Ultimate Guide: Alex Kidd In Shinobi World
Having braved Miracle World, sampled the delights of High-tech Land and seen the sights of the Enchanted Castle, Sega’s mascot headed for the crossover kingdom of Shinobi World. Retro Gamer revisits one of the young prince’s greatest adventures
Everything you needed to know about the Master System’s very best crossover game
Despite being Sega’s featured star of the late Eighties, Alex Kidd definitely managed to benefit from the presence of other properties. Fantasy Zone’s Opa-opa made a cameo in Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars, and the whole of Anmitsu Hime was localised for the non-japanese audience as Alex Kidd: High-tech World. He had also made appearances in games such as Altered Beast and Kenseiden. As a result, it was no surprise that the underdog platform hero should end
up starring in a proper crossover game – but what was a surprise was just how good it ended up being, especially considering that his Mega Drive debut had been somewhat underwhelming.
Alex Kidd In Shinobi World takes some of the themes and settings of Sega’s famous ninja game Shinobi, then applies Alex Kidd’s greater emphasis on platform negotiation and family-friendly cutesy looks. Sega chose to explain this odd collision of worlds by having Alex and his girlfriend take a holiday on the planet Shinobi, only for the girlfriend to be kidnapped by the evil Dark Ninja. Fortunately, the White Ninja appears and bestows mystical powers onto our hero, instantly giving him some nifty ninja abilities.
In practice, what this means is that Alex must negotiate four platform worlds, each featuring two stages and a boss fight. These are vaguely themed around Shinobi’s stages, but with significant new additions – so while you might find the city streets or the docks familiar, the waterfall and magma caves will be completely new to you. Where Joe Musashi takes things at a relaxed pace and makes very deliberate movements, Alex Kidd is quite nimble and responsive, sporting a range of additional moves that help to differentiate the game from Shinobi. He can swim, climb and perform wall jumps, but the best technique of the lot is a spinning fireball move. By grabbing onto a
lamppost, rope or anything else he can swing around, Alex can burst into flames and fly off in a straight line, smashing through enemies and obstacles.
What’s more, there were plenty of opportunities to use these skills, thanks to some tight level designs featuring some very sneaky hidden areas and neat maze rooms, and difficulty that was never unfair. In particular, the fireball move’s utility was maximised by including areas that were impossible to reach without its flying ability. Some of this can be credited to Shinobi’s excellent original design, as a number of enemies are inspired by it. But the new designs were definitely a key part of the game’s success, too – Yoshio Yoshida, one of the two game designers, would later be involved in other excellent Master System platform games such as Astérix, Castle Of Illusion and Land Of Illusion.
The graphics were drawn by a team including
Gen Adachi and the pseudonymous Stresteles, both of whom had previously worked on Phantasy
Star II for the Mega Drive and Poseidon Wars 3D for the Master System. They struck a good balance between recognisable Shinobi elements and Alex
Kidd ’s cartoonish style. The enemy ninjas all became large-headed masked types and there were some fun humorous touches included, such as the smiling moon in the background of the Kabuto boss fight and the Thwomp-style crushing blocks late on. Alex Kidd himself was very well animated too, turning in mid-air as he leapt from wall to wall, crying out when attacked and of course, he still floated up to the sky as an angelic silhouette when killed. It was an attractive game by the standards of its time, though later Master System games definitely surpassed it.
Musically, the game offered a range of original themes and new takes on the Shinobi music, which were composed by a developer credited only as XOR. Each of the four main stages shares a theme, all of which sound good, with the best of the lot being the opening stage’s brilliantly energetic arrangement of Shinobi’s memorable theme. It’s a shame that we can’t tell what else this person worked on, if anything – their only other credit seems to be for sound programming on Strider’s Mega Drive conversion.
Alex Kidd In Shinobi World was in development for at least six months, having been shown off to attendees of the Winter CES show in January 1990, and received a favourable critical reception upon its release in the summer of 1990. Computer & Video Games gave the game 92%, with reviewer Robert Swan saying that although the crossover
“doesn’t exactly bode well for a chop-socky action game”, the high quality of all aspects of the game ensured that it was “a great game all round”. S: The Sega Magazine scored it 88%, expressing approval that the Alex Kidd series was “back on form”, and noting that the game “would have been well into the 90% bracket if it had been a tougher challenge”. Sega Pro magazine also awarded the game 88% in the software round-up of its debut issue, saying that there was
“so much to do that addiction is guaranteed.” While Zero’s review was free of any substantial criticism, it also wasn’t quite as impressed as other publications, awarding the game 78%. Outside of his original adventure, Shinobi World is generally considered to be the best of Alex Kidd’s games.
Sadly though, Alex Kidd’s visit to Shinobi World was to be his last starring role. Sonic The Hedgehog launched the next year, and his following explosive popularity sent Alex Kidd and his monkey features back into obscurity. Even as many Master System games were repurposed for the Game Gear, Alex Kidd In Shinobi World was left stranded – its only subsequent re-release was a downloadable emulated version on the Wii Virtual Console service, which is now defunct. Sega’s tendency to forget the game might give you the impression that it wasn’t particularly good, but those who have played it will know that this couldn’t be further from the truth. So if you haven’t already had the pleasure of doing so, take the time to pick it up and you’ll quickly come to understand why so many players still have a soft spot for Alex Kidd.