DESCRIPTION

Keith Courage in Alpha Zones puts players in the title role as he runs, jumps on platforms, and battles an odd assortment of monsters (including elongated skulls and giant gun creatures) with his sword. The action is divided into two sections: the Overworld and the Underworld, both of which are flawed. The Overworld has shops in which players can purchase health and enhanced weaponry (bombs and a longer sword), but the going is slow and tedious. The action heats up (and speeds up) in the Underworld as Keith dons his battlemech-like Nova Suit and fights bosses and other creatures, but cheap deaths (enemies push you into instantly fatal red spikes) and repetition mar the experience. The graphics are repetitive as well. Keith Courage has a generous health replacement system and unlimited continues, helping mask the game's prohibitive difficulty level and unbalanced gameplay, but there's no masking the fact that this was a poor choice for a pack-in title with the TurboGrafx-16 system. ~ Brett Alan Weiss, All Game Guide