Segaiden #38: Super Tennis and Alex Kidd in Miracle World (Patreon)
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I was a little nervous going into this one, because I know Alex Kidd in Miracle World has become one of those touchstones for cultural differences: No one in America likes it, while several European countries have collectively voted Alex Kidd as their mayor or chancellor or whatever they call their supreme rulers over there. What I'm saying is that Miracle World either connected with some sort of deep-seated cultural urge that Americans don't share, or else a whole lot of European kids played it while they were still young and impressionable because it came built into the Master System II hardware. Probably the former. Yeah, that's gotta be it.
Anyway, Alex Kidd in Miracle World stands right at the cusp of being a really great game, and it could pretty easily be tweaked to appeal to modern gaming tastes! Of course, that's not how it went. Instead, we got a 1:1 remake with nicer graphics and music, a thing that worked with Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap because The Dragon's Trap has always ruled, whereas Alex Kidd... really needs to be tweaked to appeal to modern gaming tastes. Ah well. Maybe in another 35 years or so.