Thanks for playing this game, it's an old favorite of mine, and so many other people who I see play it skip the letter and Alex's brother. Which leads to something funny in stage 14, if you don't have the letter, the king basically tells you to fuck off and sends a ghost to chase you out. I hope you do more master system games in the future.
I got to say, I was surprised to see you do a review of this game we talked about. There is probably ALOT I could say about the Original. But then Id more/less be writing a review myself on it so...I'll just give some Highlights. In the Original Yes, the ? Blocks do contain Ghosts...But they too Have a Pattern to which the games Manual (yeah games had those back then) Which Goes, Ring, Ghost, and Life. As Long as you know What the First block was, You will know whats in the next. HOWEVER, If you Avoid a ? Block you know to be a Ghost....a Ghost will be in the Next, If you REALLY need an Extra Life, You Can Free a Ghost and off screen um, to deal wih them easily. Their Hit-Box is not Active till about 2 Seconds After you make one Appear. The Pattern Doesn't Carry Level to Level so thats Why that Water Level Gives you a Life. - The Paper Head Fight can also be won by standing just to the Right of his body and just strike the head upon its return....Honestly the music and floating heads was much creepier when I was younger, Kind of a joke now. Course the Remake is much more satisfying making it feel like a Brawl....but its still one hit KO. - The Master System Consoles were uniqe in that a game was Built into the system. I think it was the MS 2 or 3? (I forget) that I got which had this game built in....HOWEVER, the End Level item was changed to a Hamburger. ...Fun Fact, As a Kid born in 86 myself, (yes Before internet) I thought the endgame Icon was a Graphical Glitch but its an Actual food from Japan. - The DX Remake lets you change the endgame icon to 4 different foods. - The Radixian Castle Can play out one of 2 ways, Even IF you know where the letter is....If you Don't save your Brother, that letter will not be their. AND if you clear the level w/o the Letter. the Nibana King will dismiss you sending a Ghost after you, Forcing you to grab the end Level icon. (Yes...You also don't get the Tablet)...But luckily, the Password is still the same, Tablet or no...so...Your a speedrunner? thats alright. - Lastly, You Can actually Cheese the Encounter or NOT Encounter with Jaken the Great if you happen to have the Cane, in the room before his , just activate the Cane and float into the room slowly so as not to trigger the "Cut Scean" then make your way to the Ladder. And in the following Level despite not technically getting the Moon Light Stone...You will somehow use it to open the door. - My Thoughts on the Original.Well....I grew up with it...but its easily a 3rd place to Mario or Sonic. Its Controls are not very good to modern platforms so easily a low point, but it was kind of a Right balance of Frustrating but addicting quality. to it. The DX Remake Does have a "Classic Mode" which it Trys to Emulate the original but its Laughably inferior to the M2 Sega Ages Version. not to mention kinda superfluous if the DXs gimmick is to Swap Graphics anyway. Which is Neat...but is not a game play mechanic. kinda like the 3D on a 3DS... unless you make use of a gimmick in a cleaver way it just becomes pointless.
The single biggest problem with Alex Kidd is the one hit deaths. Even back in 1986 the one-hit death was already becoming outdated and archaic. Mario gave you power ups. Mega Man, Metroid, and Zelda gave you a life meter. Even Ghosts n’ Goblins gave you an extra hit with your armor. It made the game needlessly punishing for no reason. Even worse, Future Alex Kidd games never fixed this. Sega appeared to learn their lesson with Sonic, which introduced the Ring system.
Thanks so much! This really helped me get through the last part of the game. I was streaming this game on PS Now. What an absolutely horrible experience even with a super fast fibre connection. Stuttering sound was really irritating and stuttering visuals made tight platforming impossible. Your video showed me what jumps were possible when I was struggling to work it out. The lag and stutter made some areas feel impossible.
This game is really cute. I’ve heard lots about it in the late 80s when my friend claimed that his Master System was better than my NES, but I’ve never actually played it or watched a detailed walk-through. Very informative, thanks!
I would say that is debatable if Alex Kidd was Sega's main mascot before Sonic as Opa Opa had been used as cameo appearances in some of the Sega games at the time. Opa Opa is that protagonist ship in one of the first cute'em up franchises called Fantasy Zone which was probably more popular than the Alex Kidd Franchise. Yes, Alex Kidd had 6 games before Sonic came in the picture, but I had to mention that.
@@ravager48 Again, it is debatable. I would say Alex Kidd was more of co-mascot as Fantasy Zone was fairly popular, and Opa Opa was in cameo appearances of some of Sega Games at the time. Yes, you can tell that Miracle World and later Enchanted Castle was inspired by SMB, but Alex Kidd wasn't in very many appearances outside of the 6 games that he was in at the time.
I remember Alex Kidd made his comeback in Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed, then the remake came later. The copter he uses is called the Pedocopter.
Nice review pick. My favourite game in the series is Alex Kidd in Shinobi World, would be cool to see some sort of revival of the series one day, even if the mascot isn't that great; I'm sure a good game could be made with him regardless. SMS has some really good games as well - all the Mickey Mouse games, Ninja Gaiden, Golvellius, Golden Axe Warrior, Master of Darkness, Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap and Asterix games. It also has Phantay Star 1, which was once a very important series for Sega; well, more so than now, anyway.
Great review Aqua. I feel like this game was way harder than it needed to be, that long puzzle combination at the end was just unnecessary, its probably why i never heard of anyone beating this game back in the day, Also i wasn't aware of the remake.
Nice. Is this the first Master System game you've reviewed? I do like this game and the MegaDrive sequel (despite my rather negative review video from years ago), because those two had the most substantial gameplay and levels. Pretty much all the other Alex Kidd games are kinda whatever.
Here's something to think about: Alex Kidd when it comes to the character reminds you alot of young Goku from the original Dragon Ball series as the manga series for Dragon Ball started 2 years before Alex Kidd in Miracle World came out as he does kind of look like a monkey and learns martial arts just like young Goku in the manga and anime.
I had this game as a kid, and I found it hard as hell. Stage 8 was basically the end of the game for me. I think I might have made it to the boss a couple of times, maybe got to stage 9 once, but I just couldn't deal with those guys throwing the green dots at me. Looking at your footage, I think maybe the CRT I played on at the time was too blurry to make them as easy to see.
Kinda bummed me out that a character named Alex was relegated to a B-lister at best in terms of video game heroes. On that note, I'm also hoping you get to High Tech World cuz I'd love to hear your reaction to that nightmare
I mastered th egame so hard, I would play with artificial rules for myself ofd, I must pick up every gold bag no matter what. A fun chalenge if u playu that way
