I've been skirting around it for a few years now, but its finally time to add yet another console to the list.
A few years ago, I reviewed Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle, a Genesis platformer that I didn't really enjoy all that much. I talked a little bit about how Alex Kidd was Sega's mascot before Sonic became a thing and how hyped up I was to give AKITEC a try, having heard so much about the series. That was part of the reason the game fell flat for me, though poor level design and awful boss fights were more than likely the bigger culprits. What I didn't realize at the time was that much of the positive sentiment I had heard about the series had nothing to do with its lone Genesis entry. Instead, much of the positivity was focused on the various entries on Sega's third generation console, a machine that I have been looking for an excuse to play for a long time.
For most North American gamers, the Genesis was the first time we interacted with Sega. Many people in the U.S. are still unaware the Genesis had a predecessor to this day. I myself had never heard of the Sega Master System until I was a teenager or laid eyes on one until I was an adult. Simply put, this thing was not popular here and growing up I didn't know a single person that owned or had ever played one. Even Sega diehards who went from Genesis to Saturn to Dreamcast were completely unaware the Master System ever existed, which is kind of a shame. The reasons for this are debatable, some credit bad marketing while others cite the other big company's questionable business practices, though as usual its probably some combination of the two. By the time it came stateside in 1986, the NES had already become firmly established. The Big N's policy of not allowing third party developers to have games on other consoles also badly limited the SMS's library here, so it was kind of doomed from the start. Things weren't much better in Japan, where both the Mark II and Mark III versions of the console failed to surpass the Famicom. Of course, that wasn't the case everywhere. The Master System outsold the NES in most of Europe, with the big gray box not catching up to Sega's console until well into the 90's. And in Brazil? They still sell and support Master Systems to this day. The original distributor there, a company called Tectoy, still produces versions of the console and games for it. These aren't unofficial either, Tectoy has managed Sega's distribution in Brazil since the '80s and continues to do so to this day. And boy do they know their market, because their various Master System versions didn't just crush the NES in sales, they crushed the next three generations of consoles. Even to this day, the Master System is competitive in sales with modern consoles, which is insane and kind of awesome.
But enough about the hardware, its time to talk about games. Specifically, its time to talk about Alex Kidd in Miracle World, a SMS platformer released in both Japan and North America at the end of 1986. This was the first entry in the series, which would go on to produce three other SMS games before dying out after the aforementioned AKITEC on the Genesis. The game puts you in control of the titular Alex Kidd, a part monkey (I think?), part human from the mythical kingdom of Radaxian. The kingdom is currently under the thumb of the evil Janken the Great, who has kidnapped the king and his family. Upon learning he is the king's long lost son, Alex sets out to defeat Janken, using his martal arts skills to battle through 17 fairly substantial levels, collecting items and treasures along the way.
The first thing that's going to stand out to anyone that has played the NES and not the SMS are going to be the graphics. Simply put, the SMS absolutely blows the NES out of the water when it comes to visuals. We've talked a lot about the reasons why the SMS wasn't super successful, but it was certainly not for lack of power. AKIMW doesn't look that much different from AKITEC, and if you showed me this game and told me it was a fourth generation title I probably would have believed you. The sprites are way bigger and more detailed than what you would have seen on the NES, with less jagged edges and more definition. The colors really pop here, which is especially important given the game's family friendly atmosphere. Alex doesn't have that many frames of animation, but the ones he does have are smooth and his sprite in general has tons of personality. The enemies look great too and the bright yellows and greens really make the game look different from other platformers of its day. The sound is awesome too, it's upbeat and peppy, perfectly fitting for hopping around and breaking bricks. I even like how it changes between certain environments, like you get different music if you are in water vs. on land. AKIMW is very well presented and seeing a 3rd gen game look this good really shows how much of a shame it is that the Master System didn't catch on here.
Of course, graphics aren't everything. A game can look pristine but if it doesn't play well, then it doesn't matter. While SMS games have a reputation for looking better, they are also known to control somewhat stiffly. I definitely felt that a little bit with AKIMW, but it wasn't a major issue and felt more like it was by design than because of a flaw. This wasn't meant to be a hop and bop platformer where you sprint through levels as quickly as possible. The goal here is to take your time and clear obstructions to give yourself the best path possible and the controls reflect that. I did have a slight issue with the jumping, but it rarely cost me lives and was consistent, if nothing else. Overall, the controls were solid, though hit detection left a little bit to be desired. Alex's primary attack is a stubby punch, which has an incredibly short range and is impossible to hit without getting dangerously close to an enemy. Fortunately, this is somewhat mitigated by the amount of powerups you find, but it was still definitely an issue.
