Adventure Island (video game)
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| Adventure Island | |
|---|---|
 NES boxart |
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| Developer(s) | Hudson Soft |
| Publisher(s) | Hudson Soft |
| Designer(s) | Matthew Barnard |
| Platform(s) | NES, Game Boy, MSX, Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, Virtual Console |
| Release date | JP September 12, 1986 NA September 1988 EU 1992 |
| Genre(s) | Platform |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Media | 3-megabit cartridge |
| Input methods | Gamepad |
Adventure Island (高橋名人の冒険島 Takahashi Meijin no Bouken Jima?, lit. "Master Takahashi's Adventure Island"), also known as Hudson's Adventure Island, is a video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System and certain other platforms, first released in Japan for the Famicom on September 12, 1986 and MSX in 1986. The North American NES release came in September, 1988, and the game was released as Adventure Island Classic on the European NES in 1992. Developed by Hudson Soft, the game was an adaptation of the arcade game Wonder Boy, which was ported to Sega home gaming systems under its original name, except for the North American release of the Game Gear version, where it was called Revenge of Drancon.
Adventure Island would go on to found a successful video game franchise with many sequels.
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[edit] Name change
For trademark reasons, Hudson Soft renamed the game, and revamped the main character to be Takahashi Meijin, who is executive of Hudson Soft. In the English language version they dubbed him "Master Higgins". Wonder Boy, Adventure Island, and Revenge of Drancon (the latter title was used on the American release of the Sega Game Gear version, because a Wonder Boy sequel had already been released on the system) are essentially the same game. Adventure Island's stage design more closely resembles that of the Wonder Boy arcade version than the Sega Master System version; the SMS version of Wonder Boy featured, on every fourth area, original world designs that are not found in either the Wonder Boy arcade version or Adventure Island.
[edit] Origin
Adventure Island is not an entirely original creation by Hudson Soft. Hudson licensed the game from a company called Escape (later known as Westone OneBit Entertaiment) and it is even said that Escape helped Hudson developing Adventure Island. Escape was responsible for developing Wonder Boy to the arcades. Because Wonder Boy was a game that Escape had created for Sega, the latter company owned the rights to the characters and bosses, and therefore the franchise could not be used as a release for the Famicom or NES. Escape, however, owned the rights to the regular monsters and the game itself. As a result, Hudson changed the sprites, music, and some of the items from Wonder Boy, removed the continue feature and renamed it Takahashi Meijin no Bouken Jima (or Master Takahashi's Adventure Island). Adventure Island managed to sell more titles than Wonder Boy due to the lack of popularity of the Sega Master System in North America and Japan.
Adventure Island 2, and all other Adventure Island sequels, were purely developed by Hudson. Escape had nothing to do with those games.
On the left is a screenshot of Hudson Soft's Adventure Island for NES. On the right is a screenshot of the same level on Sega's Revenge of Drancon for Game Gear (which is almost identical to the SMS version of Wonder Boy).
[edit] Characters
Master Higgins, known in Japan as Takahashi Meijin, is a fictional character who is the star of the Adventure Island video game series. In the series, he lives with his lovely wife, Tina, in the wilderness of Adventure Island, where things never get boring. Time and time again, he rescues her from aliens, sorcerers, witch doctors, and simply mean things in general. In the course of the series, Tina didn't appear to be his wife from the start; she was originally described in manuals as his girlfriend, but they (apparently) got married in New Adventure Island right before the next kidnapping. Super Adventure Island 2, the last game in the series as of yet, shows them travel to their eventual honeymoon. It's worth mentioning that the early English manuals changed Tina's name, but it was always the same woman, and this is further shown in-game and in Japanese sources.
He is a slightly pudgy man who wears only a red baseball cap (with the Hudson Soft trademark bee) and a Hawaiian-style grass skirt.
