Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars (1986)

(This review is for the original arcade release)

Preliminary: As much as I was not enjoying this game (the power-ups don't last nearly long enough and that's the only way to "fight back," the mechanics are in love with the unavoidable initial death before learn the level type stuff, and the power-ups don't cleverly match the upcoming challenges like in Castlevania), I can't deny I loved the Sound, the Look, and I kept laughing when I died lol (purely thanks to savestates). I was getting sick of that scream already tho and I had just gotten to the third stage. My biggest complaint is--absolutely no reason not to include the Alex Kidd punch mechanic, with upgrades through power-ups. Instead, it's no-fight-back unless you have a very short-lived power-up. And tbh, I don't find that fun. (plus, they should have included a sound for when you lost the power-up)

Look: 8/10 Beautiful, clever level settings, interesting enemy graphics.

Sound: 8/10 Catchy, functional, good. Really should be a 7 because of that annoying yell when you die but whatever, the overall rating comes out the same anyway.

Play: 6/10 Ew, the obsession with time limit. I didn't have too bad an issue with it, since really just dying was the main issue I had ha. Still, you could see they were conscious of the time limit and put a lot of the classic "your only option is to wait there" mechanics in it. Like unavoidable deaths unless you sit and wait at the last platform for a solid few seconds. That's fine, I suppose, but a lot of those parts would have been rendered way more fun if you allowed us to pick our power-up or Castlevania-style replace-powerup-by-collecting-a-new-one so that if you had the Jump power-up or Speed or Shot power-up etc., you could actually get past those parts instead of just having to sit there and wait. I will sound like a broken record, but the power-up mechanic completely ruined this game (you lose your current power-up after a set amount of time)

Feel: 6/10 It was at this point that I thought, why the heck am I doing this to myself.

Definitely time to move on. This has such potential to have an amazing Feel, regardless of bad gameplay. But it lacks that umph, plus too much frustration, to let me find that.

Attachment: 6/10 Amazing Look, amazing Sound, often good level design and enemy mechanics/ideas and "settings" for each level, terrible power-up mechanic which really renders the game much less enjoyable. There could have been so many better ways to handle the power-ups than letting them dwindle away. Like, maybe it's based on how many times you use it; maybe collecting another power-up replaces the former one like in Castlevania; I dunno... just not this ha. The problem is, even though I got to the 4th Stage so this really would normally earn a 3 star, I have no desire to return to this because of the frustration it causes, so uh, sadly no.

Completion: To Stage 4 (the water themed level) Playtime: ~20 mins

The Lost Stars are the four ones I won't be giving this game. It's the lazier one in the series, sloppy and badly put together. Music is nauseating as well as the graphics at times. There is a cool level in space, but the rest is pretty boring and gameplay is an Adventure Island type deal that gets tedious pretty quickly. Don't know what happened to this one...

[1] / [5]

Alex Kidd in the miracle world was a success. Sega managed to make a swift response to the Super Mario Bros-craze while adding their own flare, culminating in a surprisingly unique and original experience. While not without its faults, they had laid the foundation for what could become an ongoing franchise, with a rich world, groundbreaking gameplay mechanics and ideas to expand upon. It was only a matter of pulling it off.

Instead they came up with this atrocity.

On a superficial level, Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars is not that different from its predecessor. Once again you play as Alex, who is running through side-scrolling stages with enemies and obstacles. However, upon further inspection, the changes made are fundamental. Everything you could possible associate with Alex Kidd at this point in time - Alex rock-breaking punch, the game physics, wacky vehicles, thrilling castle dungeons, the environment and inhabitants of planet Aries - everything is gone. And it is all replaced with a messy arcade-game that includes a countdown timer and naked men farting...skulls.

This game literary feels like a random arcade experiment with the Alex Kidd-brand added just to gain some traction. The level design and feel of movement is very poor, and the game is further damaged by having a downgraded port for the master system which just adds unlimited continues instead of finding a workaround for the home console such as a life system. And did I mention that you have to replay all the levels two times with minimal differences to finish the bloody title?

Usually, these sort of weird spin-offs are to be expected from established franchises. But Alex Kidd had just been crowned the mascot of an entire company, and choosing this as the follow-up to Alex Kidd in Miracle world showcases Sega's sometimes extremely poor judgement on managing their licenses. We could have had something amazing with The Lost Stars if the developers utilised concepts from the original and refined their vision. Instead of doing so, Sega had now tainted a legacy. Now they really needed a stellar comeback to showcase what Alex Kidd actually could become.

And they actually gave Alex Kidd In Miracle World a true sequel. But first, our forgotten platform hero would take a short detour with his trusty BMX and bide his time...