Posted by Devin de Gruyl on Mar 12th, 2009
Quickie word association: I say “Sega’s mascot,” you say…?
Chances are, 99.97% of you immediately said “Sonic the Hedgehog.” Why wouldn’t you say that? (And do you make a habit of talking out loud to your computer screen?) Ever since 1991, Sega’s fortunes have risen and fallen with its blazing blue buddy. And even though his luster might have faded quite a bit from his mid-’90s heyday (mostly due to a recent string of really dire games that have served mostly to give Sonic a bad name) he’s still got to be considered in the top three video game mascots of all time, right up there with Mario and Pac-Man.
But then, there’s that outstanding .03% of you that might have said something else. Those are the ones who have longer memories, who go back to the Silver Age. They might even have been in the minority of areas where the Sega Master System actually outsold the NES, and had one in their childhoods. (Yes, such markets did exist, for a short time at least. I lived in one, in fact; most of the kids I knew in my old hometown had Segas. Only my best friend had a Nintendo, and even he coveted the SMS.) And if they do, chances are they remember Sega’s first mascot, before hedgehogs were much more than roadkill waiting to happen.
If Alex Kidd seems an unlikely character to base a company’s fortunes on, that would be because he was. However, the same could be said of Mario if you stop to think about it. If an Italian plumber can become an iconic figure in the industry, why can’t a little boy bearing a vague resemblance to a monkey? At the end of the day, it’s the marketing and the way the character is presented to the world that determines which mascots will catch on and which ones won’t. And in the late ’80s, the simple fact was: Nintendo was popular, Sega wasn’t. Therefore, Mario caught on, Alex didn’t. End of story.
But Alex left behind a small, but surprisingly diverse legacy of games, mostly for the SMS, which are usually fondly recalled by Sega fans. Today in Retro-Active, we’ll take a look at the short, spotty, but oddly memorable “gameography” of Alex Kidd, the Little Mascot That Couldn’t.
We’ll start on Page 2 with a somewhat in-depth look at Alex’s debut on the Master System, continue on Page 3 with short takes on his remaining appearances, and wrap it up on Page 4 with his recent activities and last known whereabouts.
Related posts:
- Retro-Active: The Great Giana Sisters
- Retro-Active: Top 10 Retro Puzzle Games NOT Called “Tetris”
- Retro-Active: The Five Best (And Five Worst) Retro Console Controllers
- Retro-Active: The Goonies II
- Retro-Active: NES “First Sequel” Syndrome
Related posts:
- Retro-Active: The Great Giana Sisters
- Retro-Active: Top 10 Retro Puzzle Games NOT Called “Tetris”
- Retro-Active: The Five Best (And Five Worst) Retro Console Controllers
- Retro-Active: The Goonies II
- Retro-Active: NES “First Sequel” Syndrome
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