Adventure Island

Name: Adventure Island
System: Nintendo Entertainment System
Designed By: Hudson
Release Date: 1986
Type: Action
Players: 1

Adventure Island follows a formula that is the basis for most NES videogames: Take a well-known game, copy it, and make it harder (aka The Xerox Method). As in the case of Adventure Island, you are Master Higgins (no, he isn’t from Magnum PI), and your girlfriend (Tina) is kidnapped by the evil Witch Doctor. To get her back, you must travel through 8 worlds with 4 levels in each. At each 4 level, you will battle with a big boss. Higgins can pick up axes or fire as weapons, but to stay alive, he must eat fruit that appears on the screen. What does that sound like for the most part? Super Mario Bros. Now, I can forgive the whole rescue-the-girl element, but honestly, is there anything else this game could have done to make it look more like a knock-off of SMB than it already is? Just about all that’s left is to jump onto a flagpole at the end of each level. Oh, and don’t forget that you can ride on a skateboard…because they have skateboards on tropical islands.

Anyways, instead of having a plumber, you have what appears to be a redneck with no shirt, mullet, molestache, trucker hat, and beer belly…in a tropical like setting. Redneck Survivor anyone? And in the untimely event that Higgins dies…you get to see his one tooth. Classic.

Just for the record, this game reeks of Arch Nemesis #2. Despite the fact that Higgins is a barefoot redneck, his feet have zero traction. Maybe its because it looks like he’s always doing the pee-pee dance, I don’t know. Perhaps he had one too many pre-game beers. At any rate, you’ll have more luck trying to stop an out of control Mac truck than getting Belly Boy to stop on a dime. The sound starts off in a catchy manner only to have you beating your head up against the wall later. I would compare it to, “Its a Small World After All.”

The only way I’ll recommend this game is if you’ve managed to beat most other Nintendo games. The game is quite challenging but probably not worth your time. And yes…I own a copy.

Mullets Rock!

Joshua