The Adventure Island series was in my opinion one of the most underrated of the 8-bit generation. Parts two and three are at least as complex and nearly as well designed as Super Mario Bros. 3, and these released even earlier than that. By the time the Super Nintendo hit I was absolutely pumped for a 16-bit sequel. Then, one day, I saw it on the shelves. I just had to play Super Adventure Island.
Unfortunately I could only rent it, but I cared little because this was the first significant update to one of my favorite franchises. Within minutes I was overwhelmed with disappointment. What should have been an easy win turned into an absolute fumble. So what exactly is the trouble in paradise? Let’s dive in and take a look.
I’m not exactly sure if Super Adventure Island is a sequel or not, or where it fits in the franchise’s timeline. I guess it’s a re-telling of the original story? Who knows. Either way the opening cut scene depicts the portly Master Higgins and his girlfriend Tina enjoying the night sky when suddenly a hooded baddie appears from nowhere, and changes the girl to stone.
Why? Again, it’s not explained, but I’m guessing it’s because he has no face. Master Higgins immediately sets out to rescue her across the mystical Adventure Island once more. Like most platformers the intro is pretty much all you get with no story exposition following it.
Story isn’t what Adventure Island is about. Gameplay is and always has been the focus. Super Adventure Island is a side scrolling platformer that’s mostly familiar, but with a few new ideas the game makes its own. You play as Master Higgins. He’s a portly middle aged man with a red baseball cap and grass skirt. As far as designs go it’s pretty strange, but in a world where Mario is a thing I’m willing to cut Hudson some slack.
Master Higgins can walk, jump, and throw weapons. Holding down awards a higher jump, but you can also do this with successive leaps as well for the same effect. By default Higgins is defenseless but can pick up both stone hammers and boomerangs to throw at enemies. When you collect three of the same power up you get a flame version which does more damage to foes.
One of the more unique elements in this series is the hunger system. It serves as a timer of sorts. You have a hunger meter at the top of the screen which diminishes with time. You must collect various fruits littered in every stage to restore it. This causes you often to play differently than you would in other platformers. In the later stages fruit is often located in hazardous areas with environmental factors and enemies.
You have to weigh whether or not you think you have enough energy to make it to the next piece of fruit, or if you’ve got to risk it all here and now. I’ve never been the biggest fan of this mechanic, but I didn’t find it to be a big problem in Super Adventure Island. Only once or twice did I run out of energy. I wasn’t bothered much by it here.
It’s a pretty basic premise and one that should be familiar to fans of the franchise. Unfortunately the problems rear their head right away. To start off Hudson decided to leave all of Higgins’ dino buddies behind. These were the best elements of Adventure Island 2 and 3. Riding atop these guys afforded you lots of interesting abilities, and kept gameplay fresh throughout. Now you can only attack with your primary weapon. In this sense it’s more similar to the original Adventure Island. That’s not a great thing because that game wasn’t exactly good.
The limited power-ups was a huge drawback and takes away a lot of the elements that made Adventure Island unique. The skateboard is still present, but it forces you to continually scroll forward. You can slow it down by holding left on the directional pad, but platforming while riding this thing is unwieldy.
Super Adventure Island is also far too unforgiving. Master Higgins dies from taking just one hit. The game isn’t super difficult, but you’ll die every now and then because the enemy patterns can be difficult to manage. There is a way to circumvent this, the skateboard, but that’s too difficult to use reliably thanks to the forced scrolling. Of his two weapons only the boomerang works well. The hatchets throw at an arc either left or right so it can be difficult to hit faraway foes.
Meanwhile the boomerang travels straight forward, and can even be thrown up or down. Common sense will tell you to just stick with the boomerang but unfortunately that’s not always possible. Hudson places the hatchet in your path constantly, and sometimes it’s completely unavoidable. It’s bad design when a power-up like this is so detrimental to gameplay.
Another issue I have with Super Adventure Island is that the game is incredibly linear. It’s also quite short with just fifteen levels total. By 8-bit standards that would be fine, but it’s the Super Nintendo we’re talking about. There are no branching paths here, nor are there secret exits. Super Adventure Island also suffers from a lack of variety. The stages just aren’t different enough from one another, nor are they particularly interesting. In one level you get to ride mine carts occasionally, and two stages have you swimming underwater from start to finish.
The lack of variety, and few power-ups make Super Adventure Island a real chore to complete. Less can be more in some cases, but here it’s really not. To be fair I was completely over the game by the time I reached the credits, but that’s just because gameplay is so repetitive and linear.
So far I’ve been ragging on Super Adventure Island but it does have one good quality. The boss encounters are actually pretty decent. These enemies are huge and take up sizable real-estate on-screen. They don’t animate particularly well but I love the designs on them. Early on the way to defeat them is by targeting their weak points. This is the only situation where the hatchet has any kind of advantage over the boomerang, and even then it’s negligible.
Later on things get more interesting. You’ll battle a flying dragon with a long body you’ll have to stay on while striking it’s head. Another has you luring a boss to break the floor underneath it to fall into lava. These encounters aren’t mind-blowing nor are they anything we haven’t seen in other platformers. Compared to the rest of Super Adventure Island however they’re pretty fun.
Super Adventure Island does have a few other things going for it too. Namely the graphics and soundtrack are really good. The game is a huge upgrade in terms of visuals from the 8-bit titles and even competes favorably with other titles released at the time. Everything is vibrant and colorful which fits the tropical theme really well. Some stages even use parallax scrolling to simulate 3D movement in the background and with how many layer’s the game animates it’s really impressive.
I hate Higgins character design, and the enemies look just like generic cartoon animals and bugs. This isn’t enough to harsh my mellow. Super Adventure Island is a really nice looking game. The soundtrack is also great and conveys the tropical theme perfectly. The first stage theme in particular with it’s whistles and drums is incredible. Turn up the volume because you’re going to love the soundtrack.
