Super Adventure Island

Super Adventure Island
North American box art by Greg Martin
Developer(s)Produce!
Publisher(s)Hudson Soft
Composer(s)Yuzo Koshiro
SeriesAdventure Island
Platform(s)Super NES
Release
  • JP: January 11, 1992
  • NA: April 1992
  • PAL: November 19, 1992
Genre(s)Platformer
Mode(s)Single-player

Super Adventure Island (高橋名人の大冒険島, Takahashi Meijin no Daibōken Jima; "Master Takahashi's Great Adventure Island") is a 1992 platform game released by Hudson Soft for the Super NES. It was the first Adventure Island game released for the SNES and came out between the releases of the NES games Adventure Island II and Adventure Island 3. It was later followed by Super Adventure Island II. The game's soundtrack was composed by Yuzo Koshiro.

An unrelated game also titled with the same name was released for mobile phones in 2004. It is a remake of Wonder Boy: Monster Land, which was previously ported to the PC Engine by Hudson as Bikkuriman World.

Plot

Over the course of his adventures, Master Higgins managed to maintain the peace and tranquility of his home, the mystical Adventure Island, and even earned the love and support of the local "Miss Jungle", the lovely Tina (erroneously called "Jeannie Jungle" in English materials). At nighttime, the young hero was quietly enjoying a well-deserved rest with his grateful girlfriend Tina loyally leaning on his side atop a treetop (said to be stargazing in the English manual). When the warmth of Tina's soft touch suddenly becomes a chilling coldness, he turns around and is shocked to find that the evil sorcerer, Dark Cloak, used a spell to turn Tina into a stone statue for eternity. Dark Cloak retreats to the legendary Ice Mountain across the sea, and Higgins resolves to defeat the wicked sorcerer in order to restore her to life.

The player controls Higgins as he travels his way through five stages with four areas each. The first three areas in each stage has Higgins fighting his way through an obstacle course, fighting many traps and enemies, in order to reach the goal ball. The final area in each stage consists of a boss battle.

Gameplay

Other than the improved visuals and audio as a result of the switch of hardware to the SNES, the rules of the game are not much different from the original Adventure Island. Although released shortly after Adventure Island II for the NES, Master Higgins' dinosaur companions are not present in this installment. However, Higgins now has a choice between two weapons: the standard stone axe from previous games and a boomerang (which was later introduced in Adventure Island 3). Whereas the axe can only be tossed left or right, Higgins can shoot the boomerang in four directions (up and down, as well as left and right). When Higgins first picks a weapon, he can only toss one shot at a time. By picking up the same weapon in a row, Higgins can toss up to three shots consecutively. When Higgins picks a fourth weapon of the same kind, his shots will turn into fireballs, which are more powerful and capable of destroying stones. At this point, when the player switches from axes to boomerangs or vice versa, the fireball effect will remain in place until the player loses a life. While Higgins has lost the ability to run faster in this game, he has gained the ability to crouch, which can be followed up with a super-jump. During gameplay, Master Higgins must collect tropical fruit in order to keep his life bar from depleting; he also can acquire a skateboard which will allow him to travel across the stage faster.

Other media

Super Adventure Island is one of the video games featuring in the manga titled Cyber Boy, by Nagai Noriaki, published by Coro Coro Comic and Shogakukan, from 1991 to 1993.

Reception

According to Famitsu, Super Adventure Island sold 19,562 copies in its first week on the market and 127,961 copies during its lifetime in Japan.[16] The Japanese publication Micom BASIC Magazine ranked the game fourth in popularity in its April 1992 issue, and it received a 21.3/30 score in a readers' poll conducted by Super Famicom Magazine.[17][18] It garnered an average reception from critics.[19][20][21][22]

VideoGames & Computer Entertainment's Clayton Walnum noted the developers' decision to swap the positions of the shoot and jump buttons, making the game's controls difficult to use and downright frustrating at first.[9] Super Gamer praised the game's graphics but criticized its gameplay.[14] AllGame's Brett Alan Weiss felt that the game had the same gameplay as its predecessor but with better visuals, a more varied soundtrack, and variety of challenges, but faulted the main character's slow movement and limited jumping.[1]

In 2018, Complex included the game on their best Super Nintendo games of all time list.[23]

