Source
r/MasterSystem•
Galious

Alex Kidd DX: my return to Radaxian review

As some of you might know: Alex Kidd in Miracle world remake was released three days ago on almost all platform. As someone who spent lot of hours collecting Radaxian $$$ as a kid, I was forced to buy it and after two days of playing and finally managing to finish it without running out of live, I think I can tell that I'm very happy with the game!

I liked the art style, I liked they added a few levels to make the second part of the game a bit longer and more fitting to the overall map, I liked they remade the mini-boss and boss battles (after Jan-Ken-Pon) and of course I don't have to get up to go press 'pause' on the console to use the items! (or having to hire my little brother to be 'pause' assistant which is a good thing because apparently he has better thing to do nowadays that watching me play while sitting next to a Master system...)

That being said, the game is still relatively short if you don't die but fortunately (!) you'll die a lot because the difficulty is still there and will kick your ass old school! Now the game is a bit more fair: punch hitbox is a bit larger and no more death by ennemies running into your punch. They also removed 2-3 particularly frustrating blocks/ennemis (like that horrible flame in Radaxian castle or the stun block in forest) and you have a "infinite lives" option that allow you to learn later level which make the game considerably faster to master if you choose to use it.

So is everything perfect and nice? well we can find a few things to nitpick: first of all I'd say that while the remaster is done very well, it's not as perfect as Wonderboy's dragon trap remake: the graphism are very good but not as refined and the music is sometimes a bit weird and less catchy than the original. Also let's face it: Alex Kidd in miracle world was made in 1986 and while it was truly in advance for its time, it's still a very oldschool and sometimes a bit bare but... well it's the charm of the game and what you expect from the remake of a retro game!

In the end, I was very happy with my revisit of D̶r̶a̶g̶o̶n̶ ̶B̶a̶l̶l̶ Radaxian and think the devs made a great love letter to this old game that I can only recommend to anyone who loved the original who still have patience to deal with oldschool one hit death difficulty.

Posted Jun 25, 2021, 8:35 AM UTC

1714
percheron28•

oh I had the same experience with the Pause button and my little brother :D I guess some things are universal !!

I saw the trailer and it looks kind of cool, but I have a question how are the vehicles??

The bike and chopper levels were my favourites back then

1
GaliousOP•

They are almost unchanged and very similar to the original and there’s even an additional new vehicle stage. Though I would note that in my memory they were long level but in fact you get through them in one minute :)

And if you manage to finish the forest level with the bike without crashing, you’re a god! (I keep buying it and dying 3 jump after)

2
percheron28•

man, finishing the forest, even with the orb to fly, was a freaking challenge.

thanks for the info, have fun :)

1
Typo_of_the_Dad•

Thanks, how did they handle the continue system? In the original if you had 400$+ you could continue IIRC.

Since you respawned on the same screen, 1 hit deaths never bothered me that much about the original.

1
GaliousOP•

You have infinite continue but you’re brought back to the beginning of the level and you lose all money and items (including mind-reading ball) and you won’t get the ending achievement. You can also activate the infinite lives mode where you won’t lose anything for those who really just want the easy version

1
Typo_of_the_Dad•

Right ok, cool. I should be able to beat it legitimately since I've made a couple of lost levels-style hacks for the original on SMS.

1
StraightenedSlinky•

Waiting for my copy to arrive. Can’t wait

1
paultca•

never knew that the pause button let you use items. I am sure that makes the game better/ easier!!

Great review 👍

1
GaliousOP•

There’s an achievement if you buy no item in store if you want to keep that “no item experience” but you have to be masochist because they indeed greatly help.

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paultca•

I am going to dig out my master system and check you whether or not you are telling the truth about using items! 😅 I guess I just used to pick items up and not use them or ignore them like I ignored the floating, grey man with a stick.

(I believe you. However, I am amazed that I didn’t know this was possible until 30 years later)

1
GurinJeimuzu•

I played it on my Xbox Series S yesterday but I have to say something feels off about the movement and more specifically how the attacks register when you’re moving. I used to be quite good at jumping or falling while punching and somehow I can’t do that here and have died a frustrating amount of times.

I even reconnected my SMS2 to see it’s just my memory but indeed I found it easier to play on the original console version.

Still it’s a great to see the effort done to get this game made and to be instantly recognisable. The fact you can instantly switch mid level to the retro version in the game is a great touch and definitely good for nostalgia

1
tfsteel•

I'm hearing that there are hit detection issues and it's based on the PAL version so the movement/scrolling isn't smooth.

0
GaliousOP•

I didn’t notice any problem with scrolling (playing on PS4)

Concerning hit detection, it felt a bit more forgiving than SMS version. (for example the octopus is a lot easier to down) and I didn’t experience any bug or problem

1
tfsteel•

Hmm. I'm curious to play it, the Digital Foundry guys have also been pretty down on this one because of those issues. Using the PAL ROM as a foundation for this is a strange and unfortunate choice.

0