Super Troll Islands

"One day, this game will drive me blind. I have no regrets."

Trolls. We all know about them. They're those little, unclothed toys with the wacky hair that people collected. There is also those trolls you know about on the Internet, who are just annoying, but you love to hate at times. When both of them combine in a way, you get this acid trip on the super Nintendo.

First of all, I should mention that I bought this game when I was young one when I first played this game. at the time, I couldn't stand to look at it. With all of the rainbow graphics, it could have made someone go blind just by playing through an hour or two of this game. The bonus stages take this seizure fest up to eleven, as they turn the rainbows and add in desserts and such. Whoever thought of the graphics in this game should be fired, because I think whoever bought this game would be wearing glasses by now. Well, that's not true since I don't wear them, but still.

The game play is actually unique, compared to games of today. Rather than it being a puzzle, collecting items, you have to recolor the whole stage, or rather, certain boxes. When you first start the stage, everything has been grayed out, except for the enemies. Once you maneuver your troll, whatever they're standing on turns into color again. This is used to beat the stage, as there are frames scattered throughout the stage, and your goal is to get those frames fully colored. It starts out as an incredibly simple task, because of the minuscule amount of obstacles in the way, but later on, it starts getting near impossible without mastering the controls. The enemies that often get in your way are easy to beat, which involves throwing a yellow cupcake at them, and then eating them. Yes, apparently, trolls eat darkness in order to make the so called mist vanish. Most enemies only take one or two cupcakes in order to eat them, while some are outright immune to being eaten, such as spikes, red blobs, and a cloud that stalks you if you take too long to beat a level. But that's not all you can do to beat them, since you can pick up items automatically and throw them. This makes the enemy and item magically explode, despite neither of them being made of explosives.

I should also mention that you have 4 lives, each life a different troll. That's not all, because each troll has a different ability. The one you start out with can take an extra hit, which is nice. When you have to jump up to a sky high ledge, you can use the pink haired troll, who can jump as if he was on the moon. The orange troll is the opposite of the pink, as he can run almost faster than the flash, And finally, the light blue troll is able to dive underwater, which is almost needed to beat the game 100%. I have to commend them on the originality of the game play style, which is rare seeing as today is full of sequels and cookie cutter game play.

When you're actually controlling the little trolls, it gets to become quite hard, especially with the orange troll. Whenever you want them to get away, their small slippage gets them killed and puts them to sleep. On the other hand, when you're trying to take it slow, they go too fast. Orange troll takes this to the extreme, because he can go from walking to literally going to the other side of the level within seconds. Granted, this superhero speed can become useful, since there are times where there are multiple frames next to each other, and you can simply run over each one without falling in the gaps. This is also the same case with the Hi-jumping Pink troll. His super jump is either all the way, or not much. It isn't as bad as the running, but it can use a bit of fine tuning in order to get used to it. Plus, it is also much more useful on the later levels, since some can become outright impossible unless you absorb a jumping item which turns your troll into a super jumper, regardless of who they are. Likewise, there is also a super speeding item, which will turn your troll into the orange one for that level, giving them running speed, and ice like physics.
Luckily, they perfected the light blue troll's swimming. I didn't have a single problem with the swimming, but I dislike the fact that there is no swimming item for the other trolls to grab. That means if you lose your light blue troll, you'll be pretty much stuck unless you can find a rare item in the shape of an alarm clock, which revives one of your sleeping trolls.
Overall, the controls aren't perfect, but they do get the job done.

As for the music, it will drive you nuts. there are only a few tracks in the game. One is played at the title, one for the options and bonus areas, one for the main hub, and two separate tracks that alternate for levels. With the music being so tiring, you'll definitely want to mute your TV or computer if you want to play this game.
Likewise, the sound is also minimal. The main sound effect you'll be hearing is a glitter sound, which comes up whenever you run over a Grey tile, turning it into color. The second most common sound effect is an 'OW!' noise, which indicates you've either boinked your head on a breakable tile, which occurs in the later half of the game, or you got hit by an enemy or an obstacle. This annoying sound effect is equally as annoying as the wow sound, which plays whenever you beat a level or finish a frame. Regardless, you won't be missing the sounds or music. I'd rather listen to my iPod instead of listening to this game.

The graphics are either too bland or too rainbowy for today's current gen gaming. simply put, you'll be having seizures if you play this game for too long. The text is barely readable, the brightness is all screwy, and worst of all, the score and life per troll is near impossible to even figure out. there are only a few preset level templates, which get really old fast, although they do change the set of everything every ten levels, which is nice. You have your basic forest theme, the beach, and the troll castle. After the castle, you'd think they would end the game there, since the last few levels in the castle are some of the worst in the game. In fact, they don't end there, as you go into space, and finally, a nightmarish land I simply call clown hell.

Lastly, we have the overall difficulty of the game. At first, they put it at beyond easy, because the first level doesn't even scroll, and only contains one frame, while some of the later levels contain hundreds of them, which will get really tiring fast. They do change the templates, like I said above, which is nice, but still add into how fast gets boring. If they were going to make it better, I would've made it end after the last castle level, because as a 8 year old kid, I never got past there. Since I'm around a bigger age now, I was actually able to beat this, at the cost of almost a whole day of playing this without saving, and using all 3 continues you're provided. This is almost required, since they don't give you saving in this game. That means if you turn off the Super Nintendo , you have to start all the way back at level one. This used to anger me when I was young, since most of the better games back then had 3 save slots, such as legend of Zelda, and illusion of gaia, but I'm getting off track.
To make this short, There is steep, Steep difficulty curve in the game, along with the fact you have to play it in one sitting.

After beating this one rainbow mess, there is no replay value. Once you've beaten the last level, they simply give you an end screen, and send you back to the screen, with no bonuses at all. Sure, some expert games could try and get all the items, which is impossible, due to the fact that some spawn inside the ground.

Ratings:
game play: 10/10 For the way it plays, it is truly on its own, despite being kiddy as neopets.
Music: 3/10 Again, simply put on your own music, rather than listening to the music or sound here.
Control: 5/10 They're a bit slippery, but they will eventually get to you.
Graphics: 1/10 I'm sorry, despite of how good they are, I'm giving this a one just because of the fact that many people have gotten seizures from all of the rainbows in this.
Replay value: 1/10 A second one out of ten for the fact you basically beat the whole game 100% in order to get to the end, which means nothing else to do.
Difficulty: 3/10 the difficulty curve is more like a cliff with the way they made it in this.

Overall: 4/10
While most people will dismiss it as too kiddy of a game, but those who actually give it a chance will be forever blinded by the rainbows of doom this game gives out.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 07/20/09

Game Release: Super Troll Islands (US, February 1994)