1991 · Game Boy · Game story
Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters Makes Training the Adventure
Pit’s Game Boy journey turns preparation into its own small drama: climb, cross, choose a door, take a strange setback, and become ready for the Three Sacred Treasures.
In this story
- 01 A Game Boy quest arrives by a side door
- 02 A prophecy sets a training plan
- 03 Three worlds change the direction of play
- 04 Doors turn platforming into choices
- 05 Small improvements make training visible
- 06 An eggplant can change a route
- 07 A small screen keeps the journey legible
- 08 The return has its own name and rules
A Game Boy quest arrives by a side door
The most revealing way into Of Myths and Monsters is through its unusual Japanese shelf history. Nintendo’s Japanese 3DS listing identifies it as a Game Boy game released in North America in 1991 and Europe in 1992, with no original Japanese release; it then records the Japanese 3DS download date as 8 February 2012. Nintendo’s 2025 announcement uses the same boundary when introducing the Game Boy Nintendo Classics version. This is a familiar Angel Land cast entering Japan through later services, with the old game still speaking English on screen. That route is part of the experience, not background filing: readers meet a small overseas Game Boy adventure preserved inside a Japanese Nintendo service. 3 2 1
Its two later official homes make the point concrete. The Japanese 3DS listing presents a downloadable version, while the current Nintendo Classics record dates the service addition to 26 November 2025. Nintendo’s service index identifies Game Boy as one of the Nintendo Classics collections. A UK Nintendo page also places the game in the Game Boy and Nintendo 3DS catalogue, framing it as Pit’s return after the earlier Kid Icarus. Those pages are different labels on the same compact quest: a 1991 Game Boy game, an English-language Japanese Virtual Console release, and now a title selected from a modern subscription collection. 1 5 6 3
Trivia The Japanese electronic manual carries a “FOR SALE IN JAPAN ONLY” notice even as its software notes explain that the original Game Boy title was unreleased in Japan and that in-game language is English. The phrase belongs to the Japanese 3DS product around the game, not to a newly translated 1991 cartridge. It is a delightfully visible piece of distribution history: one manual contains both the local storefront warning and the reminder that Pit’s underlying quest came from elsewhere. 4 3
See it in action
A prophecy sets a training plan
The manual begins in an Angel Land of daylight, farming and Palutena’s watch from the Sky Palace, then spoils the calm with a dream. A prophet identifies an invader from another world, Orcos, before falling silent. Palutena summons Pit, leader of the Icarus army, and explains the problem with the Three Sacred Treasures: they can give their wearer power against evil, but Pit is not yet strong enough to wear them. The mission is therefore not a simple retrieval order. He travels to train, faces the bosses who hold the treasures, and must return before the threat reaches Angel Land. A heroic errand becomes a story about earning capacity. 4 1
Nintendo’s current description supplies the playable outline: Pit fights bosses across three worlds for the Three Sacred Treasures, defeating enemies and jumping through a wide world on the way. The manual gives the objective its pressure. A treasure is not merely an item on a checklist; it is power entrusted to someone Pit must overcome during his preparation. That framing lends consequence to small improvements. A better bow, more LIFE, or one more safely reached checkpoint all read as evidence of a hero growing into the equipment that the ending requires. 1 4 2
Trivia Orcos enters the manual as a broken utterance: the prophet cries “O… OR… ORCOS!!” and then becomes silent like stone. The scene uses a tiny amount of text to make a name feel ominous. Instead of a long villain speech, the story leaves a gap in the room, and the player spends the journey walking toward whatever that interrupted warning means. 4 8
Three worlds change the direction of play
Nintendo describes a route with a useful change of orientation. In the Underworld and Sky, both tower settings, Pit moves upward; in the Overworld he moves sideways. The manual names four stages—Underworld Tower, Overworld, Sky Tower and Sky Palace—and says the first three have three regular areas followed by a dungeon. Defeating a dungeon boss clears a stage and gives Pit one Sacred Treasure. The journey’s broad line is easy to picture: rise out of the Underworld, cross the land, climb again, then enter the palace. 1 3 4
