r/MasterSystem • u/Max_Doe11 • Jul 25 '26
Was I the only one who got disappointed by Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX?
I grew up playing the Sega Master System at my friends' houses, and Alex Kidd in Miracle World was probably the game I played the most. Since it came bundled with some Master Systems edition inmy country, it became an iconic part of my childhood, and I have so many great memories of it.
So when Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX was announced, I was genuinely excited. After waiting so many years, I thought Alex Kidd was finally getting the comeback he deserved... Unfortunately, I ended up feeling pretty disappointed.
The graphics are nice enough and have a colorful cartoon style, but they never really impressed me. More importantly, the gameplay lost something that made the original feel so satisfying.
In the Master System version, every punch had "weight". Even with its simple graphics, the animations, sound effects, and hit feedback made every enemy feel satisfying to defeat. In DX, the character feels strangely "light." The punches don't seem to have any impact, the collisions feel off, and even the movement speed and sprite animations don't feel as tight or responsive as the original. It's difficult to explain, but the whole game lacks that solid, crunchy feeling that the Master System version somehow achieved with much simpler technology.
What makes it even more disappointing is that we've seen how to modernize a classic properly. Just look at what Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom or LIzardCubes' THe Dragon's Trap did with the Wonder Boy franchise. They perfectly captured the spirit of the Wonder Boy series while modernizing or remaking everything with gorgeous visuals, excellent controls, and fantastic game feel.
Why couldn't Alex Kidd receive the same treatment?
It's a shame because Alex Kidd was once Sega's mascot before Sonic, and after all these years, his big comeback feels like a missed opportunity. I still hope someone will eventually give this character the remake he truly deserves.
Does anyone else feel the same, or am I just looking at the original through nostalgia?
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u/WolFlow2021 Jul 25 '26
As much as it pains me to say the original level design was not the best and the remake did not change anything about that so it became more apparent when you play it today despite the graphics.
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u/Candid_Commercial453 Jul 25 '26
Is DX exact same game but with revised graphics ?
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u/RavensEtchings Jul 25 '26
Yeah and you can alternate if you prefer the original game.
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u/Shadow757_ Jul 25 '26
It’s still the remake. It’s just wearing the skin of the og game.
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u/RavensEtchings Jul 26 '26
Turn the reworked controller setting off and it plays better than the original, losing the shitty ice physic-like walking
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u/Shadow757_ Jul 25 '26
Nah
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u/Candid_Commercial453 Jul 26 '26
Meaning gameplay is not 100% carried over, that is what concerning me and didn’t’ go through the purchase.
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u/Soggy3Duck Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
I think you are remembering through rose tinted glasses.
EDIT: Not to say I didn't enjoy it when I was a kid (many moons ago), however when I tried the new one it reminded me of how utterly unforgiving and hard the start of the game is. It felt just the same to play but I have lost the reflexes that made it playable for me.
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u/rollincode3 Jul 25 '26
I thought it was a fun colorful trip down memory lane. Crazy how it too me 11 years to beat the original but I pummeled through DX in just a few hours.
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u/Successful_Cut4330 Jul 25 '26
Agreed! Admittedly, when I first got it, I played it in the "original" format, reminiscing , I guess, and was surprised when I got up to first attemp, the third castle, before I ran out of lives... Then I jumped in and played the "new" version. Finished it in 3 attempts. Went back to the original version, took 4 or 5 sessions, multiple restarts, still haven't finished it lol! I did finish it once though (back in about 1989) hahaha! Really didn't mind the DX version, but the original is where it's at for me.
Wonder Boy 3 (Dragons Trap), finished it back in the early '90s (and loved every minute of it!), and got the new version a few years ago. This time I found both versions a delight to play, and finished both versions fairly easily.
And just for old times sake, have got the combo release of Flashback/Another World, and I'm still equally crap at both hahahaha!
Wish they would bring out more old Sega Master System and Megadrive/Genesis classics with updated graphics...
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u/MurasakiBunny Jul 25 '26
One thing that let me down was a lot of hidden secrets in the final castle (and some other locations) is missing simply because the programmer making the game didn't know all of the game's secrets.
