Overall 8 Graphics 7.6 Sound 7.8 Addictive 5 Story 4.3 Depth 5.8 Difficulty 7
4.4
Adventure Island for the NES luigi25
Adventure Island is a platforming game released for the NES in 1988. It is a game that is nothing like Mario or any other one for that matter. There would be quite a lot of sequels to this game, but this is the first of the series. You play the game as a guy called Master Higgins who is stranded on an island, and he is trying to rescue his girlfriend Tina who has been kidnapped by an evil witch doctor. I have to say this game is unplayable because of its poor design and difficulty. It has some good points to it, but all of that is overshadowed by just how hard and unfair the game is to play. Even James Rolfe did a rant on it in his Angry Video Game series. This review is almost similar to one of his rants, but I think he was too easy on it.
Graphics 7/10: Graphically, you can tell that this is one of those games where the developer was trying to make some effort. There are quite a lot of backgrounds in this first Adventure Island game, but they don't look all that great. The sprites look pretty good, but the game still looks pretty dated. This is another one of those early NES games, and I'm sure a lot of this has to do with the system's limitations. Adventure Island isn't a terrible looking game, but it sure don't look all that great either. I have to give it a pass but barely. Compared to other games in the series this one looks pretty dull, but it is still better than a lot of other old NES games.
Music 8/10: The music in Adventure Island sounds pretty good. There aren't that many tracks in this game, but the ones that are included in it all sound pretty catchy and memorable. I feel like this is the game's strongest area. The second game did have better songs in it, but this one isn't that bad either. The only complaint I have is the lack of variety. Nintendo didn't develop this game. It was made by another company named Hudson Soft, and for a non-Nintendo game, this one is fairly decent. They probably didn't have as much money as Nintendo, but musically the company produced something that sounded good. Sure, there are better sounding games for the NES, but this one still has a nice soundtrack as well.
Gameplay 0/10: The objective of Adventure Island is the same as it is in many of the Mario games. You have to get to the end of the level before time runs out. Although, the difference in this game is that you start the level with a time meter. This time meter decreases along the way as you make your way through the stage. Master Higgins has to collect fruit in order to replenish the time meter. The fruit can be very hard to collect, and you run the risk of losing a life by trying to do so. It is also very easy to die in this game. If you touch an enemy you die automatically. The controls are very slippery, and Higgins seems to slide off cliffs or into enemies all the time
The levels themselves are very difficult to get through, and the placement of enemies/obstacles is just impossible to avoid. There are eggs in the stages that contain power-ups, but these power-ups don't do much to help. The main one is the axe, which is the basic one, that allows Higgins to throw axes at his enemies and clear the path. You need this item to play the game, but if you die, this power-up goes away, and you have absolutely no chance of avoiding enemies unless you can get it back. The skateboard does give you an extra hit, but Higgins skates through the stages super fast and can fall into pits even more easily. The only one I found to be very helpful is the Honey Bee. Mater Higgins becomes invisible with this power-up.
To make this game even worse, you only have 3 lives to get through the whole game with. There are almost no ways to earn extra lives, and if you lose all your lives it's Game Over with no continues! Losing lives is almost impossible because of the enemy placement, hard level design, having to fill the time meter by collecting fruit, hardly any good power-ups, and if you run into an enemy you're dead!! Despite all the trial/error and memorization, I've only gotten to world 3-1 with this game, and that's just it!! The first game of the Adventure Island series becomes more about how far you can make it! I feel like that's the only reason to play it. YOU CAN'T WIN UNLESS YOU CHEAT! WHY!!!
The game leaves no room for mistakes or errors which makes the gameplay almost impossible. The only way you'll even have a chance of getting any progress/fun out of this game is by using some kind of cheat system or save states. Even then, the levels are still impossible to make it through because of their design and enemy arrangement. The axe doesn't destroy obstacles like boulders, and there always seems to be an enemy right behind one of these boulders, so you jump over the boulder, and onto an enemy and die! The way this game is designed sucks!! Not to mention how it's the same game as Wonder Boy for the Sega Master System but without continues! WHAT A GOD-AWFUL GAME!! Not to mention how little effort/originality went into it!!!
Story 0/10: Adventure Island is another one of those games with a not so original plot. Like I already stated, this game copies Wonder Boy. The story is about Master Higgins going to an island in The South Pacific named Adventure Island to rescue a Princess named Tina. Can anyone tell me what game this sounds like? I'll give you a hint, think about a game that involves an Italian plumber going to do something similar!! There isn't any creativity or effort put forth here either now that I think about it. Not only is this a game that suffers from unbalanced difficulty and horrible level design, but it has no original ideas either!!! I feel like I'm just ranting at this point.