I really liked the level design here, it was very different from it's more popular contemporaries. So many of these games from this era get compared to Super Mario Bros., and for good reason, but AKIMW's level design allows it to stand out. Levels tend to be more verticle and enemy placement is more focused on forcing you to avoid enemies than engage them in combat. Again, the goal here is more to give yourself the path of least resistance through a stage, breaking blocks in the correct manner and staying away from enemies to reach the end unscathed. I liked it and I was surprised at how different it felt from not only other 80's platformers, but from the game I had already played that succeded it. There were a lot of similarly designed levels to AKITEC, yet they were far better executed despite this being an older title. Even the vertical levels felt fair, rarely, if ever, blindly dropping you on an enemy. The game is still "Nintendo Hard," you have three hits and three continues and you get sent back to the start if you lose them, but that was fairly standard for the era and I don't think it was excessively difficult.
Of course, there are certainly plenty of problems here. The biggest is the absolutely horrible boss fights. Because this was my second foray into the franchise, I wasn't as startled by it this time. But the rock, paper, scissors (AKA Janken in Japan) matches as boss fights are still horrible. I will give Miracle World more of a pass than Enchanted Castle in this regard. This was the first game in the series and a lot of console game developers still had no idea what they were doing in the mid 80's, so I can see why someone might have thought this would work. But that doesn't change the fact that it absolutely sucks. The game does get a little repetitive after a while and once you get acclimated to its control and play style, things can become a little boring. The controls did take some time to get used to, though once they did I rarely, if ever, had a problem with them. Overall, there wasn't too much wrong here that wasn't simply a product of games of the era.
If the Master System were more popular in the U.S. and Japan, comparisons with the plumber would have been far more frequent. I guess that would make sense, the two games seem like they would have a lot in common on the surface. However, they are quite different in practice. Still, the question of "is this as good as Super Mario Bros?" is going to come up when discussing an 80's mascot platformer. I'm going to have to say, I think AKIMW is right there with SMB. I won't say it's better, but I don't think it's worse. Both titles were outstanding first efforts that went a long way in proving what their respective consoles were capable of. Mario is a household name today because the series evolved significantly and had a big money machine behind it. Alex Kidd wasn't so lucky, as his best offerings were confined to a system that sold poorly in two of gaming's most critical markets and Sega's attempt to capture said markets led them to putting more stock in Sonic than our little monkey friend. But while the series may not have had as much long term success as some of the more well known mascot platformers, Alex Kidd in Miracle World was a strong start and a great game for anyone looking for an old school 80's platformer.
8.25/10
A few years ago, I reviewed Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle, a Genesis platformer that I didn't really enjoy all that much. I talked a little bit about how Alex Kidd was Sega's mascot before Sonic became a thing and how hyped up I was to give AKITEC a try, having heard so much about the series. That was part of the reason the game fell flat for me, though poor level design and awful boss fights were more than likely the bigger culprits. What I didn't realize at the time was that much of the positive sentiment I had heard about the series had nothing to do with its lone Genesis entry. Instead, much of the positivity was focused on the various entries on Sega's third generation console, a machine that I have been looking for an excuse to play for a long time.
For most North American gamers, the Genesis was the first time we interacted with Sega. Many people in the U.S. are still unaware the Genesis had a predecessor to this day. I myself had never heard of the Sega Master System until I was a teenager or laid eyes on one until I was an adult. Simply put, this thing was not popular here and growing up I didn't know a single person that owned or had ever played one. Even Sega diehards who went from Genesis to Saturn to Dreamcast were completely unaware the Master System ever existed, which is kind of a shame. The reasons for this are debatable, some credit bad marketing while others cite the other big company's questionable business practices, though as usual its probably some combination of the two. By the time it came stateside in 1986, the NES had already become firmly established. The Big N's policy of not allowing third party developers to have games on other consoles also badly limited the SMS's library here, so it was kind of doomed from the start. Things weren't much better in Japan, where both the Mark II and Mark III versions of the console failed to surpass the Famicom. Of course, that wasn't the case everywhere. The Master System outsold the NES in most of Europe, with the big gray box not catching up to Sega's console until well into the 90's. And in Brazil? They still sell and support Master Systems to this day. The original distributor there, a company called Tectoy, still produces versions of the console and games for it. These aren't unofficial either, Tectoy has managed Sega's distribution in Brazil since the '80s and continues to do so to this day. And boy do they know their market, because their various Master System versions didn't just crush the NES in sales, they crushed the next three generations of consoles. Even to this day, the Master System is competitive in sales with modern consoles, which is insane and kind of awesome.
