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Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars is a platform game developed by Sega, and a home console adaptation of their arcade game Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars (ARC). The game sees its titular hero, Alex Kidd, journeying across various surreal landscapes while undertaking a quest to assemble six "Miracle Balls" in order to prevent the return of the evil god Ziggurat.
Though the game's visuals and sounds obviously take a big hit from the arcade original, and it's much shorter than the title character's debut game, Alex Kidd in Miracle World (SMS), it's still a very serviceable game. At times the level design and relatively short time limits can be a little frustrating, but no more so than most other platform games from this era, and the game does grant you one small mercy by offering unlimited continues.
Screenshots
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The title screen, with Alex jumping for joy.
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"Find the Miracle Ball!"
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The start of the first stage.
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Traversing a rope.
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Finding the first Miracle Ball.
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The second stage takes place in this factory.
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Music
The arcade original version's music is faithfully adapted by its original composer, Hiroshi Kawaguchi, one of his few known Master System credits. It's not a particularly expansive soundtrack, with only four background music tracks (all but one of which are re-used for multiple worlds) and a few short jingles, but what we do get is nicely composed. For some reason, the second and third level themes from the arcade version have been flipped around in this port.
In a rarity for a console game, The Lost Stars supports multiple audio devices, namely the base SN76489 PSG that was included in all Master System models worldwide, and the YM2413 chip that could be added to early Japanese models via a peripheral, and was included with later Japanese models as standard. The YM2413 isn't anywhere near as capable as the YM2151 found in the arcade version, but it's still far superior to what most other consoles and even home computers of this era can offer, and the soundtrack fares pretty well on this version. The PSG version isn't terrible by any means, but it's obviously far more limited by comparison, and can get a little shrill at times.
Recording
The recordings made with the YM2413 start with a 1, and the recordings made with the SN76489 start with a 2.
Albums
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2009-08-14
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Credits
While there are no in-game credits, the liner notes to the Alex Kidd Complete Album confirm that Hiroshi Kawaguchi arranged his own soundtrack from the arcade original for this release. The titles for each track are also taken from that album. It's not known who designed the game's sound driver, though it was most likely either Tokuhiko Uwabo or Katsuhiro Hayashi.
Game Rip
Releases
Links
