Written Review.
Alex Kidd in Shinobi World is a Sega Master System game and was released in 1990. It is the 6th game in the titular Alex Kidd series and until the recent remaster of Alex Kidd in Miracle World it was the last Alex Kidd game made. The game is a parody of Sega’s own Shinobi series with enemies and bosses using attack patterns from the Shinobi series.
The game is a platformer and hack n slash and the gameplay itself is good, it’s not anything out of the ordinary, in fact, it’s very simple you can jump, slash, duck and slash and that’s more or less it, you can get an upgrade for your sword that gives it a bigger arc and you can also get kunai to replace your sword, which is handy due to the increase in range, though, I found in one or two situations actually makes things a little tougher, for example, the 2nd boss. You also have an ability where you can hole a pole, or rope, or lamppost press a direction and hold attack and you spin around it and can launch off this can make you traverse screens quicker along with killing enemies and breaking blocks much more quickly. I will add that the game is rather short with 4 rounds and each round being 3 stages. You can likely finish the game if played well in less than 30 minutes.
Visually the game is pretty good, the sprite work is really well done with bold, chunky sprites that animate well and are nicely detailed, while the stages are also nice to look at, there’s a lot going on in the earlier stages with buildings in the background, but as you progress there’s more blue sky with clouds and mountains. Musically there’s not a load of tracks here, as I said the game is short and while there are 3 rounds per stage the music for stages 1 and 2 are the same and stage 3 has boss music. The thing is while there’s a low quantity there’s a high quality to the tracks that are remixed from Shinobi.
Overall I think the game is pretty easy, I admit that it took me a little to get in the groover, but when I did I flew through the game in a very short space of time. It’s very much worth a playthrough, and as it’s short it won’t take up too much of your time, but you’ll really enjoy the ride.
For my very first Retro Review, I’m pleased to play another Alex Kidd game fully and I’ll be awarding Alex Kidd in Shinobi World 7 Pugsley’s out of 10.