The Weird Story of Adventure Island on the NES

Adventure Island has a way more interesting story about its development than many of the other games I’ve covered. It is tied to the Wonder Boy series. I’ll be looking at the first game in the series and talking about the weirdness of how the game came to be.

I remember playing this game as a kid. What I don’t remember is where I first played it, or who I was with. All I remember is having a good time while trying to play it.

It wasn’t until I started collecting retro games that I realized that it was a series. While I own the second and third games, I don’t remember if I really sat down to play them. I’ll get to those games eventually, but for now, let’s focus on the first game in the series.

TLDR: A Bright and Colorful Arcade Game.

Wonder Boy and Sega

Wonder Boy was made by a company called Escape. They had a licensing arrangement with Sega for the arcade version of Wonder Boy. Escape owned the code and game design, and Sega owned the Wonder Boy trademark.

When the game was going to be ported to the NES, Escape teamed up with Hudson under a different licensing agreement. This resulted in a new IP being created for the game, and it was released as Adventure Island. The console versions of Adventure Island and Wonder Boy are different, as Wonder Boy has new levels that are exclusive to the Master System.

This is where the two series go in different directions. Hudson had the rights to the Adventure Island series, and Sega took Wonder Boy in a more action RPG direction. Escape continued to work with both companies, and a similar situation would play out with Sega’s arcade beat’em up Riot City. Hudson would release a version of the game on the TurboGrafx-CD under the title Riot Zone.

I haven’t come across another story like this. There are probably similar stories out there, and it will be fun if I stumble across them. Finding weird stories like this is part of the fun of going over retro games.

Narrative

The story is pretty much what most games from the 1980s have. It isn’t that elaborate, and it sets up what you’re doing. It is a standard “Go rescue the Princess” plot.

You control Master Higgins (known as Master Wigins in the UK), who ventured to an island in the South Pacific. There is some evil witch there who has kidnapped Princess Tina. Why is this Master Higgins problem?

Let’s see if the manual explains this a little bit. Well, after looking at the manual, I’m wondering where Wikipedia got the name “Princess Tina,” because the manual calls her Princess Leilani. It doesn’t expand on the story, though, which is fine for a game like this. (Link)

The story is fine for a game like this. It isn’t amazing, but it does a good job of explaining what you have to do. There is more explanation than plot in the story as it tells you about the levels, enemies, and traps. None of it is in any detail, it simply tells you what to expect.

Gameplay

There isn’t too much to the gameplay in Adventure Island. The game was released in 1987, and this was a time when companies were trying to bring the arcade experience to the home console. That is basically what Escape and Hudson did with this game.

You move your character left to right and jump over enemies. There are a few power-ups you can get, and there is plenty of fruit for you to get, which gives you more time as well as bonus points. You aren’t totally defenseless in this game, as you can get a stone axe to throw at your enemies. You can also run and get a skateboard.

There is a time limit on the level. It doesn’t count down like in other games where you’ll see the time tick down like in other games. It actually looks like a life bar. This isn’t something I like, even if it accomplishes the same goal. I just want to see the time tick down, or even better than that, not have it at all.

It is easy to die in this game. Every enemy kills you in one hit, which makes sense for an arcade game. This game has a lot of similarities to Thrilla’s Surfari, except Adventure Island has better controls.

This is a fun arcade game. Adventure Island is a nice distraction from other games in the NES library. It is just frustrating enough to keep you playing.

Visuals

Adventure Island looks very good! It is a bright and colorful game that is very cartoonish. There is a goofiness in this game that I find very compelling.

The sprites look great. Your character is a strange caveman who has a baseball hat on. The death animations are funny, and it is easy to see what you can and cannot touch, except for the rocks, which don’t kill you.

I really like the enemies in this game. There are the weird ones, like giant snails and frogs, and the always fun jumping octopi. Nothing in this game is serious, which is rather refreshing to see. I like it when a video game goes all in on comedy. It felt like I was playing a Saturday morning cartoon.

The graphics are wonderful. I don’t have anything bad to say about them. Hudson usually made or published great-looking games back in the 1980s and 1990s.

8/10. This is a fun platformer with some interesting gameplay. It is can be about speed, or you can take a more cautious approach. It isn’t an easy game, and it was frustrating enough to keep me playing.

Pros

• Good Controls
• Great Graphics
• Fun Gameplay

Cons

• One Hit Deaths
• Confusing User Interface

Conclusion

This was a fun game to go back and play. I have previously played Wonder Boy for my YouTube channel, and I have a few memories of playing this when I was a kid. This is a series that I don’t know much about. I bought the first game because I played it before, and the other two because I was going for a complete set at the time, I think.

Adventure Island is a simple game with a very basic premise. It works well for an arcade and early NES game. It had great graphics and good controls.

I found the story behind the game to be more interesting. I didn’t know a thing about Wonder Boy until the mid to late 2010s, when I started to get into the Master System. Seeing the connection between these two games is very cool, and it made me want to revisit Adventure Island. It just took me a while to do so.

If you liked this post, please check out my other posts about NES games, such as Ikari Warriors or Air Fortress.