Adventure Island
-
Adventure Island
(2013 on
Windows)
Description official descriptions
In the South Pacific, Master Higgins lives peacefully wearing only a grass skirt and a cap. That is until the Evil Witch Doctor decides to capture Tina and hold her as his own. It's up to Master Higgins to gather throwing axes, fireballs and skateboards in order to aid his noble quest.
The game is a side scroller, Master Higgins moves across the screen from left to right and finds his power-ups in giant eggs. This includes a skateboard which results in a great speed enhancement - until Master Higgins gets hit and loses his power. If he is not on a skateboard a hit means instant death. Another game mechanic is starvation which gets indicated through a meter which steadily decreases. If it hits zero the hero dies and the only way to fill it up is by collecting food on the way. Bosses await him at the end of levels, all the way to the Evil Witch Doctor himself.
Spellings
- 高橋名人の冒険島 - Japanese spelling
Groups +
Screenshots
Promos
Credits (MSX version)
| MSX Wonder BoyMade By |
|
| Cover Art by |
|
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 64% (based on 23 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.2 out of 5 (based on 72 ratings with 1 reviews)
The Good
Adventure Island is strikingly similar to the original Super Mario Bros. Both games feature a little guy progressing left to right in a side-scrolling action game (and you can't double back right to left) through 8 levels with 4 stages each making for a grand total of 32 areas. The character, Higgins, armed only with a hatchet, must defeat all of the dreaded inhabitants of Adventure Island.
Basically, the game makes me think of Super Mario Bros. on an island. This is not necessarily a bad thing, especially if you never get a chance to make it to the South Pacific in real life.
The Bad
I did not care for the primitive style of single-direction gameplay (you can never scroll from right to left). I also found the game to be impossible around level 8-2, and this was from when I was at my NES prime.
The Bottom Line
If you just can not get enough Super Mario Bros.-style action, this should satisfy your appetite for single-scrolling jumping action. At least there is fruit to eat and not just mushrooms.
NES · by Multimedia Mike (20603) · 2005
Discussion
| Subject | By | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | Sciere (893785) | Aug 25th, 2008 |
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. In that version, Wonder Boy was replaced by Master Higgins, who was patterned after then-Hudson Soft executive and public figure Toshiyuki Takahashi (also known as Takahashi Meijin).
Related Games
Released 1992 on NES, Game Boy
Released 1991 on NES, Game Boy, 2011 on Wii
Released 1994 on NES
Released 1992 on SNES, 2011 on Wii
Released 1992 on TurboGrafx-16, 2009 on PSP, PlayStation 3...
Released 1994 on SNES, 2011 on Wii
Released 2012 on Xbox 360
Released 2013 on Xbox 360
Released 2013 on Xbox 360
Related Sites +
-
Video review of NES accessories (WARNING: Laguage)
The Angry Video Game Nerd, James Rolfe, reviews some NES accessories and some associated games, including the Roll & Rocker and <i>Adventure Island</i> on NES.
Identifiers +
- MobyGames ID: 6628
- Wikipedia (en)
Contribute
Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history!
Contributors to this Entry
Game added by POMAH.
Wii U added by Michael Cassidy. Wii added by Guy Chapman. J2ME, DoJa added by Kabushi. Game Boy Advance added by Freeman. MSX added by koffiepad. NES added by Unicorn Lynx.
Additional contributors: quizzley7, Corn Popper, Shoddyan, lugnut, monkeyislandgirl, Atom Ant, LepricahnsGold, Patrick Bregger, ryanbus84.
Game added June 7th, 2002. Last modified September 30th, 2023.