Spun the wheel of death today and asked a Master System Enthusiast which Master System game I should play. This was the result and honestly heck yeah it was a good time.

Now I've played some Shinobi games and some Alex Kidd games but I'm not like, super informed about either. This one is mostly a Shinobi game for kids with Alex kind of stapled onto it though, is my understanding.

Alex Kidd is hanging out with his girlfriend in a flower field when she is kidnapped by an evil ninja, all standard stuff. Alex, being an experienced hero, immediately collapses into a sobbing heap until a good ninja ghost spirit guy shows up to make him slightly taller and give him a sword. Then you play through goofy versions of the levels from Shinobi, where the bosses are like, it's that guy but he's mario, or it's a swarm of tiny helicopters instead of a one normal helicopter (that one legitimately got a smile out of me). The mechanics and level designs are, I think, a bit simpler than Shinobi, but you have a cool wall jump and a super cool thing where you spin around on a pole and turn into a fireball which kicked ass. There's nothing that's going to bamboozle someone familiar with platformers of this vintage, but it all looks and feels nice.

Very short and easy game that I almost fully completed in one credit, but I had to use a continue in the end. There's lots of health pickups for you, and some secrets I didn't bother with if you want a high score or something. It feels good though, I'd go through it again for funsies no problem.

Really, this just makes me want to rectify my lack of Shinobi knowledge.