Alex Kidd: High-Tech World

Review

by Jonathan Sutyak

Alex Kidd: High-Tech World plays very differently than the first two Alex Kidd games on the Master System. This one does not feature a lot of action; it is primarily a search-and-find adventure.

You are under a time limit but it shouldn't affect you too much. There are three levels; the middle one is the action level with the other two only consisting of exploration. Searching for the map is not difficult but can be very annoying because of easy deaths that can occur. Players get only one life and have to start all over when a death occurs. Starting over is irritating: Repeating all the previous steps is time-consuming since they include a lot of dialog with other characters.

A password save feature is not available until you leave the castle; this was a bad idea. Saves should have been provided at all times while in the castle, because some deaths are unavoidable until the game has been played more than once. For example, one death occurs when you go down a broken staircase. Unfortunately, there is no way to know that the staircase is broken until you go down it and die.

The second level is very difficult. While the rest of the game is easy, this level alone is enough to give the game a "hard" rating. You have to do a lot of precision jumping while avoiding ninjas. Ninjas are fast and toss stars all over the place. One hit kills you, so you have to be fast and make every little jump count. Make sure you collect the gold, too, because you will need it in the third level.

Reaching the village turns the game back into a search and find mission. Here you must find a travel pass in order to cross the border and reach the Arcade. This is where the time limit could come into play if you took too long to find the map. What really hurts is that if the time runs out or you die, the forest level will have to be played again.

Graphics are colorful and look good. The top two-thirds of the screen feature your character while the bottom third shows dialog. Sounds are nothing great, especially the music. Since you spend a lot of time searching, the music repeats over and over. Turn it off before you go insane!

Alex Kidd: High-Tech World is very different from the other games in this series and should be approached with caution. If you are looking for the same fun of other games featuring Alex Kidd, avoid this one. The game is primarily geared toward players who prefer to solve puzzles.