Alex Kidd in Miracle World

Before a certain blue hedgehog started dashing across blue plains, the face of SEGA was a fellow with disproportionately large fists and even larger ears. Alex Kidd in Miracle World from 1986 was SEGA's first attempt at its own iconic mascot character — and for a while it worked. Alex was so much a part of the company's identity that SEGA built him directly into the memory of later versions of the Master System: when you inserted no cartridge into the console, the game simply started itself from the built-in ROM. For an entire generation of players it was the very first video game they ever saw.

At first glance it is a classic platformer — you run, jump, and pummel enemies with a fist that can smash stone blocks and knock money out of them. Beneath the surface, though, lie a few quirky ideas that set Alex Kidd apart from the competition of the day. You spend the coins you collect in shops on vehicles, a helicopter, or a motorcycle, so the game has a bit of an economic layer. And then there are the boss fights, which are played not on reflexes but on rock-paper-scissors. Either you get lucky or you memorize the pattern — and when you lose, it's straight back you go.

This game earned a reputation as a properly tough nut to crack. A trap that kills you at a single touch, relentless enemy placement, and fights that hinge on guessing make Miracle World a title that gives nothing away for free. For players raised on today's forgiving designs it can be a shock, but for the nostalgic it is exactly the rough, honest challenge they remember.

Visually, with its colorful, slightly fairy-tale world, the game still comes across as friendly and legible today, even if technically it is an early eight-bit production. The atmosphere mixes fantasy with a touch of the Orient and its own quirky logic that sits a little outside the standard genre pigeonholes. It is precisely that strangeness that makes Alex an unforgettable character — and even though Sonic later dethroned him for good, no one can take away his status as a founding icon.

That SEGA did not forget about Alex is proven by Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX from 2021 — a complete remake from the ground up that dressed the original game in new graphics but preserved its soul as well as its notorious difficulty (with the option to switch back to the retro look). For many it was a touching return to their roots.

Why play it: To experience SEGA before Sonic — a quirky, mercilessly hard platformer that, for an entire generation, was the very first game they ever played.