Adventure Island (NES)

Adventure Island is another one of those games that I've played on a different system, but not the NES. And since I love my NES and have kept it hooked up to my TV lately, I decided to try out Adventure Island. I'd previously played it on the Game Boy, and it's always fun to see those pea green games in living color (not to mention the fact that Game Boy ports often didn't have as much content as the NES originals).

For those not in the know, Adventure Island was developed by Hudson. Hudson was actually a pretty big name back in the day, although their biggest claim to fame now is the Mario Party series (which is either good or bad, depending). At any rate, Adventure Island is about this ax-chucking chubby guy with a baseball hat and grass skirt whose legs are constantly in motion, even when he's standing still. Even better, the name of this intrepid hero is Master Higgins. I don't really know if there's any actual plot to speak of; it's just a side-scrolling platformer that takes you through various island settings, where you battle giant snails and eat fruit. To get power ups, you break open eggs, which will either give you skateboards, more health, or weapon upgrades. Of course, the dumb thing is that you don't actually start out with your weapon: you have to break an egg first, and if you die, you lose it.

As a kid, I found the whole thing kind of bizarre and random, but for whatever reason, the gameplay is totally addicting. It's definitely tricky and frustrating at times, since you have a health bar that depletes when you trip over rocks, yet you die instantly when you touch an enemy. The controls are pretty slippery, too: you seem to have a bit of unavoidable momentum that carries you forward even when you've stopped walking/running. Since eggs can randomly appear after you walk/jump over a certain spot (and often at the very edge of a platform), it's practically impossible to turn around at the very last second to grab the egg. In some ways, it's one of the cheapest games I've ever played.

One thing I was also disappointed with was the failure to include dinosaurs. The Game Boy game had four dinosaur buddies that would break out of eggs, and each had a different skill (one could fly, one could swim, one had a projectile attack, and one could both swim and walk on land). I don't know if Hudson included these guys in the later NES games (since there are apparently four all together), but I hope they did.

The graphics are simple, but bright and fitting. The sprites are also gigantic, which makes them fairly detailed for such an old NES game. The level design is a little lacking, though; it gets repetitive quick, but I guess there's only so much you can do with island settings on the NES. The sound effects are dorky and lame, but the music is incredibly catchy, and it's already stuck in my head just from playing a few levels. Adventure Island is pretty dang weird and sometimes stupidly cheap, but somehow, it's still fun to play anyway.

Poetry in motion.
Okay, so this is Adventure Island 2, but check out that dinosaur. When I was little I always thought he was wearing shades. I don't think he really is, but dang it, he always will to me.
This is from Adventure Island 4, but I just had to include it for the sheer evil eggplant value.