Rumor: Early Factor 5 Kid Icarus model flies out

Early last year, we saw some potential concept art for a Wii Kid Icarus update from developer Factor 5. Today, NeoGAFfer Shiggy posted what may be an early character render from "late 2007/early 2008." We've included the original Famicom Disk System version's character art for comparison.

This is about as tenuous a rumor as there could possibly be because: A) We don't know if the Factor 5 Kid Icarus game was ever real. B) We don't know if this image or the previous concept art was actually from that hypothetical game. C) Even if it was real at some point, the game is most certainly dead now, due to the state of Factor 5.

We don't want to cast aspersions on Factor 5. They are responsible for true classics like the Turrican series, as well as recent favorites like the Rogue Squadron games. But we won't lament the early demise of this (probably fake) interpretation of Pit. After all, he's got Solid Snake hair circa-Metal Gear Solid and he's wearing a sort of Ryu Hayabusa ninja outfit. We could only imagine this game's story involving Pit getting infected with a techno-organic super-virus codenamed E.G.G.P.L.A.N.T.