Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars

Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars has similar gameplay like in the other Alex Kidd games, but this one's easier and designed for kids. Once again you play Alex, whose mission is to run through each location, knocking down enemies, and obtain the six miracle balls. These balls are hidden inside the strangest places like golden eggs, the Fantasy Zone ship out of action, clamshells, Christmas presents, pumpkins, and desk bells.

Alex must then venture in outer space to defeat the evil Ziggurat. Locations include Toy World, Machine World, the World of Make Believe, Water World, and Monster World. You will even tour through the giant's body. Once you obtained the six miracle balls, you have to run through all the locations again, but these repeated locations introduce new enemies.

With all the locations, you're under a time limit, and as usual, if the time expires, you lose a life. Alex starts the game with nothing, but during the game, he can collect power-ups that give him extra time, and allow him to shoot enemies or jump higher.

History:

The character, Alex Kidd, was co-created by Kotaro Hayashida and the late Rieko Kodama. Hayashida helmed the Lost Stars project (initially for the arcade), while Kodama helmed Miracle World for the Sega Mark III (Master System). Though development on the Lost Stars predated Miracle World, development difficulties caused it to be released later on all platforms. Kenichi Hokari was the lead programmer for Lost Stars.