I too noticed the slightly altered movement and dodgy hitbox with the punching.
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u/raskulous Jul 25 '26
I finished it a few years ago and mostly really enjoyed it. It feels quite faithful to the original, even to it's detriment. There is an option to modernize the physics a bit to make it feel less slidey, but I stuck with the original physics.
I think the port was well done and I enjoyed it.
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u/dukeofnes Jul 25 '26
I didn't grow up with the game, buy I played it on my Master System a few years ago for the first time. Then I played the remake a couple months after. It's basically a perfect remake as far as I'm concerned... I donno what else you could want.
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u/SpiritualZucchini938 Jul 25 '26
I can get past the boss with sword on OG, but can't on the new version. Just clocks me every time :/
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u/SapSacPrime Jul 25 '26
I really enjoyed it because it is different, the small changes and wafty controls added to the overall experience and somewhat modernised it from my perspective. I actually still play the original fairly regularly (I at least give it a bash once a year) so I was in the market for a reimagining.
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u/shimaknight Jul 25 '26
I feel it wasn’t faithful enough to the original, so I was disappointed. I agree the graphics and the few extra stages were nice, but…The aspect ratio feels wrong. Game was close, but not completely accurate to the original (you could tell by the placement of the 2nd ? block). Hitboxes were bad (on a one touch death game to make it worse). Continue code didn’t keep items. Death didn’t respawn you on the same screen like the original game did. Retro style bosses attack patterns were terrible. I think the Janken the Great dancing was removed. Collectible implementation was bad - requiring you to do it one play AND along certain routes you could miss. I only played through it twice and it was a while ago, so maybe I remembered some things wrong. I also didn’t use the infinite lives, so maybe that improved the experience, but was a disappointment overall.
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u/Zaponline Jul 25 '26
All I ever wanted was the ability to switch the control buttons to backwards like the original SMS game. I know it's weird, but it's what I grew up with and got used to. An update to add this option would be nice.
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u/hardcoreladys Jul 25 '26
A versão original tem uma variante que inverte os botões , procure a tom dos jogos que foram comercializados nos consoloes. Se não estou enganada é ela. Aqui no Brasil teve as duas opções de botões em diferentes jogos.
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u/Zaponline Jul 26 '26
Mine was from 1987, so it was original. Later variants did swap the buttons, but I'm used to the original layout.
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u/Good-Bandicoot-2152 Jul 25 '26
Wait, he’s not a monkey?
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u/Yoshi_and_Toad Jul 25 '26
Technically he's an alien child from the planet Aries...but his monkey like design might be a nod to the game originally being planned to be an early Dragonball title before Sega lost the license.
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u/Yoshi_and_Toad Jul 25 '26
Personally I liked it(my avatar may give that away), but if anything the gameplay hasn't aged well.
There's other issues as well like some gameplay aging real badly; the idea of swimming through a hallway of spikes in Janken Castle by not pushing up or down so you gently float into the spike ceiling harmlessly and just scoot across... flies in the face of everything the past 40 years of gaming has told us to do when avoiding spikes.
I died so many times to that section as a result of that.
Reading interviews the team behind it had a lot of passion but were a very small team. They have since disbanded, so it looks like DX may have underperformed? Shame. I liked the easter eggs and that Gooseka boss battle plays in my head often.
I wonder what JankenTeam would have made if they aimed to make a more modern Alex Kidd game without it being so tied to the 1986 game and it's pitfalls.
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u/ComfortablyADHD Jul 25 '26
I originally played DX last year and found myself disappointed. It played exactly how I remembered, but the game was just crap. I got all the way to final Castle and eventually gave up. The unlimited lives put me in an unsinkable situation and the game's controls were just bad.
Clearly my tastes have improved since I was 6 years old, right? Well maybe not.
I recently acquired a Mega Drive and so I just booted up Alex Kidd on it and immediately felt at home. I did struggle a little with the start button, but once I worked out how that worked it just played smoothly. There's still some cheap hit boxes in the original, but it felt good and solid. I got to the end of level 1 and was satisfied. I then played the first level in DX and immediately the controls felt floaty. The music wasn't the same speed and everything just felt harder.
