Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters (Game Boy) was made by the main R&D1 team at Nintendo but was only published in NA and EU. That's why in the Uprising conversations between Palutena (
), Pit and Medusa, they only mention the first game and how long it has been since they met (more than 20 years, breaking 4th walls, and so on.
). Not to mention that most of the enemies and bosses were picked from the NES/FDS version of the game and then remade for Uprising.
The Game Boy game also had a completely different last boss and plot, so it wasn't really part of the main chronology, but more in the sidelines.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTlJS9EtanA[/youtube]
The reason for popularity is maybe because of the complete design overhaul they had to do for all the characters and the setting of the overall series in general. Because Sakurai and his HAL team tested the waters with Dairantou X (Brawl), it would be fair enough to see how the feedback on the redesign and their view on the Greek Mythology fairs in the Land of the Rising Sun. Also I think the up-spirited personality of the characters and their familiarity in the eyes of the beholder ended up being such a big success that they would make an animated adaption of the series (anime).
And so on. ;3
F-Zero and Star Tropics would be nice to see too. ^^