Arcade wrote:ALEX KIDD: by some weird chance, only had two decent games in a time where every game counted, Alex Kidd in Miracle world and Alex kidd in Shinobi world.
I kinda liked High-Tech World too...
And, c'mon, Miracle World defined the Master System. It was as Mario Bros for the NES. And it was a very good game, very well polished and very creative. I mean, Rock-Scissors-Paper bosses? What the hell? It was a whole generation where big headed children were called "Alex Kidd" in school.
Besides, he was Sega's mascot in the SMS years. He deserves a new, good looking, ass-whooping game. Or at least some participation somewhere. I remember being so happy when I saw him in Shenmue.
They'd sort of have to redo the whole character. He's based around Rock/Paper/Scissors, which I'm not even sure how that would work in a 3-D adventure game.
Rock beats Scissors
Scissors beats Paper
Paper beats Rock
And Alex will have a gun.
But seriously, I think something along the lines of Viewtiful Joe would be very nice. Or LittleBigPlanet. But some really, really good 2D would be the best.
I wrote this up recently. I seem to have a lot of nostalgia for Alex Kidd, despite most of his games being really awful :lol
Alex Kidd
Alex Kidd is one mascot character that nobody knew what to do with. Only two of them were decent - Miracle World and Shinobi World, and they were very different from each other.
Miracle World is the one everyone remembers, but I'm betting a lot of people never actually finished it! That would have played the first 3-4 levels again and again because some guy with a fist for a head killed you by selecting scissors. Even if you defeated him you'll fight him later, only this time his head starts flying around the screen in an attempt to blow your mind. Or if they got to the final level, they were killed during one of the Castle Rooms.
The sequel - Enchanted Castle - was pretty awful. Alex Kidd's punch had a delay on it, the Kick ability always broke a platvofm when you didn't want it to, and one level had you rying to avoid an old man who teleports and runs into you.
In the game you were never actually killing enemies of Janken - Alex Kidd was against Nature! Scorpions, Birds, Frogs, terrorizing the countryside! His main attack was very difficult to work with - punching an enemy mere inches away from your face, hoping you don't get killed with a single-hit kill - Not Fun! The most useless power-ups like levitation and enemy blocks which freeze you for two seconds were silly additions to the game, and less said about the final stone puzzle, the better.
Though Alex Kidd games wern't very good, it was full of some great ideas. The ability to buy items from a store, levels where you could use a Motorbike, Speedboat or a Gyro-Copter were pretty fun, the idea of the Maze castle is good. The rest of the game was awful though.
Despite all this, I do feel that Alex Kidd could be revitalized for the DS market. Simply steal from other games:
- Fighting Mechanics - Rip them straight out of Astro Boy: Omega Factor on GBA. No insta-kill. Give the man a health bar.
- Platforming - NSMB with a bit of Megaman: Powered Up. Expand on the block-punching of Enchanted Castle to work with small puzzles. Add Shinobi World's Wall-Kick [and have it actually work].
- Lots of levels in the style of NSMB with an Overworld, secret exits, themed worlds [Shinobi World, Miracle World, High-Tech World]
- Power ups like Power Rings, Pogo Sticks collected in-game, lost when hit. Have a store to buy special items. Maybe Janken for it.
- Include specific levels that have Alex Kidd in the Vehicles - or at least sequences where the Bike is required.
- Give him actual enemies to kill. Have big boss battles - one could be a giant Fist-Man Robot that throws Rocks at you, punch the Rocks back, trip the Robot, and beat the crap out of the head. Simple, but fun.
Sounds a lot like "Throw out everything remotely Alex Kidd, and put Alex Kidd in it", true, but it has to happen to make it even remotely enjoyable.
I wrote this up recently. I seem to have a lot of nostalgia for Alex Kidd, despite most of his games being really awful :lol
Alex Kidd
Alex Kidd is one mascot character that nobody knew what to do with. Only two of them were decent - Miracle World and Shinobi World, and they were very different from each other.
Miracle World is the one everyone remembers, but I'm betting a lot of people never actually finished it! That would have played the first 3-4 levels again and again because some guy with a fist for a head killed you by selecting scissors. Even if you defeated him you'll fight him later, only this time his head starts flying around the screen in an attempt to blow your mind. Or if they got to the final level, they were killed during one of the Castle Rooms.
The sequel - Enchanted Castle - was pretty awful. Alex Kidd's punch had a delay on it, the Kick ability always broke a platvofm when you didn't want it to, and one level had you rying to avoid an old man who teleports and runs into you.
In the game you were never actually killing enemies of Janken - Alex Kidd was against Nature! Scorpions, Birds, Frogs, terrorizing the countryside! His main attack was very difficult to work with - punching an enemy mere inches away from your face, hoping you don't get killed with a single-hit kill - Not Fun! The most useless power-ups like levitation and enemy blocks which freeze you for two seconds were silly additions to the game, and less said about the final stone puzzle, the better.
Though Alex Kidd games wern't very good, it was full of some great ideas. The ability to buy items from a store, levels where you could use a Motorbike, Speedboat or a Gyro-Copter were pretty fun, the idea of the Maze castle is good. The rest of the game was awful though.