Changing direction changes the feel of an otherwise straightforward platforming task. An upward tower asks the player to keep finding the next safe height; the Overworld lets the eye read a horizontal distance; the Sky Palace becomes a destination after two different kinds of movement. Nintendo’s 2025 announcement makes the contrast explicit, which explains why the geography stays memorable even in a small Game Boy frame. The route itself teaches rhythm. Pit’s travels do not merely increment a stage number; they reorient how progress appears on the screen. 2 1
Trivia The manual calls the opening area the Underworld Tower and says Pit climbs it to reach the Overworld. The first important transition is literally vertical. That is a neat fit for a training story: before the player can see a horizon, Pit must work his way up through the world below it. 4 8
Doors turn platforming into choices
A door is one of the game’s best invitations. Nintendo says that stage doors lead to various rooms, including shops for buying items and training rooms for receiving weapons. The manual turns that short sentence into a miniature social map. The Shop trades hearts for items; the Black Market can offer valuable goods; a Hot Spring restores LIFE; a Hospital treats an Eggplant Wizard curse; and an Information Center gives advice. Moving through a stage therefore has more texture than jumping and shooting. At a threshold, the question becomes what kind of help Pit needs and whether a heart is better spent now or held for later. 1 3 4
These rooms make preparation concrete. The mythic world contains the familiar services of a town—retail, training, recovery, information—and a less dependable market. Each room changes the immediate problem without interrupting the adventure’s purpose. A shop can make an item affordable; a spring can restore the margin for the next hazard; training can change attack or defence. The effect is warmly practical. Pit is still answering a prophecy, but he does so by visiting places with particular functions and working within the small economy the journey provides. 4 1
Trivia The Black Market lets the player bargain over an item’s heart price, but the manual warns that a bad-tempered Black Marketeer may raise the price instead. A negotiation can move in the wrong direction. It is a small comic rule, yet it gives a merchant a temperament and makes the market feel different from the dependable Shop. 4 8
Small improvements make training visible
The manual scatters Pit’s advancement across the whole route. Checkpoint points add to a total score, and enough total score increases LIFE. Zeus can award LIFE blocks at checkpoints, with five as the stated maximum. Sacred Training Center weapons improve attack and defence. Power Arrows raise attack strength, up to eight arrows, while Fire Arrows, the Long Bow and Guard Crystals each require a stated amount of LIFE before use. This is growth in layers: score, survival capacity, weapons and the conditions for carrying stronger equipment. 4 8
That design makes Palutena’s word “training” do useful work. Pit does not become ready in one cutscene or only when the Three Sacred Treasures finally arrive. He reaches checkpoints, gains score, receives weapons, and learns that some improvements can be used only after enough LIFE has been accumulated. The long-term goal stays mythic, while the actual progress consists of ordinary, repeatable proofs. The player can see a difficult room become less forbidding because preparation has changed the choices available inside it. 4 2
Trivia The Power Arrow display is unusually direct: the manual says its number of arrows is Pit’s attack strength, and eight is the maximum. The image works as more than ammunition. More arrows visibly announce that Pit’s power has increased without asking the player to translate a hidden statistic. 4 8
An eggplant can change a route
The Eggplant Wizard gives the manual its most charmingly strange rule. A touch of the enemy’s curse in a dungeon turns Pit into an eggplant. He cannot attack with his bow in that state, but he can pass through gaps he normally could not; the Hospital restores him. The condition takes something away and opens another kind of movement. That is why it lands as more than an odd joke. A player has to read the altered route, decide what the new access is worth, and remember that a cure is part of the world’s available help. 4 8
