Play Alex Kidd no Miracle World (Japan) Online

Alex Kidd in Miracle World is one of those games that just feels like childhood—if your childhood involved punching rocks and losing to suspiciously good rock-paper-scissors opponents. It’s a Master System staple, the kind of game you’d fire up after school, only to realize halfway through that the controls are somehow both floaty and precise at the same time.

You’ll spend most of your time hopping between islands, smashing blocks for coins (or the occasional motorcycle—because why not?), and trying not to get wrecked by enemies that look like they escaped from a toy box. The bosses? Pure nonsense in the best way. Imagine losing a fight because you picked scissors and the giant frog chose rock. Again.

It’s not the smoothest platformer by today’s standards, but there’s something weirdly satisfying about the jank. Like eating slightly stale candy from 1986—you know it’s rough around the edges, but you keep going back for more.