Super Adventure Island

"Quite the Super Adventure"

Back in the 80's, Hudson Soft went to bring Adventure Island on the NES as its lead platformer game. Most knew this game used the same engine as Wonder Boy on the SMS, but Hudson had bought that engine from Sega Westone and added its character Master Higgins to the mix. The Wonder Boy games would then follow a more RPG strategy in its future incarnations while Hudson went on to make 3 Adventure Island games on Nintendo. By 1991 when the Super Famicom was long established in Japan and the SNES was settling in the USA, it was time for Hudson Soft to bring Master Higgins into the 16bit era. Most of us were not expecting anything great after witnessing the greatness of Super Mario World, of the coolness and fascinating elements of Sonic The Hedgehog which was game of the year by then. Nevertheless Hudson insisted and proceeded with Super Adventure Island, releases in Spring of 1992. The results was quite good.

Story (7/10): There wasn't much of a storyline but it seemed that Master Higgins was chilling with his girl one night (chilling? I feel like I'm going back to my 1992 lingo) and this wacky wizard flies by in a broom and turns Higgins Cutie into stone. Higgins gets mad and pursues the bandit by hanging on the legs of a falcon that flies to its direction. Here's were the super adventure begins.

Graphics (8/10): graphically this was an improvement over the previous 3 adventure island on the NES, everything is much more colorful and prettier. The sprites are now bigger and more detailed. The cartoony feeling is much more alive, and while the game doesn't implement special effects n the game itself, it does make use of the Mode 7 in its intros and intermission screens, not as great as Sonic or Mario but just as good and accepted by SNES standards.

Gameplay: (10/10) I rarely played Adventure Island but I did play Wonder Boy and I liked the gameplay in that game, simple jumping and shooting your stone-made hammer was the way to go, I'm glad to report that Super Adventure Island follows this trajectory very well and adds a few items onto the mix. Holding the pad button down and pressing the jump button will allow for a higher jump that will come handy in certain areas, all while strategizing how to approach your enemies as you need to analyze some of the baddies's patterns. The boomerang is a better weapon as it allows for reach and if you collect 3 or more of the same weapon it will enhance its power. Overall its simple but very fun to execute.

Difficulty: (7/10) the game isnt hard, but it does give you a challenge in certain areas, bosses are cool ut the first don't break you off a sweat in beating them. Those used to gameplay from the current trend of videogames will find some frustration while those who remember this old-school gameplay will enjoy on it. I do wish the game had an options screen where you could have increased its difficulty and perhaps listen to the music, I'm about to tell you in my next paragraph why.

Sound/Music: (9/10) MUSIC © 1992 YUZO KOSHIRO, huh what's this?? Yuzo K did the music?? While this credit wasn't shown on the title screen as it does in the Sega games he has composed for, many reviews had mentioned that the composer for Actraiser and Streets of Rage had done the music for this game. I had to see (or hear for better term) this for myself. What can I say? the man is a genious. After the Symphonic appraisal he did for Actraiser, one was to wonder how he would composed using the Sony sound chip of the SNES and make it hip rather than orchestral. The music here is very cool indeed, kicking off with a funky beat tune in the first stages, a hot techno track in the boss stages, a mellow but cool r&b theme during the underwater and inside the whale stages, even a reggae tune that will remind you of the theme for the famed “cops” show. “bad boys, bad boys, watcha gonna do when Higgins comes for you?

Yuzo's better composition obviously would be on Streets of Rage II released later that year, but this attempt at hip & happenin music on the SNES is quite a welcome to the soundtrack collection of 16bit Nintendo.

Overall: (8/10) while many may not remember this game or even recall Adventure Island, you should give this game a try, if not for its cool gameplay and neat graphics, do it mostly of its amazing music, that alone warrants a purchase, (for those fans of Actraiser and SOR music, a must add to your collection of Koshiro's musical masterpieces).

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/04/05