game state by exiting.

I do feel a little jipped, because i was kind of counting on these to track my progress or get my past the eggplant wizards in the 3rd dungeon.

Does his this mean we'll have to play through the game in one sitting? I thought the codes acted like save points since there were none.

Just as a note, passwords are still in this game, it's only they're different than they used to be.

Nintendo should either have the games work 100% or charge much less per game. It's kind of a rip to pay $8 (or whatever) for a game that is missing features it had 20 years ago.

SK

If I recall correctly, VC lets you save one save state per VC title. All you have to do is exit to the Wii menu. It's like never turning the NES off.

No need to sit there all night. :P

It WOULD be a major concern for me, but i have no plans to purchase this title.

As for others, I'd imagine it could be a larger issue as well. It's one to not have newer content in VC titles, but to take away features or content is another thing entirely

BTW, is that Kid Icarus himself from some cartoon series I'm not aware of?

The ONLY thing that has changed is the passwords. The ONLY thing this means is that you can't get passwords from GameFAQs, but that'll change by the end of the week.

I'm kind of disappointed that the reason is in the emulation of hardware external to the game. I was hoping Nintendo wanted to have a clean slate so nobody could trade passwords for a couple days.

@ackmondual

I think that pic is from the Captain N cartoon. But I never actually watched it as it was hard to find in Canada.

Thanks, NintendoFanbot.

I never played this game so it doesn't matter to me. I just want to know when Super Mario RPG is coming to the VC. I want to find a Wii before this game comes out.

Hardware limitation? All password processing was done by the game program itself. So unless their Virtual Console software is faulty, they have no excuse to disallow these passwords.

Nintendo's being lazy about this. Their emulator is half-arsed. I'm not a system fanboy, but this is really damn frustrating.

Well the old games also didn't allow you to stop midgame, take a break turn off the console and come back in a few days and start where you left off. If the console went off you better hope you were able to tell the difference between a 0 and an o when you put that code back in. And thats if you were lucky enough to have a game that even supported codes.

Chris,

I've lost many a metroid game due to that bastard 0 or o problem!

button press codes dont seem to work for games either, i tried the up C, down C, left C, right C code for sonic the hedgehog, it made the sound indicating you correctly input the code but didnt actually work

For those that might be confused:

Kid Icarus still allows the use of passcodes as a form of save points. The VC version does NOT allow the use of the SECRET codes such as the one above "ICARUS FIGHTS MEDUSA ANGELS".

In addition to passcode save points, you always have the option of save-stating using the Wii Menu button.

I bought this game yesterday, but didn't have time to sink my teeth back in. Up to this point I've been a big supporter of the VC, but this REALLY upsets me. That's one big frakking point in favor of running NES games on emulators instead...

@ 7.

Kid Icarus is $5. Just thought you should know that.

Plus, you can exit out of any VC game at any time and continue right from where you left off (except Super Mario 64, which had a save feature already).

@ 19.

"button press codes dont seem to work for games either, i tried the up C, down C, left C, right C code for sonic the hedgehog, it made the sound indicating you correctly input the code but didnt actually work"

I don't think you did the correct code. I put it in and it worked. The code SHOULD be:

Up, Down, Left, Right, HOLD A + Start. It makes the ring sound after pressing the d-pad buttons, but then you still have to hold the A button and press Start.

So if they released the original Metroid you won't be able to enter the Samus Aran code? That sucks.

i haven't been able to get the money code in Sim City to work.

For some reason this news was really depressing to me.

ICARUS FIGHTS MEDUSA ANGELS is burned into my brain just as much as the Konami code, A B A C A B B (MK blood code on Genesis), Up C Down C Left C Right C, or "Justin Bailey."

I always felt that cheat codes diminished a game experience.
Sometimes I'll be talking with someone about a tough spot in a game, and they'll say "that was easy - I just punched in X, got the Y, and breezed through it." At that point the conversation is usually over, because it's kind of like talking to someone about chess who always wins because they just re-arrange the pieces when they start to loose.
Not to be offensive to those who like cheating, I just don't get it - that's all.

Ohhhh noooo! You babies might have to actually be good at the game now! Quit yer blubberin' already.

First the ghost save problems in MK64, and now this? Nintendo must make a killing by charging money for half-baked ports.

some of you guys act like nintendo is your friend or something. as if they're not like microsoft or sony. they're just a greedy company like the rest and they're very lazy as well.

The thing that interests me about this is the fact taht this proves that Virtual Console runs the game in its pure and original state, with no help from external hardware

This opens up further the possibility of running other programs (like PC games, Saturn games, etc) through Virtual Console (that needs looking into)

I know there are legality issues with emulators, but why should I pay $5 when the free version works better. Emulators allow for as many save states as I want, some have game genie support, and I have my choice of dozens of controllers.

