Adventure Island Review

If there’s another game that exists within and in the orbit of so many other game universes than I don’t know what that game would be. Unless it’s the game that Adventure Island itself is kind of a little side universe to which is Wonder Boy.

That’s right. Adventure Island (this one anyway) is an adaptation of the arcade game Wonder Boy. Here’s where it gets a little weird. Wonder Boy became Adventure Island – but ONLY Adventure Island 1. All the other Adventure Islands aren’t related to Wonder Boy, they are only related to Adventure Island.

But then Wonder Boy ended up being a whole series on it’s own after it went to the home market and only the first two games in that series really stuck with the OG Wonder Boy idea… just like Adventure Island did with it’s first two games.

You thought that Zelda timeline was goofy. Just you wait and see.

Anyway. Adventure Island. Master Higgins’ lady friend Tina went and got kidnapped by an evil ogre/wizard thing with multiple heads. Not like a hydra though. He’s got more than one, but he can only wear one at a time? I guess? And you, dear Higgins, have to run and jump and skateboard to victory to beat up the many-headed-menace and save the Princess before she ends up in another castle.

Hamlet this ain’t, ladies and germs.

How do we rescue Tina? Well, we run. A lot. And jump over stuff. A lot. And throw axes/hammers/bolas. A lot. You also skateboard a little bit, but do so at your own risk. Even though Higz has a helmet and knee pads he still dies pretty easy.

That’s really it. Run to the right, collecting fruit which is your time, avoiding or murdelizing all the animals that get in your way. Keep an eye out for the Hudson Bee cause she’s nice and gives you like mega fruit powers, but also watch out for the eggplant (not a wizard) which will sap all your delicious fruit juices till you die. He’s kind of like that Bunnicula character in a way when you think about it.

Stages consist of all the generic arcade flavors of the day. Jungles, mountains, caves, water, ice, fire, heart, and then Captain Planet somehow. It’s enough to make things a little interesting as each stage type will have you doing different things. Normal jungle doesn’t have a lot of platforming, but water stages will have you jumping on and off clouds. Mountains have you running uphill, which as you might expect, is a little slower. Bats live in caves but not the forest, fish and octopi don’t appear in the lava areas. Is it fascinating? No. Does it work? Yup.

Graphically the game, even today, is pretty good. Higgins does have this weird over bite or pencil thin mustache thing going on. It’s hard to tell and some of the artwork doesn’t really lend any answers either. But you can see a thing and tell what it is and if it’ll kill you or not. Spoiler alert: everything that isn’t fruit or a bee will kill you. And I mean everything.

Imagine the most pretty game you’ve ever played. This isn’t it. But it gets the job done.

Musically tracks are few and far between and none of them really inspire glory. The Jungle/Forest stage music from the opening bit is pretty good but other than that I honestly can’t remember any of it that I can say for sure came from this game. In fact as I sit here kind of pulling tunes out of my head I think I’m actually confusing some of this game with Whomp Em.

Memorable it is not.

It’s an early home port to the NES from the arcades so the game is tried and tested to take your quarters. It’s difficult and at times can feel a little unfair. Higgins has some strange momentum. However the game is beatable (especially with save states like I used) and it’s nice to say you played it. I don’t think you’ll be making a lot of return trips though. It doesn’t really offer much in terms of replay value.

It is, however, a pretty important piece of gaming history so It’s worth a look into for that reason alone.

TLDR, here’s some numbers.