Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle (Genesis) Playthrough - NintendoComplete

A playthough of Sega's 1989 mascot-platformer for the Sega Genesis, Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle.

Alex Kidd was a mascot of sorts for Sega, seemingly designed to challenge Mario. He starred in six games total, most being platformers, but it seems that he really never made the leap to 16-bit as well as Sega had hoped. Enchanted Castle was the sole game in the series to be made for the Genesis. The final game, Alex Kidd in Shinobi World, marked a return to the Master System.

Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle has you guiding your monkey-boy through eleven platforming stages, collecting coins and fleeing in terror from everything that moves. Alex is a bit fragile, you see - a single hit kills him outright - and since a short-range punch is his only standard means of attack, it's often not a good idea to stand your ground and do battle.

There are powerups that can help, though. Alex can win items, like cars and pogo-sticks, that will temporarily give him a boost to make it past certain obstacles or enemies (they are godsends in the final stage!), and he can find secret bonus areas that are loaded with gold if you find yourself chewing through your items too fast.

The feature that Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle seems to be best known (and most reviled) for is the Rock, Paper, Scissors-style battles that you must win to get items and to beat bosses (and if you've place Princess Tomato in Salad Kingdom, you'll be quite familiar with this!). It's neat for how different of an approach this is to a standard location-based boss fight, but c'mon, Sega. Leaving things to blind luck seems a bit unfair, doesn't it?

Besides that inclusion, though, the gameplay is fine. It's a bit mundane and uninspired, but I found it to be fun. Most of the stages are extremely short, so once you memorize where the item blocks and the enemies are, it becomes pretty easy to tear through in no time at all. I think I can see why Sega went back to the Master System for three final Alex Kidd game, though. Enchanted Castle feels like an 8-bit game with more color and nicer music, and the move to the Genesis put expectations upon the game that it couldn't really live up to. Still, it does look and sound nice for a Genesis game from 1989.

If you don't mind the dated gameplay and the corny Janken mini-games, Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle can make for an entertaining, nostalgic couple of hours. It's no classic, nor even particularly great, but it is an interesting symbol of a past that Sega was quickly distancing itself from in order to fight its battles with Nintendo
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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