Despite all this, I do feel that Alex Kidd could be revitalized for the DS market. Simply steal from other games:
- Fighting Mechanics - Rip them straight out of Astro Boy: Omega Factor on GBA. No insta-kill. Give the man a health bar.
- Platforming - NSMB with a bit of Megaman: Powered Up. Expand on the block-punching of Enchanted Castle to work with small puzzles. Add Shinobi World's Wall-Kick [and have it actually work].
- Lots of levels in the style of NSMB with an Overworld, secret exits, themed worlds [Shinobi World, Miracle World, High-Tech World]
- Power ups like Power Rings, Pogo Sticks collected in-game, lost when hit. Have a store to buy special items. Maybe Janken for it.
- Include specific levels that have Alex Kidd in the Vehicles - or at least sequences where the Bike is required.
- Give him actual enemies to kill. Have big boss battles - one could be a giant Fist-Man Robot that throws Rocks at you, punch the Rocks back, trip the Robot, and beat the crap out of the head. Simple, but fun.
Sounds a lot like "Throw out everything remotely Alex Kidd, and put Alex Kidd in it", true, but it has to happen to make it even remotely enjoyable.
As for myself - given that Alex's design always struck me as cross between Mario and Link, I sort of want to see an Alex Kidd game that's a 2.5-D platformer adventure along the lines of Tomba - no "worlds" persey, but a string of continuous sections which constitute stages, but are all attatched to adventure in - with Alex gaining new martial arts moves as he adventures through his planet used to solve puzzles and defeat bosses - but with a Rock/Paper/Scissors theme. Like Rock moves being used to crush boulders and knock away enemies and scissors moves being used to cut at things and such - but generally working like the new items from a Zelda or Metroid game. Sort of Mario meets Metroid meets Zelda.
I was also thinking of giving Alex Flicky as his sidekick just for the hell of it, and letting him tool around outerspace in Opa-Opa for shooter sections. And having somewhat of a RPG-ish plot with dialogue bosses and constant humor. Such as people repeatedly being totally unimpressed with Alex and wishing some blue hedgehog was there to save them instead. And Alex having a self-esteem problem after being forced to work in a videogame store and almost comitting suicide out of depression. Sort of like the humor in the Mario & Luigi RPGs mixed with wacky Japanese alien Tenchi Muyo fare and lots of over the top slapstick.
http://www.nightsintodreams.com/NiD/index.htm <- The news section. I know Lynne personally and I know she wouldn't lie about this sort of thing, seeing as she herself considers people who lie about these sort of things to be scum and etc. So, there we have it. NiGHTS 2. And Sonic Team seems to be actually listening to the fans- which could be for better or for worse.
I suggest that you guys, as non-insane fans of the game, to write in what you'd like to see in it for her so she can pass it along.
She doesn't sound to happy with some aspects of the unrevealed game even this early in development. Also, is it Astrima who runs this site?
I have never completely agreed with basing a game off of fan requests. It's the responsibility of the developers to make decisions they feel will strengthen the experience.
Also, I don't think she sounds unhappy, but that just might be me being blind. Personally, I have no problems with fans giving suggestions on the game series they love, as long as they're... ya know, sane (MORESHADOWTEHHEDGHOE!!1one).
Also, I doubt the game would be based off of fan requests so much as I think they're more trying to make sure they don't kill the 'perfect game' in the eyes of it's die-hard fans.
Miracle World had a nice plot, but no one never knew about it (the whole being prince of Radactian and being kidnapped as a baby, and his training on the Shellcore martial art and whatnot). So maybe a remake of Miracle World would be a nice thing.
The idea of introducing other old Sega characters with him would be nice too, and not that original at all. Alex Kidd in Shinobi World was going to be the first of a series of Alex Kidd games where he would be in other famous Sega games like Golden Axe and Space Harrier, so maybe that could be the way to go too. Rlan's idea with the worlds thing is cool too, and maybe a mix of these two could do something interesting for Sega.
Also, I don't think she sounds unhappy, but that just might be me being blind.
I find it exciting yet also find it slightly worrying.
And that's with her apparently knowing the basics of the main characters and the plot for NiGHTS 2.
Let me go reread in that case. As I said, it might just be me being blind. I *think* she means that there's a lot of possibilities that something could go wrong, not that it's wrong already. Back on the old message board she had, there was a lot of discussion on what could go wrong in a NiGHTS sequel, so I'm *thinking* that's what she's worried about.
I could be wrong, I really could. But that's just how I read it and from what I know of her, as a friend and former forum-goer.
EDIT:
I find it exciting yet also find it slightly worrying. Visitors to the old forums will recall the sequel topics.
Yeah.
Last edited by DBurraki on Thu Mar 22, 2007 4:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Mayhaps "Murphy's Law" should be renamed "Sonic Team's Law".
Regardless, I'm going to keep naively optimistic in the hopes that it won't be a bomb. And if it is, it doesn't matter. Video games =/= important to the fabric of life.
Now now. The PSU games have been decent, and Sonic goes Muslim was better than average - on the cusp of greatness, actually. I'm hopeful. Especially since they problably have about a decade's worth of notes from every failed NiGHTS sequel to back them up.
