Whatever Happened to ActRaiser & Alex Kidd? - Game Sack

Episode 47 - Two once-promising series abruptly came to a grinding halt. We look at all of the games and possible reasons for their discontinuance.
Check out the Game Sack Episode Guide!
www.gamesack.net

[@DigiPen92]

Who was here after the new announced Alex Kidd in Miracle World remake was announced 2 months ago? Alex Kidd is back.

[@kh7955]

Still dont understand how this channel doesnt have a million subs

[@powerbeard5653]

no fotm games or react videos

[@wheeledjustice7381]

You know what I think? I think that Alex Kidd's recent obscurity would make him a good candidate for an appearance in Super Smash Brothers alongside a series revival. Maybe even introduce him to the 3D world and start a 3D Platformer Franchise. It hasn't worked for Sonic yet (in my opinion) but it could easily work for Alex.

[@ArcadeGames]

The naked dudes shooting skulls out of their ass has left a mental scar in my brain since I was a kid.

[@opaljk4835]

I think I must belong to that tiny contingent of people who actually find the soundtracks to beyond oasis and streets of rage 3 to be fucking awesome. Whoever feels the same slide into dm’s

[@ericmcclenahan3885]

I’m watching all your shows this is hilarious

[@Diablokiller999]

Please another "what happened to"-Episode! There are so many series that disappeared between the 16 and 32 Bit era of consoles. What happened to Ristar, Final Fight, Lufia, Battletoads, Sparkster, Zombies ate my Neighbours, Chuck Rock, James Pond, Shinobi, Streets of Rage, Vectorman or Toejam & Earl? ... to name a few :)

[@moviemetalhead]

Final Fight had that piece of shit Streetwise release for the PS2. Shinobi got a new, albeit different game, on PS2 as well and Toejam and Earl got a 3rd game on the Dreamcast. But nothing past the 6th generation unfortunately.

[@Diablokiller999]

***** Wasn't ToeJam & Earl 3 just an Alpha like the Streets of Rage one? Shinobi got one shitty on PS2 and one on the DS I think. But there are so many franchises to make this a really long series :)

[@moviemetalhead]

+Diablokiller999 Yes it was a 'prequel' or Alpha. Oh hell yeah, tons of franchises. I love Game Sack.

[@troymeredith521]

Reading this 4 years later, at least 3 of them had sequels: Battletoads, Streets of Rage, and ToeJam & Earl. Maybe this trend will continue as demand keeps up. All of them were good games too, IMO.

[@mikedx42]

Actraiser has one of the truly great SNES soundtracks. Yuzo knocks another one out of the park. There is an Actraiser "Symphonic Suite" album.

[@GlobalWarmingSkeptic]

I remember Actraiser and I absolutely loved it. When I was a kid, I always tried to get every city to max level and was very competitive with my cousin and my neighbor to get the highest levels. The RPG and action mixed together worked perfectly in my book. I can't comment on the second one, but now knowing it was just pure action was like "wow, what were they thinking?" I guess they thought RPGs and sims weren't the way to go.

[@GameSack]

@tolust We won't use it every episode as it adds a lot to the workload as I have to come up with stuff to put behind us without it being too distracting. That's why I tried it on this episode first since it had so few camera scenes. I think it looks a little cheesy myself despite us getting a fairly clean key with only two lights on in the entire room. But I'm sure we'll use it again.

[@retrofox3084]

Alex kid hit puberty and was no longer cute. Lost his job, His home, His family & his dignity

[@keen7youtubeistoast796]

Have you heard about "Commander Keen 58". It's kinda like this... and pretty disturbing...

[@kh7955]

It was a crack addiction...thats why he lost his job and family. 😥

[@disparityband]

Actraiser 2 is hard to control at first and by dropping the sim aspects is de facto disappointing. However, the graphics and art style are freaking awesome! All of the bosses are fantastic horror style monsters and in some levels there are the bodies of slaughtered angels and awesome renaissance painting-esque backgrounds. Worth it for that alone. And after you master the controls the game is actually quite fun to play through. Its a lot like playing through Actraiser on hard mode (there is a mode in Actraiser without the sim parts).