I have no problem paying money for something I want, but make I expect Nintendo to make an effort for my dollar. Theres just no excuse for Wii to have an inferior emulator than some garage made emulator that was released over 5 years ago.

@AirIntake

then, you may be happy to know that captain n is coming out on dvd in just two weeks.

Really, it doesn't matter. VC lets you save states on the games which actually blows the code system out of the water. I could understand, though, for those people that wanted to use "God cheats" or something but meh. Play the game, be happy, and hope for a sequel.

The reason behind those passwords failing to work sounds like BS. It seems more likely that somewhere along the line the Kid Icarus code was updated to disable those codes, and the VC is simply using the most recent version of the Kid Icarus codebase.

This isn't the first modification to a VC title we've seen.

In Super Mario World the trick where you used the cape and the spin jump to get all of the extra mushrooms in the 3-question-mark-boxes-a-level bonus screens (within a level, not the bonus at the end of levels when you get 100 high jump points or whatever) is gone.

Also in MarioKart 64 i've noticed acceleration with mushrooms is little off sometimes, if you try to use one while you're touching certain terrain it won't work as well as it used to.

When and why would they update the code between 1987 and 2007? It was never ported to anything else. The game's code is unaltered. Nintendo is emulating the NES and the game, but the cartridge had a little bonus magic piece inside that they're not emulating, the same way MK64's ghost saves are missing because the controller pak isn't being emulated. Meh. I'm still buying Kid Icarus. It's a fun game.

@19 + 21
The Stage Select code is the up, down, left, right.
the debug code (which i haven't tested on the wii as i don't have one) was up c, down c, left c, right c, but then there was a final kicker which you didn't mention and i don't know if that is just because you were being brief or because you forgot. After the chime you then have to hold A and C and press start and continue to hold a and C all the way until you finally see sonic. then you can go inot debug and great a marthon of enemies to kill and drag the genesis processor to a slow crawl :) one of my favorite tricks. I also would put it on and play through the game but use it to skip the frustration of the labyrinth zone... oh how i hated that level

Wait wait wait... stop! Stop! STOP!

This whole thing is confusing me. The way I interpreted this is that the SECRET PASSWORDS don't work anymore, like vidGuy mentioned. In other words, passwords like "ICARUS ANDTHE ARROWS FLYING" and "KidKid Icarus KidKid Icarus" will no longer work. But the REGULAR passwords we've obtained with the old NES catridge WILL still work. Can someone confirm this?

If it is only the secret passwords, then this really isn't a big deal. I loved this game way back when, and I never knew about these secret passwords until today. Is it really that big of a loss?

Hopefully someone who has played the game back then and purchased the game recently on the VC can confirm what really is going on. If no one does, maybe I'll have to do it myself. ^_^

Awww, so you can't cheat in a video game.

Boo fucking hoo.

Grow up already would ya? The game is a bit difficult but that didnt stop me from beating it last night. I hear there are four different endings so I'm replaying it hoping for a better ending.

Seriously, this has no effect on my enjoyment of this title whatsoever. It's a nonissue....unless of course, you need an excuse to whine.

Honestly, this little external hardware decoder has to be really easy to emulate. I haven't checked, but my guess is that the rom scene has already figured out how to emulate this... probably 10 years ago. This is just sheer laziness from Nintendo.

DANGER !!!!!! TERROR HORROR

Nintendo seems to be rather lazy about these VC games. They are running a single emulation code for all games from a particular system. If the game has a cartridge-specific feature, they just drop it.

I mean, why bother having to code it in? Why add online features or save slots? Why do any work at all? They must figure their profits will be higher by not putting in the work. That means that Nintendo figures, probably correctly, that their fanbase will be just as satisfied with straight emulation and purchase nearly as many copies. Well, if they did work for specific games, though, they likely wouldn't be able to release them at the rate that they are. They really wouldn't if they were adding stuff.

Still, though, is it so hard to just make sure every feature the original game had is in there. I mean, they say they won't add online because they want to keep the game in its original format and then give a different excuse for why it isn't in its original format. It is a bit disappointing. It seems like a quantity instead of quality choice that they have made. The console has a 5 year life. Why not slowly release the titles with online and save slots and the works. It would be worth a lot to me if the Wii would allow me to play some old friends in MarioKart and Goldeneye (I know). You get the point. Even if you are a fanboy, you can still agree that it would be nice to have the things that other gaming platforms offer.

