Facts first: in June 2018, independent developers NareHop and Josyanf1 revealed they were working on a remake of Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Sega’s Master System classic. A project by very dedicated fans, presented as free.
Little was known about the production. The only certainty was the scope: redoing the game graphically from scratch. In practice, this meant recreating all the levels, enemies and bosses, with new animations and a complete redesign of the old sprites, keeping the original’s structure. The project seemed to be in an early phase, and what existed concretely were images shared on Twitter.
A bit of context: Alex Kidd in Miracle World came out on November 1, 1986 in Japan, reached North America in December and Europe in 1987. In 2018, the big-eared kid was celebrating 32 years since his debut. The game became famous for being built into the memory of many Master System and Master System II consoles from 1990, and for deciding boss fights with rock-paper-scissors (jokenpô), a mechanic nobody forgets.
What came next
The official remake that came years later was Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX, announced on June 10, 2020 by Merge Games and developed by the Spanish studio Jankenteam. It was released on June 22, 2021.
The reception numbers: Metacritic scores between 60 and 67 depending on the platform (65 on Switch), with praise for the new visuals and criticism of the stiff controls and collision detection. One nice touch: you can switch to the 1986 graphics at any time in the settings.
Source: Indieretronews.
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