Alex Kidd in Miracle WorldSMS

Legend! It's finally on the way!

Interesting... having never played or seen this game before, I dare say if it went head to head with the original super mario bros, from the screenies i can see this game looks far more innovative with flying and vertically scrolling levels. I may very well have to have a crack at it.

I own this - built into my Master System! For 500 points, it's a good purchase.

The only Alex Kidd game I've played is the horrible one on the Mega Drive, so I will have to check this one out

Very cool. Very, very cool.

its a nes game in every way (music and sound effects especially!) except for maybe brighter colors.....what a terrible game.

So many memories!

Fantastic game. This is a game I played when my neighbours had an Amstrad CPC and man the thing I noticed was that the graphics were fantastic compared to the Amstrad games and it looked much better than the Nes games. The main thing I remember was that the Sega Master system was cheaper than the Nintendo Nes and had the games I grew up with in the Arcades like Shinobi , Golden Axe and Shadow Dancer. Plus it was the first console I ever had the Sega Master System was a top console in its day everyone I knew had one

My first game . Can't wait to finally play this legendary game again.

Looks like a lot of fun. I'll definitely give this a try.

this looks like a really good game and im going to get it!

This game is special to me.

All my life, ever since I was like 5 years old, I've always been stuck with a faint memory of this game, and it wasn't until just recently I found out what the name of this childhood game was.

I have the best memories from this game when I was at a friend's house, back then, and we played it like all the time. Literally fighting over the controller. ("I wanna play now!") "xD

I'm happy to see it's now being released for the VC.
Thank you Nintendo.

Wow. Bad. You always know when a game sucks when they use seahorses as an enemy. Boring, repetitive generic junk. No wonder Alex Kidd never made it. Save your pennies.

Excellent game! 5 stars! Although i am a Mario fan.

His head looks like a catcher's mit with an eye and a mouth at 2:20!

I have the original cartridge of this, excellent news, great game for its day and still hugely playable!

I could finish this game without loosing a life back in the day (I was 9 years old). QUESTION: Has anyone ever completed the alternate room in the last castle where instead of fighting JENKIN THE GREAT you fall into water and a maze of spikes? I could swim through a portion of it but the margin for error is milimetres. I always imagined a secret ending where Alex Kidd found his father (as the mystery of his father is mentioned in the ending text).

I´m waiting for the day it comes out, the main reason I bought the Genesis version of Alex Kidd was because I liked THIS game, and the Genesis version isnt even close to miraqcle world.

The only game I'd prefer to be available is the one in my display, Alley cat, an old DOS game from IBM, just dreaming ...

I too really enjoyed this game. Although visually it's a bit of a mess, it's very enjoyable. It's obviously Sega's attempt to beat Mario, but fortunately it's not just a clone of Mario and does offer quite a bit of variety over the levels, including the fun of riding a motorbike. Playing scissors, paper, stone with the bosses was another quirk of the game.

I think I will download it as it is an enjoyable little platformer. It'll be nice to play it on a decent control pad, instead of the awful Master System control pad. Though I expect to have the in-game music stuck in my head again for years as a result of playing it.

This game is awesome! Downloading it as soon as it is released in Europe. Also in my Master System version of the game he eats a hamburger at the end of a level whereas in this video he eats a rice cake. Can anyone else confirm that on some versions he eats a hamburger. Very petty point but it's still something I noticed.
Great game 5 stars

Will this ever be released? =(

Yes, I know in the Norwegian version he eats a hamburger.
I don't see why he eats a rice cake here. Maybe he got bored with the burgers, don't know.

He eats a Hamburger on the version that was built into the Master System consoles; on the original cartridge version he ate a Rice Cake.

I used to play this when I went to my friends house as a kid. I wonder what he would say if he ever saw it on Virtual Console today...

this was one of my first video games i owned.
wipes a tear away
and honestly, this game deserves a FIVE star rating, not four.
i usually could care less about reviews, but this is a real gem.

I had the SMS with this built in ... i used to play for hours on end ... my thumbs are still hurting when i think about it lol

one of the best games i've ever played, will down it when i get home !!!

My first ever video game. I shall download this as soon as possible

Thank you, Mr. McFarren, for a very well-written review, with sobriety intact. It does seem sad this mascot didn't take off; I always thought Sonic was kind of nonsense (the whole trademark of going fast was actually the deadliest thing you could do in those games).

So i downloaded it ... and it's still as much fun as i remembered !!!
get this one people !!!

From the video looks like I'll get it. Also, just the way it plays and the music, it makes me want to play Kid Icarus again.

Downloaded it yesterday. Oh, the nostalgia.
But it's much slower than shown in the video up there, I mean, the pace isn't that fast. This is an Awesome game, considering it being from 1986.

"But it's much slower than shown in the video up there, I mean, the pace isn't that fast."

