Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle was released in 1990 for the Genesis and it marks Alex's one-and-only 16-bit appearance. The title was the fifth entry in the Alex Kidd series that started in the arcades and saw six entries, four of them on the SEGA Master System. This incarnation of Alex Kidd stuck close to its platform roots. In fact it plays just like Alex Kidd in Miracle World for the SMS. It features Alex Kidd looking for his supposedly kidnapped father in the world of Paperock. The game is the standard platform game of the 8-bit era with 16-bit graphics. All of the tools made available to Alex within the Miracle World game are present in Enchanted Castle. That means the scopaco cycle, pedicopter, power bracelet, wizard's cane, and the invincibility cape are all there. They've also introduced the pogo stick. You still have to buy these items in the shops, but this time you're going to have to janken a gorilla for them. Janken is what the Japanese call the game Rock-Paper-Scissors. Some of the items are of one-time use and others have multiple uses. Some of them will also vanish should you die. It's pretty much the exact same game as Miracle World as far as the mechanics go. Alex can jump and punch and swim. With the power bracelet equipped he's able to shoot out a wave of energy across the screen as a weapon. The scopaco cycle still allows you to motor through the levels. The pedicopter allows you to fly through the levels granting you a projectile attack. The invincibility cape gives you a limited period of invincibility but won't save you from lava. The wizard's cane allows you to walk on air for a limited time and the pogo stick allows for you to jump higher. All of these items are still turned on and off via the menu. Your only goal is to clear the levels, collecting money along the way so you can buy items in the shops should you be able to beat the gorilla at Janken. All of the bosses except the final one have been toned down in Enchanted Castle. They are just defeated by Janken and you don't have to then defeat them in battle. Alex Kidd comes off as simple fun until the last few levels when the difficulty ramps up. The Air Castle level is a wonderful gauntlet that should present some challenge. Everything about this game is a holdover from the 8-bit Alex Kidd titles. The graphics were decent at the time and come off as less than these days. The music is a mixed bag. The reused themesfrom previous Alex Kidd games all sound great. The new tracks are a little less inspired. They've made the power bracelet jump attack tied to the jump button itself which takes some getting used to. Beyond that, the controls work fine. It's just jump and attack after all. I think the game holds up well for Alex Kidd fans. I have no idea what someone new to the series might make of Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle but somehow I don't think it would be all that positive. I still find the whole of the Alex Kidd series as charming as it ever was.
The other 8-Bit holdout in the SEGA Genesis Collection is Decap Attack: Starring Chuck D. Head. Decap Attack really is an 8-Bit game. You see, there was this SEGA Master System game called Psycho Fox that was released in 1989. It was an action platform game where you controlled a fox out to stop annother fox who happened to be evil and stuff. It was standard hop and bop gameplay, except you had a friend in the form of a bird that you could throw out as an attack. If you took a hit the bird vanished and you would only have a punch attack. You could get the bird back by finding the correct icon in the game. SEGA decided to remake this game on the Mega Drive in Japan, only this time they built the same game around some anime and released it as Magical Hat's Flying Turbo Adventure. SEGA couldn't very well release the game as is around an anime nobody outside of Japan had ever heard of and with a title like that. So they kept the same Psycho Fox core gameplay just as they had in making Magical Hat's Flying Turbo Adventure and made Decap Attack: Starring Chuck D. Head for Europe and North America. So what changed? They added a comic horror theme to the graphics and music. Instead of the original fox throwing his bird friend as a weapon, and instead of some guy wearing a magic hat he threw at enemies, they made a mummy that threw his skull. Chuck D. Head, heh, get it? The character is one of the weirdest in the whole of gaming. Not just because it's a mummy that throws its own head as a weapon, but because he also has a set of eyes in his chest and he has a mouth at the end of some intestines that shoots out of his stomach for what would be the punch attack. In all versions of the game the object is to find a certain item in each level and defeat the bosses. You can't advance without finding the specific item in each level. If you defeat the boss without having it, you'll still have to backtrack through the level and find it. In all versions of the game there is menu screen that allows you to use various items. All potions in Decap Attack. They have various uses ranging from faster movement and higher jumping to stronger punches and magic attacks to limited invincibility. The game has seven levels with multiple stages per level and seven bosses. The game has a strange art style that keeps things interesting. The music is good. The humor is bizarre. They seemingly didn't alter many of the bosses to fit the comic horror theme as they did the level and character graphics. So the bosses seem somewhat out of place. They're still different enough for the standard avoidance and pattern recognition style gameplay they represent. The game is made to be played in one sitting as was the norm of the time and as such it will provide a decent enough challenge. It's a rather cool little game that has a place in the strange and obscure section of gaming history. It truly is an 8-Bit game pretending to be 16-Bit just like Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle.
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