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!!