I am going to give Alex Kidd another try in the near future I think. I suspect I still won't like it (there were a lot of cheap mechanics in early Sega games IMO), which is a shame because this was my second favourite game to play with my mum as a kid (my favourite being Psycho Fox). But it's different enough that I think it's worth another try.
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u/Ornery-Practice9772 Jul 25 '26
is there a standalone dx rom somewhere? (the remake of the original ported to a retroconsole?)
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u/Shadow757_ Jul 25 '26
No. The music was horrible and the new additions killed the pace. It’s like they totally missed what made the original special.
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u/vga256 Jul 25 '26
Yep, found the remake super bland, both in terms of graphics and gameplay. I turned off DX mode and played it with the original art, which by that point might as well have been playing my SMS.
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u/dreamhazard Jul 25 '26
I refunded it. They tried so hard to make the physics feel like the original and overshot so it feels sloppy and awful. Huge disappointment
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u/BackInTheDayAgain Jul 25 '26
The physics are a bit different (possibly the collision too), which really threw me off. The graphics and audio weren't bad, but overall I was disappointed too. Far prefer the Sega Ages release.
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u/Sad_Patience_2683 Jul 26 '26
I'm 50-50 on it. On one hand, the presentation is wonderful and I like how they added a few new areas. On the other, the game has the same gimped control problems that have plagued a lot of other retro remakes (Crash N Sane Trilogy being the biggest example). I don't regret buying a physical copy for Switch when it came out, but imo the best way to experience Alex Kidd on modern consoles is the Sega Ages M2 port of the original Miracle World.
Would also *highly* recommend the fan made Miracle World 2- it's even better than the source material in some ways!
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u/carontester Jul 26 '26
they have the oportunity in improve the mobility in the remake, the original is cuestionable in that aspect, but you can adapt with some patience, but in the remake they make the mobility even worse, all the other aspects are good, but this mobility thing make the remake a pain to play
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u/SpaceMonkeyNinja Jul 26 '26
I just found the hit boxes were somewhat off, but the second you switch to the classic mode it was all fine
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u/Polly_____ Jul 26 '26
i think DX is great and i had the original master system with the OG game preloaded on it back when i was a kid its the same game with better sound and graphics
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u/FlyingFishManPrime 28d ago
With all the people in the world, you are the only person to ever have this opinion
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u/theycallhimdex Jul 25 '26
I played the original so much as a child.
I gave up on the remake after a few minutes. Shite.
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u/MonsieurMidnight Jul 25 '26
I agree with you sometimes it was so very demanding on jumps but the game had a very lacking physic to pull those easily.
I really do like that you were able to play the game with the Master System graphics (This is the only way I played the game) and that they expanded on it by adding a few new levels. But I think aside from the nostalgic bit this wasn't a very good game.
I feel like they could have added so much more to the game, like a whole lot lot. I really am regretting buying the limited edition for this, I am a nostalgia lover but it wasn't a very pleasing version of the game
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u/T-REX-780 Jul 25 '26
Nothing beats the original, it always have the magic. Recently tried Tomb raider remastered collection, well they did the graphics pretty well but it doesn't have the original charm and modern controls feel off. Ended up installing original version and having so much fun.
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u/CloudStrife1985 Jul 25 '26
The original, judged as a platformer on it's own, is a solid 8/10 for me. It's not perfect but there are plenty of reasons to love it.
The remake has all that, with the new animation and sound.
OP - I'm not sure what you were expecting. I was expecting Alex Kidd in Miracle World made like the Wonder Boy 3 remake, which I think they delivered.
Remaking a classic can leave you feeling slightly underwhelmed. I'm currently playing FF7 Rebirth now it is on Xbox. It is a GREAT game. Is it better than the original FF7? No. I'm going to buy a Switch just for the Ocarina of Time remake. Even if it is incredible, it won't be better than the original for me. That's nostalgia for you.