Alex Kidd

Where have all the good men gone?

The first line of the Bonny Tyler song "I need a Hero" fits to the life and death of Alex Kidd. He was THE Sega videogame hero of the 80s and even became Sega's mascot. but as he didn't get along very well with the new technology (the only Alex Kidd Game for the Sega Mega Drive - Alex Kidd In The Enchanted Castle - couldn't compete with his classics) and a new guy came along Sega retired his previous superstar and pushed the new blue wannabe.


Sorry for sounding a bit pathetic but anyone who owned a Master System owned and loved at least one Alex Kidd game - most comon was the first it was built-in in most Master System 2 consoles. Appearing in five games for the Sega Master System and in one for the Mega Drive makes him probably the most famous forgotten hero (an amusing list of other missing heroes can be found here) ever.
Without Alex the Master System probably would have been less successful and we would miss some of the greatest platformers ever.

1986 - Alex Kidd in Miracle World

A boy with a fist larger than his head that even destroys rocks - can that be fun? Yeah it can be and what a fun. Alex fights to free "Radaxian" from "Janken the Great" the evil bad boy in this game. Sure it is a platformer but not an average one we have downscrolling levels, underwater level, ride a motorcycle or fly a helicopter and great graphics for a Master System games. A bunch of items and accordingly different ways of playing and being a rather big game with a high but playable difficulty level allow weeks of fun. As you can see I really love this game and so did most others. IMHO Sega Pro underestimates the quality of this game.

Sega Pro magazine wrote:
This is undoubtedly his most successful attempt. it was designed in competition to Mario and uses many of the same popular and successful elements.
80/100

1987 - Alex Kidd BMX Trial

Alex Kidd BMX Trial is more or less a Kidd version of enduro racer. Instead of a motorcycle you drive your bike using an isometric view. The graphics are a bit nicer and a bit cuter and as you lose health if you hit a rock or fall into water the game itself is a bit more strategic. Nevertheless it is a weaker game than the first one and you won't play it very much these days. It's especially annoying that you see items in front of you too late according to the incredible speed.

No Sega Pro score avaible but I would say:
60/80

1988 - Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars

I bought this game without knowing anything about it than that it's the second Alex Kidd game. That was enough but it didn't prepare me for this experience. basically it has nothing in common with the first appearance beside the fact that both games are platformers. No more punching enemies - instead you can earn a certain shoot. At least we get some cool speach samples - quite unusual for a SMS game. And if you can live with the fact that it's much too easy you might actually enjoy it. I liked it as it was one of the few games I actually finished.

Sega Pro magazine wrote:
Usually Alex Kidd provides you with a testing challenge that will last for months on end. Not this one, though!
65/100

1989 - Alex Kidd: High Tech World

This is in fact a conversion of Anmitsu Hime, a japanese game released two years earlier. It combines an adventure game with some platformer level. We'll never know why Sega did this conversion as the game it self is rather mediocre. As there weren't no adventure games these days it was quite fascinating and enjoyable. But from todays view there are certain downsides, one of them being that you have only limited time to finish - if you get it done the game starts from the beginning. So I would say nice idea but just an average execution. It's not as bad as Sega Pro indicates.

Sega Pro magazine wrote:
Alex's worst outing ever. The main problem with this is the presence of a very harsh restart procedure which always places you back at the beginning when you die. Argghhh!
40/100

1990 - Alex Kidd in Shinobi World

Man how could Sega Pro rate this title so bad? It's one of the best platformers ever. As you could expect from the fact that they mixed Alex Kidd with another great series "Shinobi". Our dear Alex as a ninja? Yes and as a great one - actually I like this one better than most of the Shinobi games. It's a great platformer with a funny topic (despite the serious Shinobi it is rather a fun version). And again Sega Pro is damn unfair as it's a way too cool game and worth more than just 76 percent

Sega Pro magazine wrote:
Mixing ninja with a successful character. There's plenty of platform adventuring to keep you enthralled for ages.
76/100

In the end:

Sad to see that Sega forgot about Alex. So get the original games, enjoy em and then write terror emails to force Sega to revive Alex - since Sega revived the Sega Classics series there is at least hope that they might do it...

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