[@phreakazoith2237]

I totally agree with the "hard to control at first". I enjoyed Actraiser for all it was but the limited controls in the action parts were annoying, especially for a SNES title. You could only hack straight left and right while standing or ducking. And you were limited to use magic while standing, hoping to hit enemies with the spell you choose before starting a level. When I read the sequel is gonna change that I had high hopes and they were not in vain..To me experiencing Actraiser 2 was like changing from NES Castlevanias to Castlevania 4. Gee, you were given so much control, so many directions to hit and even while in jumping or in flight. Learning to fly was tough in a rather unforgiving game throwing many enemies at you taking more than one hit. The new magic system were spells worked according to movement and position was weird in the beginning as well but way better to hit enemies with a fitting spell. Much to learn, much to Master (pun intended), but when you figured it out it was great, even on high difficulty. Like Castlevania 4: you were in control. AND the developers give you the opportunity to compare the new style to the old one since you can challenge Tanzra from Actraiser 1 in an easter egg in Actraiser 2. And it works better with the Actraiser 2 controls.

[@MikeyStop]

Here's why it's called janken. In Japan, the rock, paper, and scissors we know is called Jan, Ken, Pon.

[@SomeOrangeCat]

Joe's reaction at the end about made me pee!

[@kevint2995]

Maybe I'm a little spoiled by newer games but Act Raiser's side scrolling controls seem very flawed to me. It is not horrible by any means though and I do really love the game.

[@Alignn]

It's a sort of deliberate heaviness, kind of like the original Castlevania games, or even Dark Souls. Forces you to think ahead a bit, though Castlevania had more effective screen usage so you had more time to react.

[@YouOpaOpa]

Apparently Sega wanted to make a bunch of game parodies with Alex Kidd, like Alex Kidd in Golden Axe World, stuff like that, but that idea was dropped.

[@MikeDiFool]

I would've given my left nut to play 'Alex Kidd Gets Lost In The Streets of Rage' :D

[@YouOpaOpa]

MikeDiFool Kidds of Rage! I'd love me some Alex Kidd and the Phantasy Stars or Alex Kidd in the Comix Zone.

[@shadowkitty777]

I love that used used a "daytona guy" song or that you guys even know who the daytona guys is. That makes my day. Plus I've been noticing all the Yuzo Kashiro love. I am so in love your your show its hands down my favorite show not just on youtube, but in general. I always look forward to each episode!

[@iHeartsNostalgiaPit]

I don't know if this has been brought up in the comments (I'm not going through them) but in Golden Axe before you start playing the game the character says "My Good Friend Alex was killed in the battle" now it took me several years to figure this out but I realized then, oh really? is that what happened to him? because Golden Axe must have been made around the time that Sonic was coming around

[@HHog]

No problem! As I mentioned in another comment to this video, the swapped buttons were only on the original release. As you may have already found out by now if you hooked up your new Master System, they "fixed" the button mapping to the more usual 1-Punch/2-Jump setup for the rerelease. =)

[@GameSack]

That's something we definitely want to do at some point. Not sure if it will be Genesis vs SNES or simply Sega vs Nintendo. But it will definitely be more accurate on the technical sides of things.

[@WildcardZwei]

Given how sweet Alex Kidd looked in Sonic and Sega's All-Stars Racing and its sequel, I think he deserves another shot, even if its just a Kickstarter passion project or a $10 eshop game.

[@tolust]

LOVE the new GREEN-SCREEN guys please DO keep this ! .. your episode series are fair the best thing on the web now

[@Rhiannon0423]

you guys are great.im gonna play actraiser all the way through tomorrow.keep up the great work.

[@SuperHamsterGaming]

Actraiser is one of my favorite games. I'll still play through it from time to time. The music is great. My favorite music in the game has to be the end credit music. It's a great reward for playing through the game. I do remember how disappointed I was when I first rented Actraiser 2 and discovered that they had removed the RPG element of the game, and that it was way harder to control. I may have to go dig out Actraiser now and play it through again. It never gets old.