The rule makes the rooms and services described earlier feel connected. A hospital matters because a curse can remove Pit’s bow. A gap matters because an inconvenient form can change what lies beyond it. Of Myths and Monsters repeatedly turns a local detail into a decision: a door, an item, a checkpoint, a condition. It achieves curiosity with a limited set of parts. The player is invited to ask what the altered body can reach, what it cannot safely fight, and when it is time to return to ordinary angelic business. 4
Trivia Two temporary items add further mischief. The Harp turns enemies into hammers for a limited time, while the Feather allows Pit to fly for a limited time when the jump button is pressed repeatedly. The manual presents both as short-lived changes to the rule set. In one Game Boy adventure, an angelic archer can become an eggplant, make monsters into tools, and earn a burst of flight through energetic button presses. 4 8
A small screen keeps the journey legible
The official stills make clear how much work the Game Boy presentation asks from a limited palette. One shows the title screen’s large logo, menu choices and stone columns; the action images reduce the world to platforms, brickwork, pillars, enemy-sized figures and a compact status display. The official cover is far more colourful, with Pit drawing a bow against a fantasy scene. Together, the images show two complementary promises: bright box art for a mythic adventure, and a sharply simplified play field in which platforms and characters need to be recognised quickly. 1
That reduction suits a game built from readable interruptions. A door is a visible break in a wall; a platform is a question of reach; a checkpoint or an enemy arrives inside a frame that leaves little room for decoration. Nintendo’s catalog description names the practical actions—defeat enemies and jump across spaces—as Pit circles the worlds. The screen art gives those actions a direct visual stage. The grandeur comes from the story and destination, while the immediate pleasure comes from judging a few clear shapes in motion. 1 2
Trivia The current Japanese record sets the original release date to 1 November 1991, while MobyGames lists a November 1991 Game Boy release in North America and a 21 May 1992 United Kingdom release. The records agree on the larger path even though their presentation of the North American date differs in precision. What remains striking is the gap between that Game Boy debut and the 2012 Japanese 3DS release already documented by Nintendo. 1 7 3
The return has its own name and rules
Nintendo’s current entry calls this a 1991 North American Game Boy action game and sets Pit’s new mission under Palutena. The Japanese 3DS listing supplies the overseas original-release history and explains that all in-game words are English. MobyGames’ release table independently groups the Game Boy and Nintendo 3DS versions under the same title and lists the Japanese 3DS release on 8 February 2012. These labels help keep the subject specific: the story here is the Game Boy title with Orcos, three worlds, training rooms and the Three Sacred Treasures. 1 3 7
That specificity lets the game keep its own voice. Its core cadence is Pit on foot: climbing through the Underworld and Sky, travelling sideways in the Overworld, opening doors, and assembling the readiness demanded by Palutena’s warning. It is a compact work whose odd details carry the narrative weight. A bad-tempered merchant, a hospital, a temporary eggplant body and a score-fed LIFE increase all sit beside prophecies and sacred weapons. The mixture is exactly why the training angle holds. Grand stakes are continually translated into small things the player can do. 1 4
Trivia Nintendo’s 2025 addition announcement placed Of Myths and Monsters beside BIONIC COMMANDO for the Game Boy Nintendo Classics update. The pairing is a useful timestamp for the latest return: Pit’s English-language training journey reached the Japanese service as a newly added Game Boy selection on 26 November 2025, more than three decades after its original overseas release. 2 5 1
Sources & image credits
Facts were checked against the links below. Official media remains the property of Nintendo and the relevant rights holders.
- Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters — Nintendo Classics Nintendo ↗
- 〖11月26日追加〗「ファミリーコンピュータ＆スーパーファミコン＆ゲームボーイ Nintendo Classics」に追加タイトルを配信開始。 Nintendo ↗
- Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters | ニンテンドー3DS Nintendo ↗
- Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters — ニンテンドー3DS 電子説明書 Nintendo ↗
- Nintendo Classics タイトル一覧 Nintendo ↗
- Kid Icarus of Myths and Monsters | Game Boy | Games | Nintendo UK Nintendo UK ↗
- Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters Releases MobyGames ↗
- Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters (USA) manual scan Video Game Manual ↗