References

  1. ^ a b Weiss, Brett Alan (1998). "Super Adventure Island - Review". AllGame. All Media Network. Archived from the original on 2014-11-16. Retrieved 2025-07-25.
  2. ^ O'Connor, Frank; Rand, Paul (March 1992). "Review: Super Adventure Island". Computer and Video Games. No. 124. EMAP Images. pp. 78–79.
  3. ^ "NEW GAMES CROSS REVIEW: 高橋名人の大冒険島". Famitsu (in Japanese). No. 160–161. ASCII Corporation. January 10–17, 1992. p. 39. (Transcription by Famitsu.com. Archived 2016-10-22 at the Wayback Machine).
  4. ^ Firme, Matthew A. (September 1992). "Review: Super Adventure Island". Game Players Nintendo Guide. Vol. 5, no. 9. GP Publications. p. 65.
  5. ^ "Console Connexions: Super Wonderboy III: Adventure Island". Games-X. No. 39. Europress. January 23–29, 1992. p. 24.
  6. ^ van Duyn, Marcel (May 15, 2011). "Super Adventure Island (Wii Virtual Console / Super Nintendo) Review". Nintendo Life. Nlife Media. Archived from the original on 2012-04-26. Retrieved 2025-07-27.
  7. ^ Davies, Jonathan (December 1992). "UK Review: Super Adventure Island". Super Play. No. 2. Future Publishing. p. 84.
  8. ^ Beaven, James (November 1992). "SNES Round-Up: Super Adventure Island". Total!. No. 11. Future Publishing. p. 61.
  9. ^ a b Walnum, Clayton (April 1992). "Video-Game Reviews: Super Adventure Island". VideoGames & Computer Entertainment. No. 39. Larry Flynt Publications. pp. 36–37.
  10. ^ "SNES Out of Control". Control (supplement). No. 1. Maverick Magazines. September 1992. pp. 1–16.
  11. ^ Goldman, Jane (March 1992). "Import Review: Adventure Island (Super Famicom)". Game Zone. No. 5. Dennis Publishing. p. 49.
  12. ^ Roberts, Nick; Rice, Chris (September 1992). "Reviewed! Super Adventure Island". N-Force. No. 3. Impact Magazines. pp. 60–61.
  13. ^ Kirrane, Simon (December 1992). "Super Review: Super Adventure Island". Super Action. No. 3. Europress. pp. 48–49.
  14. ^ a b "A-Z of Games - Nintendo Games Index: Super NES". Super Gamer. No. 1. Paragon Publishing. April 1994. pp. 122–124.
  15. ^ "A-Z of Official Games: Super Adventure Island". Super Pro. No. 1. Paragon Publishing. December 1992. p. 76.
  16. ^ "Game Search". Game Data Library. Archived from the original on 2025-06-14. Retrieved 2025-07-27.
  17. ^ Tezuka, Ichirō (April 1992). "Super Soft Hot Information: Super Famicom". Micom BASIC Magazine (in Japanese). No. 118. The Dempa Shimbunsha Corporation. pp. 242–243.
  18. ^ "超絶 大技林 '98年春版". PlayStation Magazine (Special) (in Japanese). Vol. 42. Tokuma Shoten Intermedia. April 15, 1998. p. 316.
  19. ^ Harris, Steve; Semrad, Ed; Alessi, Martin; Williams, Ken (March 1992). "Review Crew: Super Adventure Island". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 32. Sendai Publishing. p. 22.
  20. ^ Earth Angel (March 1992). "Super NES Pro Review: Super Adventure Island". GamePro. No. 32. IDG. p. 62.
  21. ^ McNamara, Andrew; Martinez, Ed; Petzoldt, Rick (Spring 1992). "Master Higgins is Back For His Most Colorful Quest Yet in Super Adventure Island for SNES". Game Informer. No. 4. Sunrise Publications. pp. 22–263.
  22. ^ "The Official Story: Super Adventure Island". Control. No. 2. Maverick Magazines. October 1992. p. 53.
  23. ^ Knight, Rich (November 21, 2016). "The Best Super Nintendo Games of All Time". Complex. Complex Media. Archived from the original on 2018-01-18. Retrieved 2025-07-27.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.