[@MarceloOmegaAGDM]

Actraiser suffered from the "listening to fans" problem. The sim aspect is what made it special, and taking it off the game just made it compete with the other action platformers. Actraiser 2 is a good game, just plays in a different, more complex way. The fact that it you could choose the level in whatever order you wanted did not help, as there was no "introduction" level to make you familiar with the controls. Alex Kidd 1 only had one "cryptic bullshit", and it wasn't hard to figure out. I did it when I was seven, with next to no knowledge of the english language. The main problem for me was that to continue, you had to make a button code and still pay some in-game currency. That and the random factor of Janken made it harder than it should. Every game after that was just dumb. Lost stars is just a regular ass platformer, bmx and the anime castle whatever were pointless, and shinobi world was actually going to be a parody with shinobi, named Shinobi Kid. Enchanted world tried to come back to the roots, but by taking away the "cryptic Bullshit" aka what made the first one stand out, and adding Janken to shopping (really stupid move), they ruined it more than help. Also the time that passed since the first and the genesis one, made it so people would go... "Alex who?" Actraiser could come back if enix wanted, but probably would be a hack and slash, or a 2.5d game on the 3ds. Alex Kidd however... is too dead and buried to ever come back, unless they pulled a 2.5 D or a 2D platformer like miracle world, but a bit more lenient and with better stage design aka Effort.

[@sjake8308]

Regarding Actraiser 2, the problem with your argument is that the original was a perfectly good action platformer without the sim mode: Playing on Arcade/Professional was a perfectly enjoyable experience. Actraiser 2 was an exercise in frustration because of how poorly the controls were implemented: It would probably have been perfectly fine if it controlled more like the original game (with refinements).

[@Mephianse81]

ROFL @ the Ending

[@creativecatproductions]

Still love in 2022.....Ill come back next year to read this

[@ThingNumberTwo2]

Awesome episode! This is truly a great show, and an asset to the retro gaming community! Thanks guys, and keep up the good work!

[@dannyvalentine468]

Am I The Only One Who Thinks The Miracle Ball Looks Like Oopa Oopa

[@johntyler3544]

+OcularRat19 I was just thinking that.

[@MarceloOmegaAGDM]

That was not the miracle ball. The miracle ball was inside the Opa Opa like object.

[@Cooltendo]

"Why didn't they make any sequels to ActRaiser?" *Proceeds to ignore the rest of the Quintent Quintology.

[@mlwy45]

The ninja hit sound sound effect in Alex Kidd is also in Gyromite. Die in Gyromite and the prof. makes that sound

[@JC-th5gc]

Didn't the ActRaiser games continue with Illusion of Gaia and SoulBlazer, or something like that?

I think Actraiser II music is awesome.

[@zanto1]

+Manuel García So do I. It just has a different feel from the first game, but I still think Actraiser 2 has a great soundtrack.

[@Biosynthnut]

First Actraiser is freakn legendary.

[@cliftonsheldon9134]

I loved ActRaiser when I was a kid. Never played the 2nd one

[@TenshiCat]

@MrGameSack Yeah, seems Sega realised their mistake there! Also this is a great episode, and you guys seem happier than usual, it gives me the impression that you had fun making it, which is awesome! Oh, and I do believe Segagaga for the Dreamcast shows what Alex Kidd is up to now...

[@ericflynn82]

Oh man. I love Game Sack, but in my opinion they TOTALLY missed the mark on Actraiser 2. In my opinion that was an action game masterpiece! Yeah, the controls took some getting used to, but with practice they became intuitive and opened up a really deep system of gameplay with a lot of options. Plus the level design was awesome. Each level tried to throw some new element at you that kept things fresh, and the graphics were absolutely beautiful. I even thought the music was good. It was more ambient than the fasted-paced music of the original but still fitting and really added to the feel of the game.

[@blastardinc]

Yuzo must have been in his drugs phase doing bland and erratic noise like this and SOR3.

[@GameSack]

The GC is great and the video really only scratched the surface. In that episode we were mainly going for GC exclusives. We should have had Mario Sunshine in there but we'd probably have to go into a lot of non-exclusive territory for such an episode. That's not saying we can't won't do it or anything like that. Hopefully we have enough games to allow it.

[@GameSack]

He didn't do it alone, but he was indeed in charge of the music.

[@vankook]

Joe's reaction at the end is priceless.

