Hey, remember Alex Kidd?  If you answered “no,” it is probably because you are younger than … say, 18 years old?  Alex Kidd’s last major appearance was in 1990, after all. In case you are in the “non-adult” crowd (or a video game nerd with more knowledge than years), allow me to fill you in.

Quick, name Sega’s mascot. You said “Sonic the Hedgehog,” right? And you are right, of course.  But before Sonic, there was another mascot (okay, technically two, if you count Opa-opa). That’s right, his name was Alex Kidd. Alex was the star of six games between 1986 and 1990, the first and most famous being Alex Kidd in Miracle World.  After 6 games in 5 years, Kidd was replaced by the more flashy Sonic as the face of Sega. Since then, he has been relegated to the realm of cameo appearances.

For the past year or two, rumor has suggested that publisher Aceland Studios has been interesting in bringing Alex back, but are unsure if there is any market for him. Now it looks as though this may actually be the case — a scan floating around rumored to be attributed to Game Informer suggests that the Kidd himself may be a playable character in the upcoming Sega Superstars Tennis game. I was already looking forward to this game (I’ve been a sucker for tennis games since Virtua Tennis and we all know how fun tennis is on the Wii), but the potential addition of Alex Kidd makes me downright giddy.

[picture and story via WiiFanboy]