The Master System Directory: (Alex)
Every Alex Kidd game ever made. Except for that Mega Drive one.
Alex Kidd BMX Trial (1987)
Released only for Sega Mark-III (the Japanese Master System, basically), this top-down racer is exclusively playable using the Paddle Control peripheral, making for a rather fast-paced and smooth little speed-fest. It’s nothing much remarkable outside of the velocity it’s pushing, seeing Alex weaving around hazards and doing some rather unsporting punching of other riders as he rockets to the finish. The music is great, especially with the FM Sound Unit add-on, though bizarrely the game was never advertised as supporting it. An easter egg of sorts, though it’s almost certainly just an oversight. Well, whoopsie. Nobody’s perfect. We all make mistakes, don’t we? ***
Alex Kidd: High-Tech World (1987)
Originally a game based on manga series Anmitsu Hime, this is a fairly ludicrous adventure title that tasks Alex with assembling the destroyed pieces of the only map to a brand new arcade, putting himself in harm’s way in order to have a little go on Outrun. It’s got a cruelty of design that’s similar to the least friendly of Sierra’s adventures, with small slip-ups ending Alex’s game immediately. Even if you know what you’re doing, though, it’s not like the proceedings are particularly fun. Plugging through the adventure stuff gets you a couple of platform action stages, which are simplistic but challenging and easily the highlight of this rubbish, but good luck getting there without a guide. I can’t give this the lowest rating because it’s such toss that it’s actively quite funny to experience for yourself and the visuals are surprisingly attractive, but an effort like this is enough to make me wonder exactly who Sega thought they were fooling having any chance against Super Mario Bros. **
Alex Kidd in Miracle World (1986)
Nowhere near as esoteric but still thoroughly difficult, Alex Kidd in Miracle World was the built-in title for Master System II and one of the first console games I ever played. As a result I can’t pretend I’m not biased towards it, but even trying to look at this game objectively I think it’s a pretty good time. Much has been said about its use of rock-paper-scissors (Janken) for the boss battles, which I find only to be much of an issue with the first such mini-game on the second level. If you can memorise the solution to this, you should be able to get through the rest of them using the Telepathy Ball item, which you have two chances to grab and is quite difficult to miss. Remedy this Janken stuff and you’re with an appealing platform game that offers plenty of variety, including multiple vehicles and a bunch of inventory items that can trivialise the most difficult sections of the adventure. I will not mark down a weird old game just for being weird when there is more than one way to effortlessly remove its most tediously cited sticking point. ****
Alex Kidd in Shinobi World (1990)
This superb game is one of the finest on the Master System, a short but sweet little melding of Alex Kidd’s finer points with Shinobi’s sharpest ones. I mean the swords, that was a sword joke. Please laugh. Anyway, there’s not a whole lot I can say about Shinobi World besides it being a tremendous example of its kind, without a whole lot of notable originality. Level design is great, enemy placement can be tough but overall it’s a fairly simple game to clock after a handful of attempts, the graphics and sound are exceptional and you’ve even got a very early example of a wall-jump that feels great to execute. If you’re going to play just one Alex Kidd game, this is the one to go for. In fact, if you’re only going to play one Master System game – period – then a) that’s kind of weird and b) this wouldn’t be a bad choice. *****
Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars (1988)
This garishly colourful arcade adaptation is a lot of knockabout fun and a decent little string to Alex’s strange little bow. It seems to eschew the little Alex universe established in Miracle World, but that’s nothing new for this bizarre and frankly all over the place series. Yes, I’m a fan, but you’d have to be at least a little disingenuous to call Lost Stars a meritless experience. Slowdown is a frequent issue but it’s really rather good-looking and features some entertaining sampled speech to go along with the engagingly simple stage design and handling. There’s a good variety in the array of obstacles you’ll face that ought to keep things from getting boring. I don’t like it as much as Miracle World but most players will have a better time with its straightforward charms. ****
(Next: AL-Al)