But enough about the hardware, its time to talk about games. Specifically, its time to talk about Alex Kidd in Miracle World, a SMS platformer released in both Japan and North America at the end of 1986. This was the first entry in the series, which would go on to produce three other SMS games before dying out after the aforementioned AKITEC on the Genesis. The game puts you in control of the titular Alex Kidd, a part monkey (I think?), part human from the mythical kingdom of Radaxian. The kingdom is currently under the thumb of the evil Janken the Great, who has kidnapped the king and his family. Upon learning he is the king's long lost son, Alex sets out to defeat Janken, using his martal arts skills to battle through 17 fairly substantial levels, collecting items and treasures along the way.
The first thing that's going to stand out to anyone that has played the NES and not the SMS are going to be the graphics. Simply put, the SMS absolutely blows the NES out of the water when it comes to visuals. We've talked a lot about the reasons why the SMS wasn't super successful, but it was certainly not for lack of power. AKIMW doesn't look that much different from AKITEC, and if you showed me this game and told me it was a fourth generation title I probably would have believed you. The sprites are way bigger and more detailed than what you would have seen on the NES, with less jagged edges and more definition. The colors really pop here, which is especially important given the game's family friendly atmosphere. Alex doesn't have that many frames of animation, but the ones he does have are smooth and his sprite in general has tons of personality. The enemies look great too and the bright yellows and greens really make the game look different from other platformers of its day. The sound is awesome too, it's upbeat and peppy, perfectly fitting for hopping around and breaking bricks. I even like how it changes between certain environments, like you get different music if you are in water vs. on land. AKIMW is very well presented and seeing a 3rd gen game look this good really shows how much of a shame it is that the Master System didn't catch on here.
Of course, graphics aren't everything. A game can look pristine but if it doesn't play well, then it doesn't matter. While SMS games have a reputation for looking better, they are also known to control somewhat stiffly. I definitely felt that a little bit with AKIMW, but it wasn't a major issue and felt more like it was by design than because of a flaw. This wasn't meant to be a hop and bop platformer where you sprint through levels as quickly as possible. The goal here is to take your time and clear obstructions to give yourself the best path possible and the controls reflect that. I did have a slight issue with the jumping, but it rarely cost me lives and was consistent, if nothing else. Overall, the controls were solid, though hit detection left a little bit to be desired. Alex's primary attack is a stubby punch, which has an incredibly short range and is impossible to hit without getting dangerously close to an enemy. Fortunately, this is somewhat mitigated by the amount of powerups you find, but it was still definitely an issue.
I really liked the level design here, it was very different from it's more popular contemporaries. So many of these games from this era get compared to Super Mario Bros., and for good reason, but AKIMW's level design allows it to stand out. Levels tend to be more verticle and enemy placement is more focused on forcing you to avoid enemies than engage them in combat. Again, the goal here is more to give yourself the path of least resistance through a stage, breaking blocks in the correct manner and staying away from enemies to reach the end unscathed. I liked it and I was surprised at how different it felt from not only other 80's platformers, but from the game I had already played that succeded it. There were a lot of similarly designed levels to AKITEC, yet they were far better executed despite this being an older title. Even the vertical levels felt fair, rarely, if ever, blindly dropping you on an enemy. The game is still "Nintendo Hard," you have three hits and three continues and you get sent back to the start if you lose them, but that was fairly standard for the era and I don't think it was excessively difficult.
Of course, there are certainly plenty of problems here. The biggest is the absolutely horrible boss fights. Because this was my second foray into the franchise, I wasn't as startled by it this time. But the rock, paper, scissors (AKA Janken in Japan) matches as boss fights are still horrible. I will give Miracle World more of a pass than Enchanted Castle in this regard. This was the first game in the series and a lot of console game developers still had no idea what they were doing in the mid 80's, so I can see why someone might have thought this would work. But that doesn't change the fact that it absolutely sucks. The game does get a little repetitive after a while and once you get acclimated to its control and play style, things can become a little boring. The controls did take some time to get used to, though once they did I rarely, if ever, had a problem with them. Overall, there wasn't too much wrong here that wasn't simply a product of games of the era.
If the Master System were more popular in the U.S. and Japan, comparisons with the plumber would have been far more frequent. I guess that would make sense, the two games seem like they would have a lot in common on the surface. However, they are quite different in practice. Still, the question of "is this as good as Super Mario Bros?" is going to come up when discussing an 80's mascot platformer. I'm going to have to say, I think AKIMW is right there with SMB. I won't say it's better, but I don't think it's worse. Both titles were outstanding first efforts that went a long way in proving what their respective consoles were capable of. Mario is a household name today because the series evolved significantly and had a big money machine behind it. Alex Kidd wasn't so lucky, as his best offerings were confined to a system that sold poorly in two of gaming's most critical markets and Sega's attempt to capture said markets led them to putting more stock in Sonic than our little monkey friend. But while the series may not have had as much long term success as some of the more well known mascot platformers, Alex Kidd in Miracle World was a strong start and a great game for anyone looking for an old school 80's platformer.
8.25/10
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