Content 7/10: Adventure Island contains 8 worlds with 4 stages in each one similar to another popular platforming game released on the NES 4 years earlier. The only difference is that these levels are somewhat longer than those in that game and contain up to about 4 checkpoints. For those who have made it this far and beaten the game there is a fair amount of content to it. It takes almost an hour or maybe a little longer to complete. I don't think there is that much to this game, but it has enough to it to occupy someone for a little while. There could have been more to it, but this is one of those first games where the series was still in its developmental stage.
Difficulty 10/10: To quote the Angry Video Game Nerd James Rolfe, "This game is the reason Game Genie was invented". Why did Hudson make a game this hard? This leads me into another one of Rolfe's quotes from his Dick Tracy review: "WHY ARE THERE NO CONTINUES?! WHY?! WWWWHHHYYYY?!!!!!" The first Adventure Island game on NES has no continues, but not only that, it has so many other problems as well. The game starts you out with hardly any lives and no way to earn more, you aren't allowed to get hit by enemies and stage hazards that are next to impossible to avoid, and a time meter that has to be replenished by collecting fruit that is hard to grab without dying. I'd almost rather spend time with my family than play this game! It really is that impossibly difficult and unforgiving to deal with. You aren't allowed to take damage from enemies, you aren't allowed to die, but I guess the controls are an improvement over Wonder Boy. Although, none of that matters because of how everything about the game is so unforgiving. How can anyone make progress with a game like this without cheating? Whenever you have to cheat to play the game there is no point in playing it. Challenge is fun but impossible challenges and difficulty sucks!! The difficulty in Adventure Island is just plain God-awful!!!
Overall 4.4/10: The only good thing Adventure Island has going for it is the soundtrack, but even that isn't all that impressive. After researching and reviewing this first game, I have learned that all this really amounts to is a bad port of the Wonder Boy game. I didn't enjoy playing that game much either, but at least it made up for the poor controls and bad level design by giving players unlimited continues. Adventure Island has nothing going for it in the gameplay or storyline department. I hate this game and recommend people stay away from it unless they want to drive themselves insane trying to get anywhere with it!!
Graphics 7 Sound 8 Addictive 1 Story 1 Depth 7 Difficulty 10
Review Rating: 5/5
Submitted: 07-17-17
Updated: 11-22-18
Review Replies: 1
8.3
Like mario, but on an island... RedHotToddy
Oh boy am I in a rush this evening! I have barely noticed that there are hardly any and I say ANY games left for me to review on the whole entire vizzed board! I mean sure there is the video game room beta that has more modern games like for the GC, PS2, XBOX and not, but those aren't games that we can actually "Play"! But anyways, right when I thought I was completely out of games to review on the vizzed board, I have suddenly came across THIS underrated gem of a game here! Now you are probably wondering, what is this underrated gem? Well this game is Adventure island on the NES! So anyways, I really need some GOOD real NES games to review on the board, so let's get started shall we?
Story-7/10
One sunny evening on a peaceful island, there lives quite a humble fella named Master Higgins, how he got here on the island is a mystery beyond me, but anyways, master Higgins is a very humble brave and quiet fella who really needs something to do on this huge island. He is then in a startle when he discovers that one very day his beautiful girlfriend Tina has been suddenly kidnapped by the evil king quiller! It is now up to YOU and I really mean YOU to save higgin's girlfriend and restore peace to the humble island! I know what you guys are going to say, the story is a ripoff of such games like Mario, Zelda, ghosts and goblins, etc, but who cares? At least the game still has a story! (Even though the only way you will really get to read about this is the instruction manual) But anyways, that is pretty much it for the story, now let's get to the gameplay!
Gameplay-8/10
In this 2D action side scroller adventure game, you take the role of our hero Master higgins, as you run, jump, bounce, and conquer your way through more then 20 action packed levels in an attempt to save Tina! The controls are pretty simple to be honest, you use the D-pad to move, A button is jump, and the B button can be used to throw your powerful boomerang like projectiles. Each level is divided up by 4 levels per world, at the end of the 4th level you must face a huge giant and really powerful boss fight in order to progress any farther. Along Higgin's quest, he will be recovering alot of items, and most of them are pretty self explanatory, You can collect fruits like bananas in order to gain points and any lost health, you can find these bee like creatures that will give you invincibility, and you can collect these bones in order to use them as projectiles, and so on. What I really like about the game is not that it is not just a plain old ordinary platformer, but it is that the game manages to bring in a whole bucketload of new things to it's own to make itself stand out from all other platformers at the time! Master Higgins can also use this skateboard of his in order to get through levels faster, and that is a real huge plus if you ask me! Master Higgins will every once in a while run into King quiller and must fight him in his different forms in order to progress some areas, now the bosses are actually pretty fun if you ask me! They are really challenging, fun, and really feel like actual bosses! Or else they would just be called Mini-bosses. Anyways, that is all pretty much it for the gameplay guys.
