The Making Of: Alex Kidd In Miracle World

How Sega made its Master System hit, and what Jankenteam has in store for its fantastic-looking remake

It has long been said that history is written by the winners, often as a lament by the defeated side of a conflict. This is as true in videogame history as it is in any other field, and if you ever needed proof, Alex Kidd should be all you need. As a figurehead for the Master System, he has often been derided as a ‘Mario clone’ by fans of the more popular NES, and sidelined as ‘Sonic’s unsuccessful precursor’ by those who found Sega during the Mega Drive boom years. But if you free yourself of the need to make such comparisons, Alex Kidd In Miracle World stands out as a very ambitious game for its era, and one that is still a fondly remembered introduction to console gaming for many players of a certain age.

It’s fair to say that while Sega did have an eye on Super Mario Bros, the truth of Alex Kidd’s origin is far more interesting. In an interview for the ‘Meisaku Album’ section of Sega’s Japanese website, translated by

Shmuplations, planner Kotaro Hayashida (credited simply as ‘Kotaro’) explained the initial goals of the project. “Sega had just put out the new Mark III, and they tasked us in the Second Development unit to create something that would sell as well as Mario,” Hayashida revealed. “Our initial plans were for an adventure game with action elements. It was something close to what we call ‘action RPGS’ today.” In John Szczepaniak’s book The Untold History Of Japanese Game Developers: Volume 3, Hayashida further elaborated that the game was actually intended as a licensed game. “First, Sega were planning on making a Dragon Ball game, but later we were told that we couldn’t use the licence any more and we had to come up with our own idea,” he said.

“So, for example, when it was Dragon Ball,

Goku fought with his Power Pole, but we changed that to a punch attack.” This had been alluded to in the Meisaku Album interview, where Hayashida discussed how Alex Kidd originally fought with the Nyoibo (magic staff) before he “became more of an original character”.

While the characters and world had been sketched by Hayashida, other people were required to bring them to life. The artist that designed Alex Kidd himself had previously worked on the Master System conversion of Fantasy Zone, and is only known by her pseudonymous credit Yoko Matilda. The name Alex Kidd was suggested by Hayashida’s supervisor, Flicky designer Youji Ishii. In his interview with John Szczepaniak, Hayashida explained that his original choice of name was Alex Ossale, but that Ishii had preferred a name that played to the game’s young audience. This was originally Alex Kid, before

Kidd was adopted as a proper surname – something that may please the