After receiving Iwata’s blessing to utilize a Nintendo IP for the game, Sakurai ran through the possible franchises that had the potential to fit the gameplay concept of a third-person shooter that took place in both the air and on land.  Sakurai narrowed down the selection to two franchises, Star Fox and Kid Icarus.   After further consideration he felt that there were some restrictions with implementing the planned gameplay features using the Star Fox setting.   This made Kid Icarus the clear choice and supported the feedback received from Smash Bros. fans where Sakurai could revive a franchise that had been dormant for quite some time.

Sakurai took it upon himself to create the game’s story and wrote the entire script himself as he felt that the plot of existing video games did not have a good balance between gameplay and the storyline.  To this end, he became obsessed with striking that balance with Uprising by writing a story that meshed with the flow and style of the game.  The characters’ roles and personalities were shaped by their roles in the game and the game structure itself.  The gameplay came first, and the story was tailored to it opposed to the other way around.

Uprising retained the first game’s Greek mythic influences but the mythology itself did not have any influence over the game’s storyline.  Sakurai wanted to make sure that the game’s Greek influence did not stray in the same direction as the God of War series.  Sakurai avoided portraying a simple good versus evil plot for the game’s main story.  Instead the characters in the story had clashing views rather than openly malicious intentions.  The overlapping conflicts created an escalating level of chaos for players to experience.  Rather than relying on stand-alone cutscenes, the majority of story’s dialogue was incorporated into gameplay with events after Chapter 6 kept secret during the run-up to release so players would be taken by surprise by what they experienced.

Upon release the game was praised by critics for its story, graphics, music and gameplay but was frequently criticized for its control scheme.   The 3DS lacked dual analog sticks which was perceived by many to be the ideal control scheme for the game.  Despite the control scheme criticism, the game was quite successful selling over 1.34 million units worldwide.