Giving that the poster of that video is from the USA, then it's probable that he's playing it at the 60HZ that the game was intended to be played in, which would be faster than the 50HZ PAL mode we have.

Do you guys know about the secret where you kill the octopus by destroying all his tentacles and then pressing down into his bowl, you get a bonus level of sorts. I love this game.

Seriously!

This is a 5 star game on the Master System easily!

Alex Kid in Miracle World is a bit overrated in my opinion. The game is pretty good for a Master System plattformer, but compared to genre-cousins on NES, Megadrive and SNES it fails to impress me. The first level is pretty fun, but the rest are a mixed bag. Except for the ultra-cool janken bosses, the enemy design is bland and unimaginative. It´s still worth downloading, but Wonderboy and the first Sonic game are better MS games.

Yo Noid! cloned this game a bit, with the Pizza Game instead of Paper, Rock, Scissors. Yeah, Yo Noid! would be a nice VC game. Any game where you use a yo-yo as a weapon is alright.

"Darn it. I lose."
Hahaha! I've never played this game, but I love that part already!

I got 2 questions. 1. is this game's controls nearly as slippery and imprecise as they are in the travesty that is The Enchanted Castle?, and 2. do you die in one hit like you do in EC? If the answer to no. 1 is yes, i'm skippin' this one.

Mr Cheez. Miracle World is overall a bit better than Enchanted Castle. As far as I remember, the controls aren´t great, but at least better than in the Mega Drive/genesis game. I get frustrated very quick with Enchented Castle because of the controls/one hit issues. Miracle World is a bit touchy with the controlls too but I can get pretty far in that game, suppose it plays better. Still, you´ll have to live with one hit death in Miracle World as well. Feel free to download a better game.

well, if the controls are at least SOMEWHAT better than the enchanted castle, I might try it out...

Yes!!!!!!!! Master System Game!!!!!!!

well I did decide to download this game, and it actually isn't bad! It's hells better than the Enchanted Castle, and controls better too (though they could definitely be improved) kinda hard though since you have to pay money to continue, and
I keep finding ghosts that chase and kill me. In all honesty though, it isn't THAT great, you guys are all just high on nostalgia.

BTW the castle levels remind me of Kid Icarus. Speaking of which, I should play that game again .

Yeah Great Game!

It never once crossed my mind that, as this review states, "Miracle World appears to be nothing more than a generic Mario rip-off". In the platforming world, it reminds me more of Adventure Island.

Oh, and the controls stink!

overrated game in my opinion
2/5

I love this game. I've downloaded it yesterday, and it plays just as well as it ever did. And yes, I still hate those water levels lol, they make my controller feel broken . 5 stars in my opinion, though new players might not undestand the magic of this 1986 piece. Keep it in perspective people!

I haven't completed the game yet, but I can say this now, if it weren't for those crappy rock-paper-scissor boss fights, I'd be done by now.

From GameFAQs:

Janken challenges
This is how to beat the Janken bosses when you play against them, without having to fight them if you lose.

1st: Choose Rock in the first game, then Scissors in the second
2nd: Scissors, then Paper
3rd: Rock, Scissors
4th: Paper, Paper
5th: Rock, Rock
6th: Rock, Scissors
7th: Paper, Paper

(Must be done in that order from the start of the game, if you choose one different along the way all the rest will be different)

You are truly a game-saver, Bass XO, even if you did get it from GameFAQs. Now I won't shout at the TV about my crappy luck but about my terrible platforming abilities.

This game is a classic, and should be downloaded at once. Also, Bass XO, your great. Thank you.

This could come in handy, Bass XO. I should write those down! Thanks!

Oh, and thank you for answering my question, Guy From Faxanadu.

The scissors/paper games were semi random, but because the master system lacked a built in clock, the seed the game used from the start was always the same.

As a kid I had memorized the order in which the attacks came, which made life a whole lot easier.

I downloaded it and Its not a bad game but I dont think its great I just keep dying but maybe its just me that sucks at it

To arobo21,you crack me up! this game is far superior to mario bros. as the master system was to the nes!! lol,i love it when people rate stuff good just because it is a favorite of theirs,they fail to ACTUALLY SEE the game! get a clue.

Heh... Funny story here...

Being born to a single mother who's the only truly good harted member of a loosely connected family of soulless jerks, I've never been in the company of allot of money.

So around the time most other kids my age where getting there hands on the shiny new Sega Genesis, I was staring down at a model 2 SMS that came with this game for around $50... (I'm in the US... Are idea of being poor is downright idiotic... )

So we made the decision to get it instead of getting the NES several months later and with that she grabbed the ticket to go claim the box upfront of the toysRus we where at...

Meanwhile me being the spoiled little brat I was at the time was going on about sulking back in the electronics department, Whining and complaining that I couldn't get the $200 dollar Genesis that I really wanted...

So... After about 10 minutes of this idioticness has passed my mother came back to drag my sorry out to the car...