Graphics-8/10
This game was made QUITE early in the NES' life span, and for what it is worth, It doesn't look too bad to be honest! I mean after all, the game does take place on a huge big and vast island, but is that really a bad thing? No, because as I have said before, it helps the game stand out from all other platformers at the time, But anyways, the graphics, They are actually really good! Every world, object, and everything is sharp as a tack, everything else is really really alive and just overall bursting with color! Now the Box art for this game is what really baffled me though, as with the Mega man 1 box art, everybody here looks like actual grown adults in costumes as such, and that is what caused the game to open up to poor sales, But anyways, now for the level design! The levels here are what really help the game feel original, the leves arrange from caves, glaciers, islands (Well of course!) And so on. The HUD is pretty self explanatory, it displays how many extra lives you have left until game over, your amount of health left until you lose a life, and your overall score. Yeah, everytime you collect fruits or defeat enemies and such, your score increases by the dozen, try to break your high score guys so you can be entered in the high score board for this game! But anyways, that is pretty much it for the graphics.
Sound-7/10
The Music and SFX in this game are your typical stuff, but that is pretty much rather obvious considering this game does take place on a tropical island, but anyways, the Music and sound effects in this game are pretty darn top-notch for an NES game! Each level you'll be exploring has really happy, bright, and just overall great music that really helps you prepare for each level after the last in this big action packed adventure! Now as for the sound effects, they are pretty average to be real here, Since this game is on the NES, be ready to here alot of Bloops, beeps, booms, and other stuff that you come to expect from 8-bit system games! The Sound in this game is like the Oozma Kappa, It isn't bad, it isn't good, It is just OK.
Addictiveness-8/10
The game does actually offer quite alot of fun to be had here! And here are a couple of reasons on why I say that, Well first, the game is just a platformer, and a very original one at that! That way the game doesn't feel stale boring and well, overall rushed like most other bad games I have played! And second, the scoring system, The freaking scoring system, I have been trying to beat that one user on this game with over 400,000 points, but I still can't though! I will try my best later though!
Depth-7/10
This tropical adventure is pretty long and here is why I say that, well, The game has over 8 distinct worlds each with 4 or so levels, and so that brings the game up for a whooping total of 32 big levels to explore and beat! This is really one of the longer platformers I have played on the NES! And that is saying alot, and there is the scoring system as I have addressed before, and it is pretty darn fun breaking your old and new high scores to be honest!
Difficulty-5/10
This one shouldn't give you too much trouble along the way, but there are still SOME minor gripes around with the difficulty level, and that is not alot. Well, some of those pesky bosses will take you QUITE a few lives to waste around right before you finally work out how to beat them, and some of those other later levels can be a little challenging, but if you are pretty good at games and can beat it at all, then this one should not give you TOO much trouble.
Overall-8.3/10
Oh man was this one a pretty fun platformer! Now I say this because the game is original, it is fun, it is actually kind of cute, and well, It just flat out rocks I tell you! Those were the main reasons why I gave this adventure an 8.3, now It is getting really late and I have to do my homework right now, so this has been RedHotToddy's 114thr review! And well, see you guys later! If I run out of retro games to review here, then I might review some modern games over at the Beta room! Anyways, see you guys tomorrow in my next review!
Graphics 8 Sound 7 Addictive 8 Story 7 Depth 7 Difficulty 5
Review Rating: 4.5/5
Submitted: 09-11-13
Review Replies: 3
7.5
Adventure Island Review XxEzraxX
I was turned on to this game by my father a few years ago, so I decided I would try it out since he seemed to love the game. And although I can see why he liked the game so much, I thought of it as well yet another traditional plat former or side scrolling type of game. Which it pretty much is, you play as Master Higgins who must save his kidnapped girlfriend Tina from King Quiller. Super Mario Bros. much? Anyway, to save Tina you must travel through eight areas, which have been divided into four stages or rounds which again is further divided into four checkpoints. After the fourth stage of each area you must then defeat a boss, and of course making your way to the final boss to save Tina. Sounds easy enough, well it is actually. Most people would expect you to say that it is hard or difficult, but for an older game it is only hard when you first start out after getting a handle for the game it will become easier and easier to speed run it.
