November's pick for the Together Retro game club over at
http://racketboy.com was
Adventure Island, a game with a rather infamously confusing history. To make an extremely long story short,
Adventure Island is technically just the first
Wonder Boy game but with completely different sprites. After the first game(s), each series began its own equally confusing lineage of games. Though no
Wonder Boy games were released for any Game Boy systems, there were a handful of
Adventure Island releases, so let's take a look at each.
[img width=300 height=300]http://imgur.com/6d5szl.jpg[/img]
[img width=200 height=200]http://imgur.com/gvbyz.jpg[/img] [img width=200 height=200]http://imgur.com/gZQYv.jpg[/img] [img width=200 height=200]http://imgur.com/PLDYU.jpg[/img]
Adventure Island was released on the Game Boy in 1992, however it's really not a port of the original
Adventure Island as much as it's a variation on the second NES game. For instance this title features dinosaurs that Master Higgins can ride on, a device that was not present in the first NES game. Similarly, many of the levels found here are based on levels from the second game. Though in true Hudson fashion, the levels in the Game Boy game are redesigned rather than directly pulled from the NES release.
The game controls quite well, and is actually very long with a full seven islands to conquer. It's definitely a game that will take you a full afternoon to beat, although considering the length of the quest some sort of save feature would have been a welcome addition. The graphics are excellent though, with extremely detailed and expressive sprites. Again, this is a hallmark of many Hudson Game Boy releases.
[img width=300 height=300]http://imgur.com/O7mi4l.jpg[/img]
[img width=200 height=200]http://imgur.com/VQijU.jpg[/img] [img width=200 height=200]http://imgur.com/Bf975.jpg[/img] [img width=200 height=200]http://imgur.com/WjJGO.jpg[/img]
Adventure Island II: Aliens In Paradise is a mostly original game (with a completely original subtitle) that is also somewhat influenced by the third NES release. Strangely I felt like the controls were actually less accurate in this release than in the first Game Boy game. But the graphics and music are excellent and feature an overworld map similar to games like
Super Mario World. Also the inclusion of a password feature to resume your game is definitely appreciated as this one is a pretty long one like the first.
[img width=300 height=400]http://imgur.com/8q3gul.jpg[/img]
[img width=300 height=200]http://imgur.com/tvi8xl.jpg[/img] [img width=300 height=200]http://imgur.com/AJmuAl.jpg[/img]
In 2004
Adventure Island was ported to the Game Boy Advance as part of the Famicom Mini series, which was Japan's version of our NES Classic series. Fittingly, this port of
Adventure Island is actually just an emulated version of the Famicom release, the only difference being a bit of cropping due to the resolution of the GBA's screen.
This was the first time I had ever spent any serious amount of time playing
Adventure Island, and I must say it's an overly brutal game. Of course it comes across as a generic platformer in the vein of
Super Mario Bros., but it's difficulty often hovers just around "unfair." The biggest dilemma is that of speed. You see there is a timer constantly ticking down, forcing you to speed through the level. However, running causes you to slide when landing jumps which makes already sketchy platforming areas dreadful. Likewise, since only one hit from an enemy kills you, going too fast leaves a lot of room for error. To make matters worse, there are no continues. You get three lives and then a GAME OVER. Luckily there is a trick out there to get unlimited continues. But even once you've discovered that, this game is highly frustrating. I myself didn't have the motivation to stick with it until the end.
[img width=400 height=300]http://imgur.com/cHX6G.jpg[/img]
[img width=300 height=200]http://imgur.com/XVP7Ul.jpg[/img] [img width=300 height=200]http://imgur.com/72qra.jpg[/img]
In 2006 Hudson released a GBA cartridge in Japan as part of their Hudson Best series that actually featured all four Famicom
Adventure Island games in a single release. As you might imagine this one is extremely sought after in the US considering it's a compilation of four games. Not to mention the fact that
Adventure Island IV had never been brought to the US, even in the NES days. I personally can't comment on this release since I don't have a copy, but I'd be willing to guess that it's a pretty straight forward emulation of the Famicom titles.
So there you have it. A whole lot of
Adventure Island in portable form. Let me know what you all think of any of these titles. Oh, and if anyone has that Hudson Best cart that they want to part with, feel free to let me know!