If he looks familiar it is because he is a doppelganger of Wonder Boy. The main character of the Sega Master System game of the same name, he is identical in everything but name to his NES counterpart. Westone originally developed the game for Sega, but looking to port it to the more popular Nintendo Entertainment System through an arrangement with Hudson Soft, they simply changed his name to avoid any copyright infringement. Sega countered by uprooting the Wonder Boy franchise from its prehistoric roots to a medieval theme for the second game, Wonder Boy in Monster Land. In this game, and every subsequent Wonder Boy game, the character no longer bore any resemblance to the original Master Higgins character.
Higgins is one of many silent protagonists in the video game world, and rarely speaks to other characters.
In Japan, the Takahashi Meijin character was featured in a 1986 animated TV series called Bug-tte Honey which was heavily inspired by video games and had its own Famicom tie-in game, Takahashi Meijin no Bug-tte Honey, with Takahashi himself making a cameo appearance.
He also makes an appearance in a Smash Bros.-like game called DreamMix TV World Fighters (available for the Nintendo GameCube and Sony PlayStation 2) which also features several other companies' characters and products.
Higgins (along with other Hudson Soft characters like Bonk and Milon) appeared in Saturn Bomberman.
[edit] Storyline
Adventure Island is a side-scrolling platform game, in the same vein as Super Mario Bros. and Sonic the Hedgehog. Master Higgins is attempting to rescue his mate by traversing the tropical island.
[edit] Gameplay
Power-ups are found inside eggs, and include, but are not limited to, shooting power, skateboard, superior shooting power, and fairies.
Running into an enemy, a rolling boulder, or a fire results in death, as does falling into water in the clouds level or into a pit. Stumbling over a small rock results in a partial loss of vitality. It is necessary to collect inexplicably floating food items by jumping in the air, or else Master Higgins will die. A fairy provides protection against enemies, boulders, and fire for a set while, but Higgins is always vulnerable to falling into pits and water.
[edit] Zones
Adventure Island is divided into eight worlds with four levels each, followed by bosses at the end of the fourth level. Unlike Super Mario Bros., the segments of each level are marked to show where one will have to go back to, when starting over after the character dies.
[edit] Sequels
Sequels for 8-bit Nintendo Systems included Adventure Island II-IV, which saw the introduction of a map. Sequels were also made for TurboGrafx-16, Game Boy, and Super NES. The Adventure Island sequels bear no relation to the Wonder Boy sequels (with the exception of Super Adventure Island II, which features similar gameplay), which went in a very different direction. The original black and white Game Boy version of the same game bears little relation to its larger console cousin, instead resembling the NES and Game Boy sequel Adventure Island II.
[edit] Recent releases
A port of the NES version has been released for Game Boy Advance in Japan, as part of the Famicom Mini series.
A 2003 remake titled, Hudson Selection Volume 4: Adventure Island (Takahashi Meijin no Adventure Island) was released as a Japan-only game for the Nintendo GameCube and PS2.
The NES version was released on Virtual Console in North America on September 3, 2007, and in Europe on February 28, 2008.
[edit] Trivia
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- There are Easter eggs (literal eggs, in this case), in the NES/Famicom version, such as a Hudson Soft Honeybee logo that allows unlimited continues.
- In Spanish-speaking countries the game was commonly referred to as "Islander" since that was the title of the game in a common pirate multi-cart.
- In India, this game was called Islander, and came as a free game pirated Famicom consoles (which had different names). The game was released as part of a compilation of games called '64-in-1'. Although the games varied with respect to each 'console', Adventure Island was always included in the list. In some states in India, the game is still being sold along with the 'consoles'.
- In Mexico, the game was also known as "Capulinita" making reference of the main character's resemblance with a country's comedian called Capulina.
- A hacked version featured Mario as the protagonist.
[edit] External links
- Hudson Selection Vol. 4: Takahashi-Meijin no Bouken Jima (Adventure Island remake for Nintendo GameCube and Sony PlayStation 2)
- Adventure Island guide at StrategyWiki
- Adventure Island at MobyGames
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