Super FamiComplete #59: Super Adventure Island (Redux)

  

Title: Super Adventure Island (NA) Takahashi Meijin no Daibouken Jima (JP) (translates roughly to
"Master Takahashi's Great Adventure Island")

Release Date: 1/11/1992

Developer: Hudson Soft

Publisher: Hudson Soft

This is an entry in the very storied Adventure Island series from Hudson Soft. I have only played Super Adventure Island II before this, which plays very similarly to a Zelda or Metroidvania game. I haven't played any of the other "Adventure Island" titles, so this should be a treat. 

 

Background

This series, along with Bomberman and Wonder Boy, is considered one of Hudson Soft's classic series. If you don't know anything about Hudson Soft, they were an incredibly prolific developer and publisher from the 80's almost up until modern day. They developed for most every major platform, and have created some classic video game icons. 

This series, in particular, had three previous entries on the NES (with one additional for the Famicom). The series follows the protagonist Master Higgins (Takahashi Meijin in Japan), a young lad who jetsets to the titular Adventure Island, a small island in the South Pacific, to make his fame and steal the heart of the island maiden, "Miss Jungle" Tina. 

Super Adventure Island is a direct continuation of those three games, with the game starting with Master Higgins enjoying some alone time with Tina on top  of a palm tree. Right about as he is about to plant a kiss on Tina's cheek, she is turned to stone by some evil dark wizard type (who is aptly named Dark Robe). Master Higgins sets off after him to defeat the wizard and return poor Tina back to her living state. 

Gameplay

The gameplay is one of those "easy to do, tough to master" kind of deals. Unlike its sequel, Super Adventure Island is a platformer with the simple goal of making it from Side A to Side B of a stage. Higgins can run (though more at a plodding pace), jump, duck, super jump by holding down before jumping, and attack if he has a weapon (either a boomerang or a stone club, both of which are used as projectiles). If he finds a skateboard, he can ride on top of it to gain additional speed.

This doesn't mean that the game is simple. The game pushes you to continually move forward towards your goal. To help with this, you have a meter on the top of the screen. This might look like a lifebar, but it is actually a "hunger" meter. You see, tropical island life really takes its toll on poor Higgins, and he has to continually replenish his energy as he moves or performs actions by eating food he finds throughout the level. If his meter runs out, poor Higgins dies. Now some things can also expend his energy too, such as tripping over a rock or continuously jumping, so this all must be carefully managed. 

This is exacerbated by the fact that Higgins also dies in only one hit. Even brushing up against enemies will put Higgins down for the count. You have two lives to start, two continues, and once that is done your game must be restarted. Now you can earn more lives with high scores, but that takes some practice. The game is 5 stages long, with each stage being broken into four sub-levels. Each stage ends with a boss fight, as well, so you have to be a very careful player to make it to the end. 

The game feels like the prototype to what would eventually become the "runner" series of mobile games, and I am very curious to see if an endless runner of this series has been made yet. The levels are very quick and breezy, and the game rewards that ever pushing forward with higher scores and more lives. This makes the game a nice palette cleanser coming off what else I have been playing for this blog. It is a quick, pick-up and put-down game. A total run takes only about a half hour; mayhaps a bit more with practice.

The aesthetic of the game is nice and cheery. You have adorable characters and enemies with big cartoony eyes. It reminds me of some of the old "horror" manga about cute ghouls, yokai, and ghosts. Everything has just a bit of personality to it. 

The game is really hard. The first level is very manageable, but the second sub-level immediately cranks up the difficulty a great bit. Poor Higgins has a huge sprite, and he slips and slides as if he is on ice. His jumping, as well, can be finicky. Higgins has a high jump, but very little forward momentum, making you never feel quite confident in his movement. I messed up what I thought were simple jumps constantly. Plus enemies are frequent, are tiny and hard to hit with your weapons, and sometimes shoot projectiles with very little time to react. There is very little randomness to the enemies, though, so you get the idea that the game wants you to adhere to a strict dominant path. You learn the pattern of each level until you can execute it flawlessly.

The bosses themselves are not too difficult, but it still takes a couple tries to learn their pattern. The issue with this is the fact that you have to redo the stage before challenging them again. It is like a killer "bonfire run" each time you die. And remember, your chances for the game are limited. This very much feels like a game that you chip away at and slowly hone your skills. 

• 
• 

Music

The music is really quite sweet and cute. 

Ads, Commercials, Art

Verdict

Nowadays this game would be a quick mobile or Switch game you could pick up for like $5 or $10. Ironically, that is about how much this game sells for nowadays as a used, cart only copy.