Trivia
Wonder Boy similarities
Although the games are indeed identical,
Adventure Island is not exactly a "blatant rip-off" of
Wonder Boy. The original arcade
Wonder Boy game was developed by a company called
Escape, who later became known as
Westone.
Hudson optioned the rights from Escape for a NES port of the game, but
SEGA still owned the Wonder Boy title, forcing Hudson to come up with a new title for the NES version, hence Adventure Island.