[Played on Retron 5 with original cartidge]
This game is pretty much identical to Wonder Boy, so my points from there apply here.
You enjoyment of Adventure Island depends entirely on how you approach it.
If you approach it as an arcade title, focusing on score and what you can accomplish on 1 credit, you'll likely enjoy yourself. If you approach it like other home NES titles, trying to reach the end, you'll hate this game. Levels ramp up in difficulty substantially around the halfway point, and you won't enjoy any of that challenge if you're trying to brute force your way to the end with the continue code. Usually I hate a game this hard with no (or in this case a secret) continue function, but I think hiding that continue function was a good choice. This game really is at its best when you're just pushing yourself to get better and better on one credit, popping the game in every once n a while to see how far you can go and how many points you can get.
An issue I have with the game are the controls. Higgins is extremely slippery and it can really take some getting used to trying to land jumps exactly how you want them (which is troublesome considering later levels really rely on you being at your top form in that regard). Also you have little to no jump correction. You can kind of control where you land in front of you, but you can't jump right and then arc your jump so you land to the left. You really need to commit to a jump. I really don't like this uncomfortable middle ground where you can kind of correct the jump but you still have to commit to the direction.
This game is definitely going to reward patience, which you wouldn't even expect considering the huger bar and the skateboard power up which forces you forward. I think this is where I got tripped up when I played this game for the first time. Everything about what I was seeing told me I had to keep moving forward without stopping, but really, if you stay away from those eggplants you can stop every now and then and more carefully assess your surroundings.
Oh and about those eggplants. In Wonder Boy, the eggs which contained eggplants were denoted by a spotted pattern. In Adventure Island, there's no indication. So, I kind of like Wonder Boy better.
If you want a quick arcade platforming experience to pop in for 10-20 minutes, give this a go. It's not one of the NES's all time best in that regard, but it's definitely not horrible if you play it this way. Otherwise, I'd just move on the the sequels.
6/10 - Ok
This game is pretty much identical to Wonder Boy, so my points from there apply here.
You enjoyment of Adventure Island depends entirely on how you approach it.
If you approach it as an arcade title, focusing on score and what you can accomplish on 1 credit, you'll likely enjoy yourself. If you approach it like other home NES titles, trying to reach the end, you'll hate this game. Levels ramp up in difficulty substantially around the halfway point, and you won't enjoy any of that challenge if you're trying to brute force your way to the end with the continue code. Usually I hate a game this hard with no (or in this case a secret) continue function, but I think hiding that continue function was a good choice. This game really is at its best when you're just pushing yourself to get better and better on one credit, popping the game in every once n a while to see how far you can go and how many points you can get.
An issue I have with the game are the controls. Higgins is extremely slippery and it can really take some getting used to trying to land jumps exactly how you want them (which is troublesome considering later levels really rely on you being at your top form in that regard). Also you have little to no jump correction. You can kind of control where you land in front of you, but you can't jump right and then arc your jump so you land to the left. You really need to commit to a jump. I really don't like this uncomfortable middle ground where you can kind of correct the jump but you still have to commit to the direction.
This game is definitely going to reward patience, which you wouldn't even expect considering the huger bar and the skateboard power up which forces you forward. I think this is where I got tripped up when I played this game for the first time. Everything about what I was seeing told me I had to keep moving forward without stopping, but really, if you stay away from those eggplants you can stop every now and then and more carefully assess your surroundings.
Oh and about those eggplants. In Wonder Boy, the eggs which contained eggplants were denoted by a spotted pattern. In Adventure Island, there's no indication. So, I kind of like Wonder Boy better.
If you want a quick arcade platforming experience to pop in for 10-20 minutes, give this a go. It's not one of the NES's all time best in that regard, but it's definitely not horrible if you play it this way. Otherwise, I'd just move on the the sequels.
6/10 - Ok