Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX Review

Alex Kidd In Miracle World DX Review

A long, long time ago, when I was a child, I used to have a Sega Master System. One day after playing what was probably Sonic the Hedgehog, I accidentally turned my console on and discovered it had Alex Kidd in Miracle World built into the console! As a child, this blew my mind and was one of the more formative platformers I have ever had the pleasure of playing.

Miracle World was release was originally released in the same year I was born (1986) and in just four years Sega released six different Alex Kidd games, five of which being on the Master System and one on the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis. With the last game in the series released over thirty years ago, I assumed Alex Kidd was never going to make a return. Luckily, I was wrong and thirty-one long years later Merge games have done the unthinkable and remade Alex Kidd in Miracle World for the modern era, for best or for worse. So, how does the first Alex Kidd game in over thirty years hold up?

Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX has taken the original the original Master System version and reworked it from the ground up to include widescreen support, fantastic reworkings of the original soundtrack and a great new art style that is full of charm. You can revert to original graphics and music at any time by simply taping a shoulder button à la the Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap remake a few years ago. This is a nice touch, I like it!

As platformers go, I always found Alex Kidd a little on the unforgiving side. Pretty much most enemies in the game can one-hit kill Alex which took my 2021 brain some time to become accustomed to, you see, I have become very used to taking multiple hits, having health bars and regenerating health, Alex Kidd does away with any of that and is incredibly faithful to the original game which was a breath of fresh air if I am completely honest.

Faithful to a fault

As much I like how faithful the game is here, I did find the game a lot harder than I thought I would. I do not know what I was expecting really, and it may have been a case of rose-tinted glasses, but I remember progressing through this game much easier. As a test, I fired up the original version on my PVM CRT television and played through the first section of the game. Apart from the jump feeling ever so slightly different, the gameplay is identical.

Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX Review

The problem here comes in the addition of widescreen support, you see, it just feels a little odd being able to see as much as you can. The original game had a semi-claustrophobic feel to it in its original 4:3 ratio of older televisions.  The levels were designed around this limitation and being able to see slightly further felt a little odd at times. It is worth mentioning that Miracle World’s levels consist of a lot of blocks to be punched and destroyed with sections of the levels almost feeling like mini puzzles instead of the faster-paced type of platforming we were accustomed to at the time like Super Mario Bros. or Sonic the Hedgehog which released a few years later. In Alex Kidd, you approach each section and carefully think about how to deal with it.

The rock paper Scissor sub-bosses are still here, and they are still as annoying as ever, luckily, they still follow a pattern so there is not too much trial and error. Some of the bosses however have been modified somewhat to make them a little more modernized by adding few new gameplay mechanics, while retaining the feel of the original game. On the subject of additions, interspliced between the games original levels are a few new levels that feel right at home and really do well to fit into the overall game design.

Technically speaking, Alex Kidd in Miracle World runs really well, with only a few instances of slowdown here and there on the Switch version I have for review and on the few times this did happen, it never once got in the way of the gameplay.

I tried out both this remake and the original using the 8BitDo’s Pro 2 controller and I must say, the jump is slightly floatier in the remake, this may throw off some die-hard fans of the original version, but the animation does look very good in the remake mode.

I don’t know if it’s just my ‘old man brain’ but I found myself often switching to retro mode to better gauge enemy hitbox and line up the occasional jump. I found that my attacks would also fall slightly short in the remade graphics, but this may be just due to my familiarity with the Master System version.

Merge games saw fit to include an infinite lives option in the settings, however, once this is turned on you cannot turn it off unless you delete your save. It is a nice option to have for those who have not yet memorized the Rock Paper Scissors battles but something my pride could sadly never let me use.

Alex Kidd in Miracle World is just about the right length for a platformer coming in at about 4 hours to complete, this will depend on how many times you die. Upon competition, you get the option to play through the original game in its original 4:3 aspect ratio with a themed border which is quite a nice addition, but a bit of a shame it wasn’t included from the get-go.

Conclusion

All in all, I really enjoyed my time with Alex Kidd in Miracle Word DX. Merge games are clearly passionate about Alex Kidd, and it shows. The additional levels are great and really feel in keeping with the original and the soundtrack has been done justice which is excellent. The new graphical overhaul does well to modernize such an old game but it may not be for everyone’s liking, but the ability to switch between them successfully negates that.

If you love traditional platformers I highly recommend picking up Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX and I really do hope we get to see more of the series!

8/10

8

Nintendo Switch review code kindly provided by Merge Games

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