Adventure Island (Nintendo, 1988)

Adventure Island is one of those early (1987 early) Nintendo Entertainment System games that gamers from the era can still remember sitting on the shelves of so many stores and flea markets. The developer, Hudson, which later formed HudsonSoft, went on to have a hand in the creation of many now-classic titles, and Adventure Island was one of its entries into the foray of home console gaming.

Following the exploits of our intrepid explorer Harry, Adventure Island is a fast-paced scrolling platformer in a jungle-type setting with both the appropriate elements (snake and bird enemies) and the eyebrow-raising unexpected features (power-ups like the skateboard or helpful fairy). Does it belong in the famed halls of NES lore?

Gameplay

Borrowing a page from Mario's playbook, Harry jumps with the A button, attacks (once he finds the hammer) with the B button, and can run while holding B, while also jumping higher. With these moves mastered, the player simply runs to the right, jumping over obstacles and slaughtering any living creature he crosses paths with.

This would be simple (and easy!) enough, except for one very important catch that sets Adventure Island apart: Harry must constantly and continually “eat” the fruit he comes across, to refill and keep his energy at bay, or he will die when his energy bar dips to being empty. This adds a built-in time limit throughout the entire experience, and provides the impetus for moving forward at a torrid pace.

Graphics

Adventure Island looks okay, with the recognizable jungle greens and browns and trees and animals and such, but it does just look okay and not any better. Even Harry, our main character, the protagonist, combative explorer, looks washed-out and minimally rendered. The developers could have spent a little more time creating defining lines and bolder looks. The atmosphere ends up a little bland.

Sound

The music is repetitive, but the track is upbeat, lively, and festively appropriate for fueling a mad dash towards the unknown finish of every stage. The effects, conversely, are rather lacking: Creatures never make a sound, nothing ever rumbles or fires, and beyond the noise of Harry's jumping, firing, and occasional fairy track, there is very little auditory variety.

Creativity and Innovation

The power-ups are interesting, and provide the key motivator. Taking the form of eggs, when they are bumped into, they reveal themselves. The most common is the axe, always gathered first to provide a means of attack. But if Harry runs into other eggs once he has the throwing axes, he can gather further power-ups at the same time, such as riding a skateboard that not only moves forward quicker but also means he can now take an additional hit without dying; or the fairy mentioned before, which provides added protection and a temporary period of differing music. The idea is to make players want to see how many power-ups they can continue getting in a row, until they build into this unstoppable SuperHarry and crash through to the end of the level.

Even with the power-ups, the game still suffers from a sharp learning curve. Because obstacles and enemies appear on-screen so quickly, and because Harry must continue gorging himself on island fruits and vegetables, the game demands that a player possess either impossibly fast reflexes, or the patience to try levels over and over until he or she masters them by memorization.

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Adventure Island, also known as Hudson's Adventure Island, is a video game for the NES and certain other platforms. It was first released in Japan for the Famicom in September 1986 and MSX in 1986. The North American NES release came in September 1988, and the game was released as Adventure Island Classic on the European NES in 1992. Developed by Hudson Soft, the game was an adaptation of the arcade game Wonder Boy, which was ported to Sega home gaming systems under its original name, except for the North American release of the Game Gear version, where it was called Revenge of Drancon.

A original side-scroller, like Mario or Sonic, Adventure Island went on to found a successful video game franchise with many sequels.

A run off of the popular original sega game 'wonder boy', Adventure Island for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) provides identical stages with good graphics (for the time). The game itself is difficult at times because it is full of hidden goods, traps and enemies that make it difficult to complete the game without running out of lives (Cannot continue, must begin from beginning stage of level). Each stage consists of four mini-levels. The first is a forest scene, second is a water scene, third is a cave and fourth is the forest again, but with the master of the level waiting for you at its end. Defeat the headed demon and progress to the next level.
A fun game, fascinating and interesting. A true pleasure

This is one of the better platform series to come out on the NES, but the first game here has some positives and some faults. The music and graphics are superb and the play control is easy to master, but some of the levels can get repetitive. If you've managed to get to World 8 of the game, the final 2 levels are maddening! :( Thankfully you can still continue until you've finally beaten the game (get that Hudson Bee on level one!!!) because the later sequels would prove to have one of the highest replay values ever.

This game is a classic and a must for collectors. You play as Master Higgins, who must save his true love from the evil witch doctor. This game is unique because instead of a life bar or a timer, you have a stomach bar. You must keep collecting food so you'll keep the bar full. If you run out, you'll lose a life. There are some crazy powerups you can collect like skateboards and axes. But don't get the eggplant!! This game is alot of fun and i highly recommend it!