[@dmblan82]

I got ActRaiser with my SNES when they first came out and I absolutely loved that game. Playing the role of a god and making sure your followers were able to survive the demons and other monsters that attacked blew me away (especially the sequence from descending from the clouds to the Earth). I wish Nintendo would bring this back on the Virtual Console so I can replay it over and over.

[@gtrzdaddy]

Early version of the first boss in Alex Kidd in Shinobi World was named "Mari Oh" instead of "Ken Oh" (from the originial Shinobi)

[@tetrisdave]

@PatsNostalgia Cool. It works good for us and as we do more episodes we get more comfortable with the camera. Thanks for watching!

[@mistertitanic]

Yuzo Koshiro barely composed any tracks for Streets of Rage 3. Most of the tracks in that game were composed by. Motohiro Kawashima. The best tracks were Yuzo's. I actually love that game's soundtrack, and Beyond Oasis as well.

[@avideogamemaster]

Hmm, Actually Yuzo composed 17 out of 28 tracks from SoR3, and I hate to admit it but the best tracks were Motohiro's (Cycle I and II, Dub Slash and SPECIALLY The Poets I and II)

[@WskOsc]

I absolutely love Alex Kidd and the first Act Raiser. Only two I ever originally owned were Alex Kidd In Miracle World and Shinobi World but I got to play Hi-Tech World later and really thought the series had peaked with Shinobi World with all its Mario and Shinobi parodies - the docks stage actually reminded me a lot of Bionic Commando too. Surprisingly, the Jan-ken-pon in Miracle World isn't random but each boss has a specific combo of hands they'll pull every time. Great vid as always though!

[@theaveragesquire]

Personally, i was never bothered by the SNES's reverb in sound, it's actually something that i like about it.

[@Iliek]

+Maogi straight 'verbin

[@masterdouglas]

Great episode guys. Loved ActRaiser, and wish there had been more and better ActRaiser games.

[@MiguelVergaraK]

Man, I always hated Alex Kidd, but yeah, the Shinobi one is pretty good, although because it's basically Shinobi ActRaiser on the other hand.... what a waste. The first one is a master piece, just so good. Great action, great concept, great aesthetics, great music, a tad short but that's fine. ActRiser 2 is just crap no matter how you look at it.

[@ReaperCore15]

Actraiser 2 could have been really great if not for the atrocious difficulty.

[@gt1982mustang]

Alex Kidd in Miracle World was one of my fav SMS games back when it came out.....I recently bought it again & plan on finally beating it.....It is a hella hard game & I got to the last guy but never beat him.....

[@mecharichter]

Just because you suck at a game doesn't make it bad. Actraiser 2 is one of the best SNES games ever made.

[@SlothenlyOptimist]

***** Because great things can be unpopular.

+Blackzero Terranigma (also made by Quintet) wasn't popular at his time and it's fucking awesome. Maybe one of the best SNES games made ever.

[@daryl4841]

I think people are too tough on Actraiser 2. Yeah its not as good as the original and it should probably have been named something else. The controls are tough to get used to, but the enemy patterns and challenge is rewarding once you get decent at it. Its for people who like other hard platformers like Ghosts n Ghouls. Plus the graphics are outstanding.

[@almmiron]

I Like Actraiser 2 over 1. If you double jump holding up, you can control better the jump of the master.

[@cybernator5000]

Great video like always. One thing though, you should do something like this for Sparkster as it was a great series

[@1212LeoSnake]

Thats why everyone has opinions....like other things. The wings added to the player were very realistic. If you were an animated statue, wouldnt you think in reality it would take some adjusting to?

[@Heroelime]

Great episode,loved the new dynamic. I heard you want to leave Screwattack..Please guys..don't do it,there are many fans of the show like me who became a fan because of you guys posting on Screwattack,it will be heartbreaking if you do. and Alex Kidd,I think it needs reboot.

[@ZDWario]

That Alex Kidd song sounds a lot like the Japanese Calbee commercials with the dog.

[@bernielindell]

Act Raiser.. man that brings back memories. One of my favorite on the SNES!

[@theevilone]

That noise Joe makes right at the end always makes me fall off my chair laughing.

[@trinitaterion]

actriser 2 has amazing control and gameplay, never felt it had anything wrong, rather than the lack of the sim mode.

