Alex Kidd in Shinobi World

It was re-released for the Wii Virtual Console on December 11, 2009 in Europe, and on February 1, 2010 in North America.

• Title — Alex Kidd in Shinobi World • Developer — Sega • Publisher — Sega • Designer — Yoshio Yoshida • Artist — Gen Adachi • Composer — Tadahiko Inoue • Modes — Single-player • Genre — Platform, hack and slash • Series — Alex Kidd Shinobi • Platforms — Master System

• Illustration — Gameplay screenshot Despite being part of the Alex Kidd series, the game mechanics of Shinobi World are different from Alex Kidd in Miracle World and are much closer to the Master System version of Shinobi. Alex Kidd's basic attack is a sword slice, which can be used not only to destroy enemies but also to open treasure chests. Inside such chests, the player can obtain items such as more health, throwing darts, a powered-up sword, extra lives, and a magic ball that will temporarily turn Alex Kidd into an invincible tornado. The throwing darts and powered-up sword will both replace the Alex's default sword until the player completes the stage, defeats a boss or loses a life. Other actions that Alex Kidd can perform include a wall-to-wall jump and the ability to turn into a flying fireball after spinning around a street post, a rope or a horizontal bar. Alex starts off each round with three hit points but can fill out his health gauge to a maximum of six hit points. When the player has full health, all the treasure chests carrying hearts will carry extra lives in their place. When the player defeats a boss with full health, they will gain a "Perfect Bonus" after completing the round. There is also a "Secret Bonus" if the player completes an entire round without getting hit or losing life at any point. The game is composed of four different rounds roughly based on the missions from the original Shinobi, which are divided into three stages. The third stage in each round is a boss battle.

An evil being known as Hanzo the Dark Ninja escapes after 10,000 years of confinement and kidnaps Alex Kidd's new girlfriend, while the pair are on a leisurely trip to the planet Shinobi. Powerless to stop the villain, Alex collapses into a sobbing heap, but is found by the ghost of the ancient warrior who originally vanquished the Dark Ninja, who explains that Hanzo intends to sacrifice Alex's girlfriend as part of a ritual to conquer the world. The spirit of the ancient warrior fuses itself with Alex's body; lending Alex his strength, skills, and courage; and with their combined power, they set out to save Alex's girlfriend and vanquish the Dark Ninja once and for all.

• Illustration — Shinobi Kid with original Round 1 boss "Mari-Oh" Alex Kidd in Shinobi World began development as Shinobi Kid, a stand-alone spin-off of Shinobi with no ties to the Alex Kidd series. The boss of Round 1, called Kabuto in the released version of the game, also had a different design in the prototype. He was originally named "Mari-Oh" and was designed as a pastiche of Mario, the mascot of rival game developer Nintendo, and the Shinobi villain Ken-Oh, hence the name. Like his Nintendo namesake, after sustaining enough damage, Mari-Oh shrinks to a smaller size. Although Mari-Oh was renamed Kabuto, with a redesign that downplayed his likeness to Mario, his attack pattern remained unchanged from the prototype.