What I really like about our current roster is the representation.
Despite only being small at current we have Sonic covering fandom in North America(where the Genesis did best), Akira Yuki covering Japan (where Virtua Fighter was a huge deal on the Sega Saturn and Arcade units), Kiryu representing modern SEGA really nicely and Alex Kidd who was a lot more successful in Europe, Brazil and Oceania thanks to the Master System's success in these regions.
Job 15: Alex Kidd Moveset
Basic Playstyle:
Alex Kidd, as the resident Rock Paper Scissors champion excels at countering his opponents.
He is a shoto archetype fighter thanks to his Power Bracelet special and 'Shellcore' style fighting moves which allow him to expand the size of his punches and kicks.
Alex has strong basic attacks, high jump, low stamina(he only had 1 HP in the original game), average weight, above average ground speed, fast air speed and fast falling stats.
Gameplay wise, Alex has only above average ground speed, but very fast Air Speed encouraging players to take insane leaps. If you've ever played Miracle World you know exactly how wild and erratic that jump can be. As a result he has one of the best basic jumps in the game.
Alex is a decent swimmer, and thus takes considerably longer than Sonic to drown. He cannot wall jump. He has no sliding ground move unlike Sonic, but his punches and kicks can counter sliding moves thanks to his short stature, and giant fists.
Whilst he couldn't crouch/crawl in Miracle World, Enchanted Castle added this feature so Alex is capable of crawling.
Alex's Basic moves:
Alex's basic moves of course consist of enlarged punches and kicks. Alex's jabs have high priority but short range, even with his Shellcore abilities due to his stubby arms.
Alex's dodge is the oddly named 'Teleport Powder' a mysterious powder from Miracle World that makes Alex briefly intangible. The item appears above his head when he uses it. Alex can attack during the last few invincible frames allowing him to perform a counter attack of sorts on his opponent, but the trade off is he has the longest dodge cooldown in the game.
His shield is 'Magic Capsule B', a shield item from Miracle World. Alex cannot attack during this.
Special attacks:
Neutral Special: Power Bracelet
Alex Kidd fires a blast from his fists. This blast travels horizontally. It has great range and can interrupt most attacks(sans Akira who will just muscle through if in the middle of one of his specials), but average knock back, speed and power, and will only fly in a straight horizontal line from where it was unleashed. The cooldown for this attack is about the same as Mario's fireball in Ultimate to prevent too much spamming.
Down Special: Telepathy Ball
A counter. With this, Alex Kidd can read the minds of his opponent and counter them with a Shellcored punch, palm strike, or scissor stab. It's random which you'll do but they all do the same basic damage and knock back so it's largely just an aesthetical difference. The telltale sign for this move being performed is a blank thought bubble appears above Alex's head.
Side Special: Spinning Fire Ball Shoot
A move from Alex Kidd in Shinobi World. For this, Alex will grab onto a pole that appears, and spin around it building up speed before launching himself forwards as a powerful ignited fireball with his enlarged fists outstretched.
Anyone caught it the build up spin will take very mild damage and knock back, but this special can be interrupted at this point. Once unleashed it deals great damage and can be slightly angled. This move has high priority upon the shoot forward.
Up Special: Psychic Wand
This item gives Alex Kidd brief psychokinesis allowing him temporarily levitation. It doesn't last very long but can cover a great distance and any angle. This move does no damage whatsoever to opponents but grants Alex some armoured frames as he performs this.
All Star Move: JankenPON
I've illustrated this one to help demonstrate the action(please ignore the slight error on panel 2, I've only just noticed. The 'fighters' profiles are just concept, we'll probably decide all that stuff later)
Alex releases 'Capsule A' creating 8 mini retro sprite Alex Kidd's to swarm towards the opponent as the Capsule A item (essentially) did in Miracle World. If any of the eight manage to snag the opponent, the All Star Move activates.
As the retro sprites hold the opponent down, Alex throws out his palm striking the opponent skywards with his enlarged hand “JAN”
He throws out 'scissors' hitting the opponent in the face with his giant fingers “KEN!” causing them to spin rapidly and helplessly.
He then brings his giant fist out, slamming it into the opponent “PON!” punching them into the horizon with great force.
If the opponent has any remaining health left after this attack they go soaring into the distance, and can smash into any other unlucky foes who happen to get caught in the crossfire.
If the opponent has 0HP left, they are turned into a sparkle in the distance, Alex gives the peace sign and whips out a riceball and their 'render' is seen in sky with a fade.
The move can be flubbed if the opponents evade all eight mini Alex Kidds, but this is quite tricky at close range, especially since one rides the bike forwards!
Misc:
Entrance animation: Alex flies his Peticoptor before crashing into a red rock levitating in the air, destroying his vehicle and falling down onto the stage to continue the fight.
Idle animation: Alex stands around before lowering his fists. A little thought bubble that swaps between 'Rock' 'Paper' and 'Scissors' each second appears above him. If left for ten seconds, the thought bubble will change to a riceball or a hamburger as his thoughts change to food.
Taunts:
Taunt 1: Alex eats a rice ball. Every two times he performs this taunt it becomes a hamburger, referencing the NTSC/PAL releases.
Taunt 2: Alex throws a Rock, Paper or Scissors at random. Two Alex Kidd players can challenge each other to a game mid battle if they like.
Taunt 3: Alex turns to stone. He smashes out of the stone casing moments later. Reference to both Missing Stars and Miracle World, where he can be petrified in the former, but is the only person unaffected by Janken the Great's magic in the latter.
Victory Animations:
Victory animation 1: Alex speeds off on his Sukopako Motorcycle, smashing through bricks as he does so. He turns to the camera and gives a peace/scissors sign.
Victory animation 2: Alex jumps into his Peticoptor, his peddle based helicoptor, waving cheerfully as it flies through the sky, shooting bullets.
Victory animation 3: Alex chows down on a rice ball/hamburger frantically.
2nd Place animation: Alex looks at his fist a little downheartedly, before slapping his cheeks and turning to cheer on the winner.
3rd Place animation: Alex looks shocked, and a weight from Enchanted Castle falls atop him. He lifts it off and throws it to the side, breathing heavily.
4th Place -7th Place animation: Alex has the weight fall on his head, and cannot lift it. It gains his eyes, as his feet appear below to scurry around.
8th Place animation: Same as above, but Alex's soul rises from the weight as he shakes his head disappointed in himself.
Palettes:
Alex Kidd's palettes:
1. DX version. For this I like Alex Kidd's DX look a lot more than...well some of his designs over the years so I've made that his standard look.
2. Original Miracle World Sprite.
3. Western Boxart. Awful art of Alex. Master System had some truly horrendous boxart, but makes for a surprisingly good colour palette.
4. Sonic and Sega All Star Racing. Alex's Modern look pre DX.
5. Sonic and Sega All Star Raciing Transformed. His colour palette for this game was made to make him look more like Santa due to being released on Christmas Day as a free gift to all players.
6. Alex Kidd in Shinobi World Boxart. Better than Miracle World's for sure. Made him a red head for some reason.
7. Stella, the player 2 character from Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars...at least in the arcade. Stella never appeared again in the Alex Kidd titles, but she was very briefly Alex's Luigi. She's playable currently in the new Astro City Mini Arcade providing you have two controllers. Appeared in Archie's Sonic comics alongside Alex.
8. Son Goku. Yep. Turns out Alex Kidd in Miracle World was originally going to be a DRAGONBALL game, but Sega lost the license half way through production and had to adjust accordingly. Reminds me of how Mario came about via Popeye. Thought it'd be a neat reference to Alex Kidd's history.
