Alex Kidd in Miracle World was the very first game I owned for the Sega Master System by virtue of the fact that it came already built into my console. In this game you play the role of the legendary Alex Kidd who seems to get himself in all sorts of trouble on various worlds, this time in Miracle World a.k.a. the planet Aries, where Alex is minding his own business and learning to become the hardest hitting puncher on the planet, when his life is turned upside down. Alex receives the news that people are being turned to stone and his home town is under attack and the only way he can defeat the bad guys (including rather vicious fish) is by punching everyone in the face... or failing that beating them at a game of good ol' rock, paper, scissors, which when won makes the bad guys explode in a puff of smoke and/or release their heads to fly at you. The end of level bad guys, called Paperhead, Rockhead and (you guessed it) Scissorshead were a taste of what was waiting for you with the final bad guy. You could use a crystal  ball item to catch a glimpse of what the opponent was going to choose, but in later levels they would swap this at the last moment, so you had to be quick on the buttons!!

The end of game bad guy, Janken (named after the great paper,rock, scissors game), has his own cool castle which has lots of fiendish rooms for you to make your way through. There is one particular bit where you have to swim underwater past these spiky things... and I simply cannot do it. No matter how many lives I have up until this point, I have never gotten out of this room. This is because while you are not moving underwater Alex likes to float upwards, meaning you have to always be pressing down and a direction to swim, something I seem incapable of achieving (just ask my broken controllers). My brother just swims straight past them as if they weren't even there.

On his journey Alex is able to purchase many cool items from the shops at the start of the level, including a motorbike which definitely speeds things up, as well as various other gadgets that he can deploy at any time to rid the world of enemies. This is basically a really nice and fun platform game where you get to punch lots of things in the face, like scorpions and frogs. This was Alex Kidd's first adventure and although the game itself struggled to compete at the time with the more popular Super Mario Bros on the NES, this is still a classic. You will need some precision jumping skills, usually with a run up,... or just buy one of those cool pedal-powered helicopters that lets you fly and shoot your way through the level, if you have enough cash of course. Try not to be tempted by the extra bags of cash dotted around the level, unless you really do have extreme precision flying, motorbike riding or jumping skills to skim across the waves, pop up just beneath the deadly rocks that will drop you into the sea, or can leap tall rock piles in a single bound. At least you get to sit and eat a rice ball and look at a colourful map of your journey between levels.

The castle levels bring an extra excitement to the game. Not only are they huge and full of unique fiendish puzzles to solve, but they also have their own cool theme music. In the overall game, it's great when you find a box with a question mark on it and you pray that it's a ring, rather than a ghost, which would mean you have to suddenly speed up in order to push the ghost out of the edge of the screen before it kills you. You may find a power ring which lets you shoot laser beams from your over-sized fist, or even an extra life. When you do fall in the water you turn into what sort of looks like a half-merman mutant thing which has two mini tentacles (i'm assuming legs) powering you through the water. The music also changes to more mellow tones below the waves, though look out for giant frog people who apparently blow killer bubbles. Oh yeah, and that angry looking octopus sitting on an underwater honey pot. I still have no idea what that round orange thing is with what looks like little blue wings, but appears to have a human face and a black moustache? Or the green cabbage thing in the caves level that appears to be angrily shaking its fists in the air as it attacks you? You do get to drive a speedboat at one point, but really it's easy to drop below the waves to avoid other creatures, such as the end of level warthog or the samurai bear.

Alex Kidd never did manage to go head-to-head with the Super Mario Bros, as some expected, and even hardcore fans of the franchise will acknowledge that Sonic the Hedgehog became the face of Sega, rather than little Alex Kidd. It still remains one of the most popular and memorable games for though.

Graphics: 8
This game is still beautiful today, with colourful and vibrant graphics. All the characters have giant heads and the various animals appear to be the same size as Alex, but hey when Alex punches his fist is also the same size as his head, so it evens itself up.

Sound: 7
There is general upbeat background music playing throughout the levels which is a nice 8-bit track to listen to. The boss battles and end game castle both have different music, letting you know that you are in a special situation, which is a nice touch. The sound effects are also pretty cool.

Addictiveness: 6
It can be both addictive and frustrating. Once you have completed the game there is not much need to replay it, except for nostalgia's sake. But while you are trying to complete the game, and learning from your mistake, it can be quite addictive and give a sense of satisfaction to get further than you did before.

Story: 7
It actually has a back story and your quest has a purpose, so that's good, though obviously it doesn't go into great detail as it is essentially just a platform game.

Depth: 8
The game is one of the larger ones for the Sega Master System, comprising of 17 different levels, plenty of mid-stage bosses, an end game boss, lots of varied things to buy in the shops and loads of strategic jumping around and punching to keep you busy. 

Difficulty: 9
I havn't only given this a nine difficulty rating just for the awkward way of swimming (and those dreaded underwater spiky things that foiled all my attempts at completing the game) but also because it's a pretty difficult game to master in general! If you get hit once, you lose a life. Fall in a river? Lose a life. Touch a spike? Lose a life. Touch an enemy? Lose a life. It is so easy to die in Alex Kidd in Miracle World. Alex runs very quickly, jumps to varying heights according to speed, floats upwards when underwater, ride a helicopter that sinks if not pedalled and rides a motorcycle that more often than not ends up in the water! Touch anything bad in your vehicle? It explodes and disappears, no cash refund. And once you have finally mastered the jumping and swimming techniques, you had better start praying for luck in the rock, paper, scissor battles!

Overall: 8
Definitely one of the better games for the Sega Master System and easily the best Alex Kidd game, give this one a try and see how long it takes you to complete it. And if you get past that tricky underwater spiky bit, please send me tips on how you did it (I feel betrayed by my fingers and thumbs).