There were actually three different codes that worked for Kid Icarus... why do people only remember ICARUS FIGHTS MEDUSA ANGELS? There was also DANGER !!!!!! TERROR HORROR and the all-time easiest to remember, 8uuuuu uuuuuu uuuuuu uuuuuu.

I'm actually curious as to why those have been taken out. Those were in there not as a secret for people to find, per se, but based on the random character generator for the password system in Kid Icarus (which is also true for JUSTIN BAILEY ------ ------ in Metroid).

This leads me to believe that all passwords from the original version won't work. I really have to wonder why Nintendo would do that. You'd have to scrap and refigure the entire password code to do that.

I've never heard of this Justin Bailey thing

Maybe i should try it with my copy of Metroid (the original unlockable game in Metroid Prime)

I just don't get this at all.

The original Japanese release of Kid Icarus was on Famicom Disk System only, right? So it didn't have passwords at all; progress was saved on disk.

When the game was converted to cartridge for international release, that's when the password system was first implemented. There are a specific set of "special" passwords the password validator checks against, and if it's not one of those, it attempts to validate using checksums and such instead.

Was there a later Japanese release of Kid Icarus on cartridge, as happened with some other FDS titles? If so, maybe the password code on that release is different than what's on the USA cartridge -- the checksum validation is still there, but the "special password" checks are not. If this is the version which was used for the Virtual Console release, that might explain it.

@42

It's not just about people wanting to cheat, it's about Nintendo's "excuses". As Jake correctly points out, Nintendo claims to not want to add any enhancements to "preserve" the original game, yet when there's a slight problem with fully emulating all the features of a game which would require maybe slightly more work, they just make an excuse that it's "hardware incompatible." I honestly don't care about the cheats, but if they want to say they're releasing them as "perfect emulations", then they should take the time to actually make it perfect... especially something that's as lame (and likely easy to emulate) as a code system.

Sherlock Rootbeer & the Case of the Missing Passwords.

Let me get this straight. All you pissing and moaning about nintendo's 12 digit friend code are now pissing and moaning that kid Icarus doesn't include the even more tedious 20 letter password system?

The password save system was the worst part of the game. I rejoiced when I first saw the legend of Zelda's battery backup in action, made life so much easier. The Wii's ability to save states in any game will improve this game tremendously.

Anyone complaining about this must be deliberately trying to be dumber today than they were yesterday.

Just to keep the record straight, Metroid's so-called "JUSTIN BAILEY ------ ------" code is not an intentional code. It's just a code that happens to pass the checksum and looks like it says something. That code has led to many long-held misconceptions such as Samus' hair being green; actually a result of the palette swap effect for the varia upgrade, which the code starts you out with. Varia suit is itself another misconception resulting from a poor translation; "varia suit" should have been "barrier suit", "maru-mari" is just Japanese for "circle ball", and chozo is Japanese for "carved statue". Of course, it seems the poor translations have now been embraced by Nintendo as part of the official Metroid lore.

The legitimate way to play without armor is to beat the game in under two hours and start a new game. You also start out without the "varia" and with a much more natural looking hair color.

Metroid does have one legitimate cheat code, however. Entering the password "NARPAS SWORD0 000000 000000" (those are zeros) starts you out with all items, infinite energy and infinite missiles. This also works on the versions included with Metroid Zero Mission and Metroid Prime. Hopefully the Virtual Console release will work as well.

33. Rubang B said:

When and why would they update the code between 1987 and 2007? It was never ported to anything else.
============================================

Who knows when the code was updated, but it seems unlikely that they would not update it. First of all the major markets (Japan, North America, etc) most likely got own distinct builds of Kid Icarus because the game contains text and there was the NTSC/PAL issue.

I'm in the software business and know that a companies will often fix bugs when they are discovered because they never know if another release of the game will occur. For example, many minor bugs in Metroid Prime were fixed when Nintendo rereleased it as a Players' Choice title. I would guess that those bugs were gradually fixed and then by the time the Players' Choice version was released those bug fixes got into the game.

Super Mario Bros. was released a few times back in the 80s on Nintendo's various home consoles and there are some differences. For example, you can go to YouTube and find video of an entirely different minus world. Lots of those bugs, like the 100 1up turtle shell trick because beloved by fans and were probably maintained because they were harmless and loved.

Fixing these bugs is probably cheap and considered worth the expense for the potential of another release of the code. It's also easier to fix bugs soon after a release than a decade later when the code's design has been long forgotten. So it's just smart to take a few hours to fix a bug so that if the company decides to rerelease the title they'll use a version less likely to generate customer support calls.

Who knows what happened at Nintendo of Japan when these "Icarus fights medusas angels" and "Justin Bailey" codes were exposed. I wouldn't remove them, but I could easily see someone suggesting that support for these codes be removed from the game.