If you’re looking to relive the glory days of 80s gaming, you might be wondering how long it takes to beat Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX, the brand-new remake of the 1986 original. How long does it take to beat the game? That’s what we’re answering in this guide.
Alex Kidd, for many, is a blast from the past. Returning in the form of this innovative remake/remaster, this budget release stays true to the original while adding a few features that make this punishing platformer a bit more bearable.
Old school playstyle takes longer to complete
If you’re a purist (or possibly a sadist) and you wish to play Alex Kidd as it was originally intended to be played, then its unflinching difficulty and punishing platforming will keep you occupied for days. Alex Kidd originally was meant to be beaten using only three lives, and if you lost them your progress was reset and you would have to start the game all over again.
For that reason, Alex Kidd could well take you weeks to master. As a child, the furthest I ever made it works out at about level 11 of the total 17 on offer, and even then I did this only once, never to be repeated.
Playing with modern features makes it easier and quicker to beat
As an adult, I have managed to complete Alex Kidd multiple times, made possible thanks to the modern features added in the few releases since the original (mainly the addition of checkpoints and unlimited retries). With the 2021 remake, I have managed to beat Alex Kidd three times with the quickest run from start to finish being just 1 hour.
So there you have it – depending on how you want to play Alex the Kidd, your runtime will vary. Making the most of retries (or even turning on the unlimited lives cheat in the options menu) you are looking at 2-3 hours at most, while purists who want to travel back to how games used to be played will find the difficulty curve will take a long time to master. If I had decided to play Alex Kidd that way, I still wouldn’t have beaten it today, so read into that what you will.
For more on Alex Kidd don’t forget to check out our Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX review, or for the first 20 minutes of gameplay head on over to our YouTube channel where you’ll find hundreds of video reviews, previews, and much more.
