Review Date: April 1, 2021
Release Date: September 1, 1988
Platform: NES
Developer: Hudson Soft
Genre: Linear Platformer
Anecdotes: Being of the age that grew up on the NES, I have played more than my fair share of clones. Whenever a game is successful, a bunch of similar games pop up that are similar, yet never live up to the original. Hudson’s Adventure Island stole so much from Super Mario Bros. that I wouldn’t be surprised if Nintendo sued Hudson.
Description: At its simplest, you control Mario Master Higgins across 32 levels from left to right. Some No levels can be skipped, but the object is to rescue Princess Toadstool Leilani (now officially known as Princess Peach, but I like calling her Toadstool) from Bowser the Evil Witch Doctor. Each level is timed via a draining health bar, but and outside of 8-1, it rarely frequently comes into play.
That’s actually copied and pasted from the Super Mario review. The italics are the parts I added for this game. They ripped off a ton from Super Mario, but this game isn’t anywhere near as good.
Positives: I guess skateboarding on clouds can be fun, but otherwise, I got nothing.
Negatives: I hate this game. I spent several hours just trying to get through the first world. 1-1 wasn’t too bad. 1-2 was bad at first, but once I got a feel for how the skateboard works, I had less trouble. By 1-3, though, I was abusing save states after every quarter level and jumping all over the place looking for bananas, and I STILL couldn’t finish world one. Then I kept getting the killer eggplant. 1-4 was even worse, to the point were I was putting my hands up in frustration like I was Bud Selig. The game is unbelievably hard, and if that’s just world 1, I can’t even imagine how bad the rest of the game must be.
Final Opinion: I really hate this game. I’m controlling some half naked idiot on an island and I can’t keep him alive for more than 30 seconds. I’d fail this one because it’s absolutely horrible, but I only got 1/8 of the way through the game, so an F would be completely unfair. Perhaps grading a game based on so little of it is unfair, too, but I’m going to grade this crap anyway.
Grade: D (world 1 only)