And I'll admit I was freaking scared !

I mean she said NOTHING except the words "come with me"...

So out at the car where I was virtually 100% positive an whooping was about to commence she just quietly went over & opened the latch to the trunk... And what do I see... The $200 dollar Sega Genesis that I "NEEDED in order to be cool"... !

Apparently the employee who didn't really know anything about video games had grabbed the wrong box!

So here we where with a brand new peace of tech that we could otherwise never afford for 50 dollars!...

What to do...

...

.... "Well... Must be meant for us" She said...

And with that we where off!...

I still thank her ever now & then... Coolest thing she ever did for me!

OK... I Finally went & downloaded the game I so narrowly missed all those years ago...

And I must say while I'm still glad I got to mess around with Sonic back then instead, It's been great catching up on what I missed!

Though I'm still shocked & horrified at this game's MD sequel...

Not only because of how bad it was but also because that was the only true sequel this wonderful game will seemingly ever get... (All the others are more or less comparable to Mario's non-standard outing in case you didn't know)

And I'm still mad as hell that I decided to give it a chance despite its negative reviews...

Oh well... At least this game is a blast to play!

This one is so much better than the MD Alex Kidd. A real classic!

QUESTION: Has anyone ever completed the alternate room in the last castle where instead of fighting JENKIN THE GREAT you fall into water and a maze of spikes? I could swim through a portion of it but the margin for error is milimetres. I always imagined a secret ending where Alex Kidd found his father (as the mystery of his father is mentioned in the ending text).

One of the first console games I ever played. Kinda hard and unfair at times, but you get used to the control system, exploring and finding items. Its a cuter Mario style game, playable but not essential. Without save points youd need to have a lot of patience to play it through and as games are meant to be fun, a lot of other games would be less frustrating than this.

This game is tough! Either that, or I suck.

I actually picked this up the other day for the Virtual Console and I'm really disappointed. I heard that this one of the best games on the Master System, and if that's true, Sega fans and the Europeans & Brazilians who "chose" the SMS over the NES sure were getting over excited for such a piece of a system.

Alex Kidd is not exactly a bad game in my mind, but there are so many flaws that have annoyed the hell out of me. Like one hit kills, yeah most platformers and sidescrollers back in the day didn't have plentiful life bars but one hit kill plus the fact that 1ups are few and far apart, and you'll have to start all the way back if you lose is crap. It's like they tried to make an easy game hard for the worst possible reasons.

As for the platforming and action itself it isn't too bad. I do hate being stuck with Alex's fist, because it's pretty boring to use and pretty easy to mess up and die because of it. The control is a bit sloppy IMO so I got a little frustrated with some of the jumps I had to make.

The Janken boss matches are okay I guess, I just looked the answers up on Gamefaqs to avoid losing and getting my ass whipped by one of them.

I do like the little vehicles you get to use, kinda reminds me of the fun I had with Yoshi's Island when Yoshi could turn into all sorts of cool vehicles. I just wish I could stomach more of the game so I can see and use the rest of them.

There's worse games than Alex Kidd around that are even more unfair on the gamer.

great game !! played it for many hours !!!

@ Sam

Sorry to tell you this, but that's spike maze is just a alternative route you can take, it still leads Alex to Jaken the Great and the same ending. Oh and the idea is to get inbetween the first spikes and DON'T press up, Alex will stay below the upper spikes by himself as long as you never press up - or down - on the pad.

@Linkthelegend2

I never laughed so hard in ages, because I admire the articulate honesty. I'm also starting to think you might be right. That gave the angry game nerd a run for his money. XD

This game was/is immense - bought a SMS a couple of years ago as my original got broken.

Remember the room with the stones with symbols on which had to be pressed in certain way - this is a bargain at 500 points, the Helicopter is pure classic --- BUY BUY BUY

they should also bring out alex kidd in shinobi world as this is also class and would be a mere 500 points as was also on SMS!! Shabba

@ Sam: Yeah, I used to take that spike maze all the time - thanks to my mom realizing you don't have to hit down or up to maneuver through it, I actually found it an easier route then the regular one XD

This game is hard, yet quite fun. The review is correct: 4 stars.

I have been trying to beat this game for approx. 20 years! (on and off obviously)

That ruddy jungle level gets me every time, with or without the bike, I can get passed it but it usually take a couple of precious lives off me.

I think the time has come to cheat - I read the original had a continue mode after game over, does this work on VC? I tried a couple of times but it was having none of it.

This is good game except the Janken matches were frustrating.

RoyOfTheRovers: Might be a bit late reply, but yes, the continue code should work; I forgot what it was exactly, but it involved having a certain amont of in-game money, pressing and holding one of the corners on the D-pad while the game over music played (think it was down-right, could be wrong) and hammering the 2-button 8 times. I'm sure you can find it somewhere.

This game's good, but it can be fairly difficult on some levels.