[@vginsprdsobepr9698]

“Birth of the People” deserves a special mention. It really was a great melody.

[@rabw07]

i like how u guys choose the secret path in miracle world

[@GameSack]

@DanZero77 Ha! Fly by Night if it was played on a broken record player.

[@chrispacheco8590]

Actraiser was a perfect compliment to Super Mario World when I first played it in the early Super Nintendo days, I just loved it, n it totally blew me away, little did I know that Super Castlevania 4 was on the horizon ready to impress me even more,good times:)

[@fireheartis1]

Where do you guys get all of your cool shirts? I have never seen a Shinobi shirt before.

[@GameSack]

@CollisionCat Really? I didn't know that. That's pretty cool.

[@aziz_light]

Was that ending a preview of the Japanese games for next week? Be sure to include strip mahjong. I saw that in a Japanese arcade in high school. It was laserdisc based! Oh how I wished I knew how to play at the time.

[@lamerun687]

Wow... Actraiser 2 is amazing -- it has one of the deepest control schemes on the Super Nintendo. It's challenging but never cheap and the musical score is one of the BEST by Yuzo Koshiro. It's one of the most rewarding experiences on the Super Nintendo and a big improvement over the first game. This game is incredibly misunderstood.

[@Shinobi006]

I agree. Actraiser 2 is a great game.

[@leadbones]

Easily one of the best on SNES.

[@fami5893]

i think a lot of people don't like it because of the controls. it's really hard to get into and takes a bit of practice. being as difficult as it is probably doesn't help either. personally i feel like the sim sections of actraiser 1 were kinda pointless. it just felt like an excuse to pad out play time to me. i don't see why they couldn't just give you power ups automatically after beating a level instead of forcing into an annoying minigame. it works great for megaman so why not actraiser?

[@leadbones]

chaosscizzors I chose the game for my birthday and was very disappointed about the loss of the sim aspect. I got to choose one game, and I hoped it would be like the first even though it didn't say anything about the sim aspect on the box. But, the character was awesome, the music was fantastic, and the graphics were some of the best of the time. Once I got used to it, I honestly found the control to be quite quick and responsive. The multiple button presses needed for jumping and flying allow you to move around very quickly, once you get the timing perfected, despite the guy's painfully slow walking speed. Easily up there with any other on the console, except Super Mario World, Super Metroid, and Super Castlevania 4 of course.

[@taitaisanchez]

Wangan Midnight is probably Yuzo's best work. :)

[@xcornmuffinx]

I remember playing Alex Kidd in Miracle World all the time on the SMS. I never owned one but a local electronics store (Tokyo Shapiro!!) had an SMS demo station set up and I would go there and play it over and over. That was the first game I downloaded on the Wii virtual console.

[@gt1982mustang]

Sweet I will remember that when I get to the end boss. It sucks the buttons are backwards....I learned how to play on the joystick that has the buttons on the left. I originally wanted to switch the buttons on the stock controller so I can play like SMB. I just got another SMS, I think it has Alex built in, I have to check. Thanx for the advice!

[@IzzyKitt]

If I had a dollar for every time game sack has said reverb

[@retrovideogamejunkie]

i remember my first time playing alex kid miracle world on my new master system 2 just coz i had to down the saturation almost for complete coz my tv samsung 21" in that time picture a fousforent blue sky which burn my eyes....

[@fthetm]

Just a quick heads up. There was a Sega Ages Alex Kidd: in Miracle World announced for PS2. However it got axed with no real announcement as Sega went through the Sega Ages series in Japan. One other note. Alex Kidd in Shinobi World was originally a game called Shinobi Kid. Sega rebranded it as an Alex Kidd game with the intent of making it more marketable.

[@tetrisdave]

@barny15 Thanks for watching! We really appreciate your comments.

[@tetrisdave]

@tolust Thanks! I like it also but it's up to Joe as he is the editor.

