It’s amazing how most gamers tend to have fond memories of games they had played when they were younger, even when they weren’t that great. This is particularly true for games which came with the system you bought as you inevitably played them a lot if they were good or not.
One game I have fond memories of is Altered Beast. It was a very average game but when my brother got it packaged with the Sega Megadrive I was amazed at how good the graphics and sound were (compared to the NES I had). I did quickly realise that it wasn’t a very involving game but I still enjoyed going back to it every now and then.
Another game I have fond memories was also on a Sega system which I didn’t own. Most of my friends had the NES or even Commodore 64s but one of my friends had the Sega Master System. The NES was undoubtedly a better system but I liked the Master System, probably because no one else had it so everything felt new.
I don’t remember my friend having too many games for the system but he did have Alex Kidd in Miracle World. The game was originally released in cartridge form but the console my friend owned had the game built in and you could play it simply by turning on the system without a cartridge in it. I didn’t play the game until around 1991 but the game was originally released in Japan in 1986.
Sega didn’t create too many platform games during the 80s but Alex Kidd was actually not bad. Granted it isn’t a classic game and looks very poor when compared to the likes of Super Mario Bros, however it was a decent game. It certainly ranked very well compared to other Master System platformers.
In the game you control Alex Kidd, a monkey looking boy who hails from the Planet Aries. His main strength is his ability to smash through rocks with his freakishly strong hands. The storyline is very similar to the Super Mario Bros series. In this game some a’hole called Janken the Great has kidnapped your brother and your fiancée. So Alex sets out to defeat him and save them.
At the end of most levels you face one of Jankens goons. To beat some of them you need to play them at rock, scissors, paper. I’m confused why they don’t add this to more games!!
If you’ve never seen the game before I recommend viewing the video below, part one of a walk through of the game.
The game has been released on the Wii console so if you like the look of the game you might fancy downloading it. Alternatively, the pirates among you might fancy downloading an emulator and playing it that way ?
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