I never use the stand. And I LOVE Kid Icarus. Overall I would give it a 9/10. The game is simply gorgeous looking, the voice acting IMO is BRILLIANT and refreshingly humoristic and the gameplay is extremely addicting. Add to this hundreds of achievements, hundreds of weapons, powers and other collectibles and the fact that you choose the difficulty for every chapters (harder=better reward) I see myself playing this game everyday for atleast the next 2 weeks (till xenoblade comes out). I finished the solo mode, and I loved the campaign so much that instead of trying the online (which is what I usually do when I'm done with a campaign) I'm replaying the entire thing with higher difficulty to get weapons.

When it comes to the controls, I won't say they are perfect, cause aren't. But they are far less annoying than some people are pretending. I understand that today in 2012 its rare that we see a game with controls that can feel awkward to some, thats maybe why some ppl seem outraged by the controls. IMO controls are perfect for air battles and slightly awkward for land battle. But despite that I've rarely felt frustrated by the controls except some times when I had enemies behind me or when facing enemies that moved allot cause in that case it can get hard to follow them with the camera (I havnt played online yet and I could see this problem being more problematic but in that case everyone will have to deal with it so I don't mind that much). The only problem I've had is moving the camera with the stylus could get awkward or not as precise as I wished.

Other than that 1 of the concern I've seen allot was the fact of having to hold the 3DS with 1 hand. I think ppl complaining about this are just being ridiculous because the 3DS is so small and light compared to the original DS. You need to seriously need weak hands to not be able to handle it. Me personally, the first time I've played the game my hands started to hurt after maybe 1hour/1hour and a half. But now idk if its because my hand got used to it or because I've found a better way to hold the system but I've been playing the game for 3 hours straight with no problems. + its rly easy to play holding the 3ds with both hands with only the index/thumb holding the stylus and the 3 other fingers supporting the system.

@ryan No I haven't. I'm taking my time through the game and enjoying every minute of it. The controls are just fine and work as they should, stand or no stand. I'm on chapter 14 and I really like this game. This game is a settlement for future 3DS games, developers that note that this is what the 3DS can do!

Also, happy birthday, 3DS! I bought my 3DS on April 10th, so this isn't really a one year for me, but for everybody else it is. Kid Icarus is a great way too end the 3DS' first year on the market and it's only going to get better here on out! Really looking forward to Luigi's Mansion 2, Heroes of Ruin, Fire Emblem: Awakening, Mario Tennis Open, Kingdom Hearts 3D, Paper Mario 3D, Dynasty Warriors VS, Monster Hunter Tri G(localize it, Crapcom!), Rhythm Thief and great other titles!

Luigi's Mansion 2: Loved the original game on the Gamecube. This time it's going to be larger than the first and it's going to have multiple mansions to go through. Really looking forward to this!

Heroes of Ruin: I'm trying out new genres on the 3DS. I never played a dungeon crawler before. Plus, it's fully loaded with features and online play, so I'm hyped!

Fire Emblem Awakening: I just got into the Fire Emblem series and I'm loving it! The next game is really interesting and has DLC to expand the experince. I'm playing through Shadow Dragon right now.

Mario Tennis Open: I love Mario sport games espically the tennis. Played the hell out of the 64 and Gamecube version. The GBA game I really like of it's RPG elements, hopefully it'll contain them too, but if not I'm still going to get it.

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Major Kingdom Hearts fan! I love the series ever since the original game on the PS2! I've played through every single game and this one is no expection!

Paper Mario 3D: Another RPG series I love to death! I'm glad their going back to the series' roots.

Dynasty Warriors VS: Just got into the Warriors games. I don't like any other title in the series, unless it keeps the same style as Samurai Warriors: Chronicles. The games feel boring without multiple characters on the map! Thank god, they kept the same gameplay in this version. I really like how the game is coming along too, can't wait to kill some soliders dressed as Link or Samus(cause thier badasses).

Monster Hunter Tri G: Not really into the Monster Hunter series, I played Tri before on the Wii, but I just wasn't really into it. However, I'm still interested in trying it out again.

Rhythm Thief: This game really interesting me. I really like how the story is going in this game. Can't wait for the demo.

Of course we wants that! I ain't buying the 3DS as it's looking now,... No wai!!

Sad to say, but Skyward Sword needs that prize drop :( It's a wonderful game, it's just not selling as good as it should!

I don't think we'll get any Zelda news this year - unless it's from Retro studios! they haven't released anything since 2010 (although they did help in developing MK7), so that's my guess: if we get any Zelda news it'll be from Retro, and the game will hit around x-mas NEXT year.

If we don't get anything from Retro, we'll see a trailer NEXT year for a 3DS Zelda... Perhaps we'll be playing a console zelda in late 2015, or 2016...

We could also get news about a handheld Zelda. We haven't had a new one since 2009, and since Grezzo took care of Ocarina of Time 3D, the Zelda team could in theory have been working on that since November or so of that year. Since Phantom Hourglass took over three years though, we probably won't see Zelda 3DS until holiday 2013, unless they recycle the Ocarina engine or something.

Something has to be done about the Zelda series. Its just not a healthy series anymore, it has not been healthy since Ocarina. Something is very wrong with it.

The games sell a lot and are met with critical acclaim. What's wrong?

Games that sell do not get a  drastic price cut a few months after they have been realesed. Just look at NSMBWii, it still holds the same price tag after 2 and half years of its realese.