Overall I do really enjoy playing this game, even though I find it kind of stereotypical and not a game that I haven't played already I rated this game a 7.5. It is a nice solid game to play whether you enjoy the game or just want to kill some time. I found it to be enjoyable, but I did always think that there could have been more done with the game. I do also completely understand that being on the NES they had limitations, but I think for as well as this game seems to run and play that more still could have been done to make it even better.
The graphics I rated a 7, they look pretty good especially for being on the NES. Master Higgins looks pretty good too, although they could have added maybe some more clothes? I mean he looks like he is just wearing nothing but green overalls. Other than that the areas look nice and do not make me question what they could possibly be. Just kind of a side note here, I think personally that if they remade this game today with toady's standard graphics then this game would look incredibly amazing and possibly become one of the best games up to date.
Anyway carrying on, the sound I rated a 5. Now you may be asking why, you tend to like a lot of video game music and sounds. Well here is why, the music was fine when I started, didn't really stand out to me but wasn't bad...until I realized that it loops and starts to become what I call ear bleeding. If they did remake this game, please Nintendo change the music. As for addictiveness I rated the game a 6, I wasn't entirely addicted to the game but it was fun to play and passes time pretty quickly but it doesn't completely hook me and keep me playing forever like other NES titles seem to do.
Story I rated a 5, and that is because it is pretty much every plat former storyline ever created ever. Your girlfriend gets kidnapped and you must save her. It's just kind of generic to me, there could have been more especially since the game is called Treasure Island. Maybe with the addition of finding a huge hidden treasure would make the story much more to me. As for depth and difficulty, I rated them both a 4. The game really wasn't that long, again understandable this was for the NES, nor was it that hard. It only times I really found any kind of challenge with the game was when I reached a boss, and even they were not that hard.
Adventure Island as a hole is a fairly decent game, and by no means should someone just turn it away because of simplicity and lack of story. I would recommend it to people who really enjoy games like Mario and Sonic. The game is a great time killer and who knows maybe you'll enjoy it more than I did. Thank you for taking the time out to read my review and I hope you read more of my future reviews until next time.
Graphics 7 Sound 5 Addictive 6 Story 5 Depth 4 Difficulty 4
Review Rating: 4.2/5
Submitted: 12-12-12
Review Replies: 0
8.5
Very entertaining.. cmasterprice
GRAPHICS 8/10Well, the graphics, one of the better one's I've seen for a NES title.
They weren't to blocky, they were vibrant and alive, just watching this game made me feel like a kid again. But the small things i need to say, are that the items were just plain boring looking, and the cloud platforms all looked the same.
SOUND 10/10 I rated the sound so high, simply because, each and every level had different, catchy sounds to it and i found myself looking forward to the next level because of that.
ADDICTIVENESS 7/10When i first started, the thing that had my interest the most (gameplay wise), was the variety of items you could collect, while this did make the game less repetitive, it did lose its glamor after awhile.
DEPTH 5/10This game, wasn't amazingly long, I don't really have much to say as far as the length of the game goes.
DIFFICULTY 8/10This game was rather difficult from the start, some jumps took the utmost perfection in timing, two projectile screen limitation.
But, enemies were easy to kill.
Graphics 8 Sound 10 Addictive 7 Depth 5 Difficulty 8
Review Rating: 3.3/5
Submitted: 11-11-12
Review Replies: 2
5
Adventure Island Review Marcmoney
Overall - 5
Adventure Island is just like Wonderboy. It is kind of a rip off game cause you have nothing to attack the enemies and you only jump till you get a hammer in the game.
Graphics - 8
The graphics are good. It was well-made for the game.
Sound - 9
The sound is very good. The sound effects make it sound like a Mario game or one of those old games that were very popular. :)
Addictiveness - 3
I would probably not play this game again. It sure looks fun, but I am not into the way it was made.
Story - N/A
There is no story in this game. If there is, then I did not even see it.
Depth - 6
The game is quite big. It is just a basic Mario thing. Jumping and jumping and throwing hammers...sounds a lot like Mario.
Difficulty - 8
Like I said, it is hard. I really did not enjoy this. I couldn't even beat the first level. :S
Wrap Things Up...
Adventure Island is just like Mario only it is not better than Mario. I wouldn't recommend trying this game out on a count of how hard it was for me. Go ahead and try it out and see if it is easy for you. :)
Graphics 8 Sound 9 Addictive 3 Depth 6 Difficulty 8
Review Rating: 2.7/5
Submitted: 07-21-11
Review Replies: 0
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