Up Next: Alex Kidd in Miracle World

I, like every other kid I knew, had a Nintendo Entertainment System when I was a young'n. The competition to the NES was the Sega Master System - which most kids hadn't even heard of, much less actually played.

On the lucky days when I would get a good report card or did something really admirable, my parents would take me to Toys R Us to get a Nintendo game. And even though the NES library was vast beyond imagination, I was always swooned by the Master System box art. Something about that blue and white grid just made the games seem so magical. But I never owned a Master System, and I never got the chance to open one of those magically 80s boxes.

Sega Master System

When the Wii added Alex Kidd to the Virtual Console library, I had to check it out. It was a game on one of the few systems I had never laid hands on. Plus it was Sega's official mascot until Sonic the Hedgehog was released. It was a necessary purchase.

It's certainly a strange game. Your goal is to reach a rice ball at the end of each level. Bosses are defeated in a best-of-three rock paper scissors match. And your main weapon is your punch dubbed the "Shellcore Technique" in the game's manual. Shellcore. Is that like Crabcore?

Why I Never Finished It: 
It's really hard - at least at first. Where Super Mario Bros, you can get through the Level 1-1 on maybe your first or second playthrough, Level 1 in Alex Kidd is rather brutal. It took me a good 10 times to get used to the controls and finally eat the first rice ball.

Now it's time. Rock, Paper, Kill!