Damn you amazon and your free shipping taking forever. I need to play this now!

My one tip, wait until finishing 10 chapters before even beginning to judge the control system (and play using analog stick + touch screen aiming) - mostly because at first it seems like a terrible idea, but after 10 chapters you will feel like the game would not be controllable with any other scheme besides analog + touch screen aiming. I feel now that if I play with other control schemes, that I would not be accurate enough or responsive enough to play effectively.

In addition, pay close attention to the weapons you like, there seem to be hundreds of different types of weapons, and among those, many different variations of the same weapons (effectively thousands of unique weapons, or maybe tens of thousands). Fuse weapons together to make more suitable and improved weapons.

Anyway, this game I would compare to Metroid Prime Hunters - which I felt had more accurate controls than the Gamecube Metroids (which I found very slow, clunky, and uninteresting) - and the Kid Icarus universe and level designs just absolutely demolish Metroid Prime Hunters. There is no comptetition this time around - on NES Metroid was clearly superior to Kid Icarus, but this time Kid Icarus is in a whole other realm when compared to Hunters - it is SO much better in terms of content (or any other Metroid game, although I still have yet to play Metroid Other M, but from what I hear, it is worse than Metroid Prime, and Kid Icarus I find many times better).

I opted against Amazon, because I wanted this game from day 1.

My play record on the weekend says I made the right decision.

Holding the 3ds: Place the bottom right corner( just below the face buttons) of your 3ds between your pinky finger and your ring finger. Doing this will put your pinky finger on the back of the 3ds. (You might need to do some slight adjustments according to your hand size). This way you'll have a firm grip with both hands.

I honestly don't know why reviewers sound like you gotta hold up the 3ds with only one hand.

 I keep linking to this thing but the CTA grip I got from Amazon is great for this game!  It has a foot on the back of it that allows the 3DS to stand up even better than the stand that came with Kid Icarus.  It also has grips so that you can hold the 3DS and access the shoulder button comfortably.  Check it out.

I finally fought Medusa and saw the credits rolling.

This game is so much fun, I'm constantly grinning so hard that my head is nearly cut in half.

 I had much fun with Super Smash Brothers Brawl and thought it was a great game. But Kid Icarus makes me love project Sora and let me think that Mr. Sakurai is ingenious.

@Mnementh Or did you? I don't want to spoiler what actually happens. :)

Well with everything everyone is saying I wish I had the cash to buy it and get used to the controls. I loved the game play when I played it, loved the polish etc..etc.. but with limited income and no ability to play it long enough to get used to the controls I just couldn't justify a purchase.

As for the manual and changing controls. I played the game at PAX and again with my friend launch day. I did not get hands on with the manual nor did I play more then fifteen minutes at a time meaning I have only had about a half hour hands on with the game. The controls were too terrible for me to consider a purchase. Now I could rent it but all our rental places are gone except a game specialty store which charges ten dollars a night. That is simply to expensive for me to justify. I rarely if ever rent games because a week rental and you've more then paid for your game. I'd rather take the hit buying a mediocre game every once and awhile then take a hit renting every game first to see if I like it enough!

Gaaaawd I'm seriously loving this game. I've spent so many hours in the multiplayer already. I know some people thought the dialogue was too much during the story but personally i thought it was quite charming. Lots of attempts to break the 4th wall and constant nods to the original game, as well as bits of humor here and there. I feel it really adds to the game, but that's just my opinion :p

This game almost makes me want to go out and get a 3ds. I'm still holding out until they release a 3ds lite or something along those lines.