Adventure Island (NES) Review
System NES
Developer Hudson Soft Publisher Hudson Soft Genre Side Scrolling Platformer # of Players 1 Release Date 1988 |
Pros
Good Controls Checkpoint system Cons Game is repetitive |
Review
by Thonos
5/18/2015
Growing up there were a handful of games that I thought were unbeatable. Either because of the difficulty or cheap mechanics, these games just seemed beyond my grasp and skill level. That was over 20 years ago. Now I see some of those games just require quick reflexes and memorization. Adventure Island is one of these games.
Adventure could be considered a Mario clone and that wouldn't be too far from the truth. The game revolves around you playing as Master Higgins and rescuing the princess from the evil witch doctor. Not the most original story but it gets the job done. If any enemy hits you you lose a life. You naturally lose life over time and unless you pickup food scattered around the levels you are going to die.
The game is broken into 8 stages, 4 levels per stage and 4 checkpoints for stage. In each level you go through you have to dodge and defeat enemies such as spiders, bats and snakes. While you are doing this you are jumping from platform to platform trying not to fall. Besides collecting food for health, you also can get a hammer which you can throw at enemies and a flame attack that destroys obstacles which comes in handy if you can get it. Other items can be found like a skateboard, flowers and a fairy all which have there uses. As you go through each level some of these items are in plain view but others are hidden and uncovered when you jump at the right spot.
I felt the game handled well. As I said earlier, a lot of this game revolves around memorization. You need to know when to jump or you are going to miss the next platform or if you wait around too long you will lose all of your life. Each level has 4 checkpoints so if you make a mistake you usually start pretty close to try again. The game does have a continue option that is mentioned on the last page of the manual. However in order to use it you have to find a hidden item in the first level of the game. While it is a nice they have a continue option in the game since it is pretty much needed, it is also kind of stupid that they made it a hidden item.
The game's graphics are good but nothing special. The game uses a brighter color palette which I felt made everything from the level backgrounds to the enemies look like they are from a cartoon. The music grew on me after awhile, not saying it was great but after hearing it over and over I got used to it. Each level I felt was balanced with very few exceptions. The boss battles were very generic and with the exception of the last one pretty easy and even that one wasn't too hard.
Looking back I guess the challenge I had with this game was just not putting enough time into learning when to jump and dodge in certain trouble areas. This is very much like playing Super Mario Bros.. Once you beat the game there isn't much of a reason to come back to it. However this game did spawn multiple sequels on the NES and other systems. If you enjoy platforming games this one is worth a look.
by Thonos
5/18/2015
Growing up there were a handful of games that I thought were unbeatable. Either because of the difficulty or cheap mechanics, these games just seemed beyond my grasp and skill level. That was over 20 years ago. Now I see some of those games just require quick reflexes and memorization. Adventure Island is one of these games.
Adventure could be considered a Mario clone and that wouldn't be too far from the truth. The game revolves around you playing as Master Higgins and rescuing the princess from the evil witch doctor. Not the most original story but it gets the job done. If any enemy hits you you lose a life. You naturally lose life over time and unless you pickup food scattered around the levels you are going to die.
The game is broken into 8 stages, 4 levels per stage and 4 checkpoints for stage. In each level you go through you have to dodge and defeat enemies such as spiders, bats and snakes. While you are doing this you are jumping from platform to platform trying not to fall. Besides collecting food for health, you also can get a hammer which you can throw at enemies and a flame attack that destroys obstacles which comes in handy if you can get it. Other items can be found like a skateboard, flowers and a fairy all which have there uses. As you go through each level some of these items are in plain view but others are hidden and uncovered when you jump at the right spot.
I felt the game handled well. As I said earlier, a lot of this game revolves around memorization. You need to know when to jump or you are going to miss the next platform or if you wait around too long you will lose all of your life. Each level has 4 checkpoints so if you make a mistake you usually start pretty close to try again. The game does have a continue option that is mentioned on the last page of the manual. However in order to use it you have to find a hidden item in the first level of the game. While it is a nice they have a continue option in the game since it is pretty much needed, it is also kind of stupid that they made it a hidden item.
The game's graphics are good but nothing special. The game uses a brighter color palette which I felt made everything from the level backgrounds to the enemies look like they are from a cartoon. The music grew on me after awhile, not saying it was great but after hearing it over and over I got used to it. Each level I felt was balanced with very few exceptions. The boss battles were very generic and with the exception of the last one pretty easy and even that one wasn't too hard.
Looking back I guess the challenge I had with this game was just not putting enough time into learning when to jump and dodge in certain trouble areas. This is very much like playing Super Mario Bros.. Once you beat the game there isn't much of a reason to come back to it. However this game did spawn multiple sequels on the NES and other systems. If you enjoy platforming games this one is worth a look.