SEGA AGES Alex Kidd in Miracle World Interview. In Europe: Alex Kidd was more popular than Sonic

[Boy Wander]

i think he's referring to the fact that you could boot on some models of the Master System without a cartridge and Alex Kidd would start. The game was literally built in the system.

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A bit of both really. You could get cartridges for the Speccy but choice was limited and games were more expensive. Most 80s kids in the UK were used to having to wait several minutes for a game to load from tape, so the fact that you could just swap out the games on a console and play instantly was quite novel.

 

[Garrison]

They made five Alex Kidd games. Five. He didn't catch on anywhere other than parts of Europe and (later) Brazil -- not in the US or Japan, which were the really important markets for game companies in the early 90's. Sega gave it enough chances, then moved on to other properties.

When the 3D era came along, new ideas like Nights showed up, why would they try Alex Kidd again? And I say this as someone who actually enjoys this weird hybrid rip-off homage of Goku and Mario.

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Last Alex Kid game made was in 91 for the Master System, with one made for the Genesis on 89. Sonic hit on 91 and by then that game looked a whole lot better than anything sega had made comparatively. You can easily tell because 89 Alex Kidd game on the Genesis looks like shite.

Don't know why you emphasize on the amount of games when they were done back before Sega hit it's stride in the first place and released on Sega's newcomer console that most people except places like this forgot existed.

 

[andymcc]

Last Alex Kid game made was in 91 for the Master System, with one made for the Genesis on 89. Sonic hit on 91 and by then that game looked a whole lot better than anything sega had made comparatively. You can easily tell because 89 Alex Kidd game on the Genesis looks like shite.

Don't know why you emphasize on the amount of games when they were done back before Sega hit it's stride in the first place and released on Sega's newcomer console that most people except places like this forgot existed.

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Shinobi World was 1990 and, chances are, it wasn't originally supposed to be an Alex Kidd game but re-branded close to release. It was probably supposed to be a "parody" game which was pretty en vogue at the time-- like with Parodius, Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti, Mighty Final Fight, etc.

 

[sibarraz]

Is weird how SEGA still treats Alex Kidd as a mascot in some cases, but that for the most part they have never tried to do something meaningful with him

 

[Deleted member 37917]

Alex Kidd was also better than Sonic. There, I said it.

 

[andymcc]

Alex Kidd was also better than Sonic. There, I said it.

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lmao no fucking way

 

[Garrison]

Shinobi World was 1990 and, chances are, it wasn't originally supposed to be an Alex Kidd game but re-branded close to release. It was probably supposed to be a "parody" game which was pretty en vogue at the time-- like with Parodius, Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti, Mighty Final Fight, etc.

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What I remember the most about that genesis game was how God Awful that Box Art was Jesus lol

 

[mute]

Never played Alex Kidd as Master System wasn't really a thing here, but will probably check it out with the Ages release. Phantasy Star was fun.

 

[andymcc]

What I remember the most about that genesis game was how God Awful that Box Art was Jesus lol

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The Japanese box art was closer to the Master System game.

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[Mark1]

Heh I doubt that. Even just with Sonic 1 for the Mega Drive there was way more hype for Sonic in here, and this is without putting Sonic 2 which was massive.

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This.

I remember my family mainly played on the SNES, but only played Sonic on our Mega Drive. Otherwise they probably would have had no interest in buying the console

 

[OldBoyGamer]

I'm struggling to see by which metric anyone could assert that AKidd was more popular than Sonic? Other than, before Sonic was announced.

Once Sonic came out, pretty much everything else Sega did couldn't compare. Until they started to make shit Sonic games of course. Then it all went tits up.

 

[Mickagau]

In the 80's, when I was a kid I used to think Alex Kidd was cool and Mario not as cool. Alex Kidd was a powerful kid smashing things, Mario was a fat, short plumber with a mustache.

 

[IrishNinja]

Shinobi World & Enchanted Castle were fine send-offs, but i'm forever bummed i'm not getting a translation of Segagaga to see how his life is doing running that shop

also as a kid, seeing the later revisions of miracle world change the rice ball to a burger were unsettling

 

[andymcc]

Shinobi World & Enchanted Castle were fine send-offs, but i'm forever bummed i'm not getting a translation of Segagaga to see how his life is doing running that shop

also as a kid, seeing the later revisions of miracle world change the rice ball to a burger were unsettling

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playing the Japanese version and seeing a nude Alex Kidd was even more unsettling.

 

[rawhide]

They made five Alex Kidd games. Five.

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Six, actually--Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Alex Kidd and the Lost Stars and Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle are the real ones, and then there's Alex Kidd in Hi-Tech World, Alex Kidd in Shinobi World and the Japan-only Alex Kidd BMX Trial which were random games that had Alex Kidd crammed into them for brand recognition.

 

[Alienhated]

I'm sure that sooner or later we'll see a new Alex Kidd game from some of those Sega of Europe indie developer friends.

 

[Deleted member 59]

I loved Miracle World, for me Alex Kidd was the Sega mascot and i can't wait for this.

Any details on what Challenge mode is?

 

[ASaiyan]

That package art is knockoff-tier, lol.

 

[Ferrs]

Btw It's 2019 and I'm still looking for the shit Lost Stars' devs smoked. Shit had to be wild.

 

[andymcc]

Btw It's 2019 and I'm still looking for the shit Lost Stars' devs smoked. Shit had to be wild.

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The customer is king!

 

[Ghost_Messiah]

I had Miracle World (built-in) and Shinobi World and thought Miracle World was wonderful whilst Shinobi World was one of the best 8-bit games of all-time. Sonic was a phenomenon over here at the time (UK). Once Sonic hit, Alex Kidd was very rapidly and vastly eclipsed in terms of popularity and Sega never looked back.

Honestly this is an oft-forgotten and underrated franchise that Sega needs to revisit at some point. With a new Streets of Rage I guess anything can happen.

 

[rawhide]

That package art is knockoff-tier, lol.

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They bring this up in the interview, apparently the cover art was outsourced and the artist took it upon himself to imitate the SMB cover. The art you see in the manual, like this piece, was drawn by the developers and is closer to what they had in mind:

 

[Zolbrod]

There's no way this was more popular than the Mega Drive Sonic.
It WAS more popular than the Master System Sonic though.

 

[jxmmy]

Yep coming from Australia, the Master System II with Alex Kidd in Miracle World built-in was my first console/game. Was never interested in Sonic, still not. I loved the Alex Kidd and Wonder Boy games growing up.

 

[Lynd]

I have good memories playing the game as a kid at a friends on their MS2.

Anyway, just finally seen the whole game thanks to the rewind feature.

But wow, that room after Janken is defeated is some absolute garbage. How in the world did people have enough lives to fail on that a few times? Seems unfair anda gotcha after beating the final boss.