Oh poor stray orphan boy, Alex Kidd, sadly stuck to forever live in the past, probably never to get into the limelight ever again. If one could even say he was in the limelight to begin with. But any who, I've always kinda had a bit of a soft spot for Alex Kidd, he's a cute little oddity even from a time where it seems like every game was some kind of oddity. The boys over at Sega released Alex Kidd In Miracle World was released for the Sega Genesis/Master System on November 1st, 1986. years before they would make Sonic, so while its not directly supposed to compete with Mario, in a way Alex Kidd was their answer to Mario, even if not directly, as a result I feel like people might of looked at it as Mario's competitor and they probably didn't like it as much. But you know, maybe there was something in this game that a lot of people (myself included) missed out on, so lets put on our punching gloves and magic ring thingie and play some Roshambol and see how good Alex Kidd is.

{Story/Difficulty}
I wont say that the story of this game is amazing or anything like that but it has a bit of charm, but at the same time i never knew what the story was when i was younger. I just kinda played it and thought up whatever i could for the plot! But it kinda feels a bit like Ristar's plot a bit, i dunno if I'm stretching by saying that, but they are slightly similar i guess. Except in Ristar you're the kid of who is the hero of the game, but you never play as him, as he gets kidnapped and you have to go save him. While in this game you find out before hand that you're the son of the king who was defeated in a kidnap attempt of prince igul and princess Lora, the king was named King Thunder. and the big baddie was named Janken the Great, who apparently turned people to stone as well. the kingdom was named Radaxian. To make it to Janken you must be at up his lackeys and find artifacts and then go defeat Janken and take back the crown from him! Hopefully that will unpetrify everyone, but that's not ever confirmed, ya know, like how Bowser turned toads into mystery blocks, but was they ever turned back? I'd assume not as look at the rest of the Mario games! And to go off on a side tangent does that mean that in Sunshine there really aren't any blocked up toads minus the blocks in the secret levels. But none of those are even mystery blocks! Anyways back to Alex Kidd, that's about as deep as the story goes, but at least it made me have an existential crisis about Mario huh! And to get onto the difficulty I feel the game has a steady difficulty curve as the game goes on, so by the end game I feel it's like a 7.4-7.6 difficulty, but the earlier stages aren't too bad to do. And if you can get the upgrades from the shops from then you will have an easier time, but sadly at the end of each level you lose them and have to get them again in the next. But every time I replay this game I am terrified to play Radaxian castle and I really don't like to play Mt. Eternal as I just constantly fall off of everything in that level! While at the same time I think the Prairie stage is a nice calming level, and something about smacking those prairie dogs in the face with those weird block thingies never gets old. And I'll talk about it more a bit later but there a sometimes optional mini game which is literally just Rock, Paper, Scissors but under the Japanese name of Roshambol, and when I was a kid I just felt like this thing was completely random, about as random as playing it in real life with a skitzo! The bosses can also be a bit hard as well but of course Janken the Great is the hardest of them all. So for the difficulty ill give it a 6 out of 10, and for the story ill give it a 4 out of 10. Sadly the plot isn't very much and none of the sequels really play off this story to make anything in this game have much meaning, at least i don't think they do, never played them.

{Graphics/Sound}
Ill spoil it and say that I don't exactly rate the graphics super high but I really feel like there is a charm to this game that is just not in a lot of other video games. Like how Alex Kidd's fist gets big when he punches with it, or how some of the enemies look/ appear in the stage and stuff like that. I also feel like each of the different stages look different enough from each other to make each one kinda memorable, and the cartoon graphics make them super charming. I mentioned the Prairie stage earlier and its probably one of my favorite looking stages of the game Miracle village is also just a classic in my opinion as well. The Rolling Stones (on the cover of the rolling stones!) enemy looks kinda cute. The Monster Frogs are neat as well, and the Ghost/ Grim Reaper dudes terrify me! But I like how they look as well. And while none of the bosses will be winning awards for designs I will again say that Janken looks then best really. And this isn't in-game graphics but the cover of the game is pretty nice looking compared to the average Sega Genesis cover with the grid background and what not. And with that ill leave the graphics. The sounds of Alex Kidd is a bit on the lacking side honestly, another game where I don't really remember any of the background music. But I can safely say that I will randomly have Ro-Sham-Bol play through my head at random points of my life. The sound of the Shockwave from the Power Bracelet is also pretty neat as well. But those are the only things i really like, i mean all the music is OK, when i hear it i bob my head and am like: "Oh yeah, now this is happening!" But it's never enough for me to want to listen to it out of game or anything like that honestly. And that's where ill end the sound section as well. In the end I'll have to give both the sound and the graphics of Alex Kidd a 6 out of 10. But id have to say that the graphics would get like a 6.8 out of 10, the cartoonish looking graphics and background are pretty clever and i wish there was more games that looked like this one honestly.

{Addictive/Depth}
This is one of those games that you replay if your super into platformers but if your not then I don't imagine you would play this more than once. If you've even heard of this game, as I kinda feel that unless its the remake then most non platformer fans probably haven't played this game. Really I would just have fun playing a few levels and just put it down and pick it up every once and a long while. Sadly outside of the cartoony charm and the not so random Rock, Paper, Scissors mini game there isn't anything to bring me back to the game. I feel like there's a bit of unique charm that is lost after your first playthrough. When your actually playing the game its pretty fun and there is a little bit of stuff to get from the shops for upgrades to make the game have a bit of variety but not a whole lot. There's stuff like the Power Bracelet and Magic Capsules that are fun. Then stuff like the different vehicles that you can purchase and use throughout the levels that I think just suuuuuuck! They are awful and I never use them, I kinda feel like I'm in the minority in that opinion but I don't care, I dislike them that much! So to get into the Roshambol a little bit, when I was younger I thought they was super random and sometimes I would just win and other times I would lose. No its really all about what the opponent plays first, then its like a scripted pattern they usually go off of something like that, I dunno I just watched a video on it one day. But sometimes these things can literally be the difference between life and death I swear it! So if you push it you could probably have like 3 or so playthoughs doing different things and getting different upgrades but you really wont be catching me doing that sadly. So I'll have to give the addictiveness a 5 out of 10 and the depth also a 5 out of 10.

Alex Kidd might not be a game series that is still really going on today but at least this game did get remade on June 21, 2021 for the likes of the PS 4,5, Nintendo Switch and Xbox One. Under the name of Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX which I haven't played but looks like a pretty good remake and might be more worth your time then this game. This version is on the likes of stuff of the Sega Emulators on Switch and what not, but still not crazy other ways like compilations or anything. So if you can pick up Alex Kidd In Miracle World then I say give it a play or two, if not your not super missing out, But it still saddens me a bit that this game series is left in the gaming history dusts. Ill give it a 7.8 out of 10.