[@HHog]

Miracle World was the first games I ever owned packed into my Master System II. What might be worth mentioning, as you noted that the controls were "backwards", is that they swapped it back to "normal" for its built-in re-release. Also, I was THIS close to raging at Alex's tombstone near the end, until I read the eulogy just below it. The name mixup is a bit of a pet peeve of mine, too. ;P

[@LuwiigiMaster]

Supposedly, the music to Streets of Rage 3 wasn't actually composed by him, but was made by a program he made that randomly generated music, or at least note patterns. Also, fitting that you say that the effect at 12:38 sounds like an NES sound effect. The Master System and NES both used a similar sound set up (two squares, one triangle, one noise, and one sample), so there would be similarities. Also, what about an episode about Japanese games that weren't released in Japan?

[@mickael486]

I love your shirts, guys. I want a Shinobi shirt!

[@kaseybrown7147]

I'm really surprised no one's asking about that game at the end! What's that one called???

[@videostash413]

It called stop asking and get a girlfriend.

[@adamwilson1691]

another awesome video! i love you guys

[@madson-web]

That actriser song on PC88 is amazing

[@RappingNinja]

@zeogeox You are completely correct, zeogeox. Excellent music in SOR2 and SOR3 both. SOR1... less so.

[@MangoAnimates]

I acttually usually use 1 & 2 buttons as 1 as jump & 2 as punch/shoot on virtual console

[@Ubersnuber]

I had a Master System II when I was around ten years old. I still think it's a bit weird with the janken matches. The bad part, however, goes to the combination of the already mentioned fast, slippery controls combined with a castle filled with deadly spikes. Never got past that one. Still pisses me off!

[@Noobsaibot21]

I was able to polish off Miracle world without issue when I was a young lad. Dusted it off a few months ago and holy shit, do I suck now. :( Anyway, great game (My favourite AK, actually)

[@gabrielgoldsztajn3265]

Sorry about the necro, but this just popped into my suggestions. Have you seen the indie-developed Miracle World 2 and Miracle World 3 games for the Master System?

[@AmaranthOriginal]

God, I would have loved some more Acraiser. I played that like crazy as a kid.

[@ccmanize]

Super Mario Bros. actually came out for the Famicom and NES BEFORE it came out in the arcade. That's something that I actually just found out a few years ago. Before that I always assumed that the coin-op came out first.

[@Blurgleflargle]

That arrangement in the end sounds extremely like something Metalucifer would come up with...

[@ItsTheFizz]

Nice green screen effects, guys... Really gives the Sack a nice polish

[@HiroPlaysGames]

How'd you play BMX Trial? Do you actually have a MKIII? If so, I'm almost unreasonably jealous. I still don't have a copy of Miracle World, but I've played them all and Shinobi World is definitely my favorite. I'd also love to see a real sequel to ActRaiser. The second game just didn't feel right without the sim aspect.

[@keybern6457]

What are these Mega Power things, you guys mention in some Sega video's? Is it extra power embedded in the game cartridge or something? Sorry if this question might sound stupid, but I'm a Nintendo gamer and I can't find anything about Mega Power on the internet.

[@Zeldaschampion]

Actraiser was a series that needed way more love then it was given. I own an original legal copy of the very first soundtrack to the game. I put it right next to my Star Fox soundtrack. I wonder if a fan made game will come out for the series. But I guess it would need the combine efforts of talented artists to pull it off. Which reminds me. Hey Joe, have you ever through about making a music cd in a chip tunes style?

[@KickFest]

Every time someone calls Alex Kidd "Alex the Kidd", a Master System dies.

[@TechGeek29]

I love your opening theme

[@graphicsgod]

I loved Actraiser and kinda liked the sequel. I so wish a remake or another one would come out!!

[@SpiralPegasus]

Yes, Opa Opa is in Zillion and many other SMS games. It's cameos/as an item, though.

[@XeCuTioNR]

@benjaminshinobi I liked the SOR3 OST myself too. I wonder if the Gamesack guys have even played Streets of Rage Remake for the PC? Badass remixes in that game!

[@GameSack]

I really like the unnecessary and incorrect first sentence of your post which adds nothing of value (except maybe if you're trying to troll, not sure). We never said it was made by Enix on its own. We said it was by Enix, and it is. We just didn't go in to a whole history of who developed it. Your comment would have actually been helpful to those wondering without that first sentence, now it just seems kind of angsty when it doesn't need to be.

[@trinitaterion]

ACT2 music was AMAZING.

[@rentavideo412]

i enjoy how you guys threw in some super mario bros music.