| Adventure Island | |
|---|---|
 North American NES box art | |
| Developer | Hudson Soft |
| Publisher | Hudson Soft |
| Artist | Susumu Matsushita |
| Composer | Jun Chikuma |
| Series | Adventure Island |
| Platforms | NES,MSX,Game Boy Advance,GameCube,PlayStation 2 |
| Release | NESMSX
|
| Genre | Platform |
| Mode | Single-player |
Hudson's Adventure Island, known asTakahashi Meijin no Bōken Jima (高橋名人の冒険島;Master Takahashi's Adventure Island) in Japan and also known asAdventure Island,[a] is aplatform game produced byHudson Soft that was released in Japan for theFamicom andMSX on September 12, 1986. It was released in North America for theNintendo Entertainment System in 1988 and in thePAL region in 1992.
Adventure Island is an adaptation of the arcade gameWonder Boy, developed byEscape forSega. It was followed by a series of sequels with no connection to theWonder Boy series.
The player controls Master Higgins (known as Master Wigins in theUnited Kingdom,[1] as Capulinita inMexico and asTakahashi Meijin in Japanese versions), a young man who ventured to Adventure Island in the South Pacific after hearing that the Evil Witch Doctor kidnapped Princess Tina. To rescue her, Higgins must survive a series of 32 stages. There are eight worlds called "areas", which are divided into four stages or "rounds" each, which are further divided into four checkpoints. When the player reaches the fourth round of each area, he must confront a boss at the end to continue to the next area. The game is completed when the player saves the girl after defeating the eighth and final form of the evil lord.
_gameplay.gif)
Master Higgins (the player character) loses a life whenever he touches an enemy, an enemy's attack, a fire roast, or when he falls into a pitfall or a body of water. The player also has a health gauge that starts out with 11 points, which gradually depletes over time or whenever Higgins trips on a rock in his path. When Higgins' health gauge reaches zero, he will lose a life. If Higgins still has extra lives, he will revive at the last checkpoint he passed through. The game ends when all of Higgins' lives run out. To replenish his health, Higgins can pick up fruit or a milk bottle and has a maximum health of up to 16 points. When the player's score reaches 50,000 points, 100,000 points, and 200,000 points, Higgins will receive an extra life. Finding a bee-like fairy known as Honey Girl will grant Higgins invincibility for about ten seconds and allow him to kill enemies with a single touch. Also hidden in each stage is a special pot, which doubles the player's end-of-stage bonus.
Higgins starts off each life without the ability to attack and can only gain the ability to attack by picking up a stone axe, which can be found in specific spots in each stage. When Higgins is wielding the stone axe, he can trade it for magical fireballs that have longer range and are capable of destroying rocks and rolling stones (which are invulnerable to the stone axe).
To break an egg, the player must touch it or hit it with a weapon twice. In addition to weapons, there are numerous bonus items inside. There is also the possibility of receiving a negative item, the eggplant, which drains Higgins' life meter. Some of the eggs are not immediately visible in plain sight. The locations of these "hidden eggs" are usually indicated when a weapon thrown by a player disappears before falling to the ground and are uncovered by jumping at the indicated spot. Some of these hidden spots do not contain hidden eggs, but instead a cloud that will warp the player to a bonus stage, which is instead uncovered by standing still for a short period of time. During bonus stages, the player can collect a series of fruits (each worth 500 points regardless of the type) until Higgins falls into a pitfall. However, instead of losing a life, he will return to the regular stage at the next checkpoint.
At the fourth round of each area, Higgins will confront a different form of the Evil Witch Doctor, the game'sboss character. He has the ability to change his head by up to eight different types. Higgins must defeat him by striking his head a specific number of times with his weapon. The number of hits required to defeat him increases with each area (his first form requires eight hits and every subsequent form requires two additional hits until the eighth and final form, which requires 22 hits). When the Evil Witch Doctor is defeated, he will change his head and escape to the next area. He uses the same attack in each form, with the only changes being his durability, speed and the speed of his fireball attacks. When Higgins defeats his final form, the Evil Witch Doctor will fall into a pit and the girl will be rescued.
Adventure Island began development as a direct port of theSega arcade gameWonder Boy, the partial rights to which Hudson Soft obtained from developer Escape (now known as Westone Bit Entertainment). However, the developer had already signed away ownership of the Wonder Boy name and characters to Sega,[2] so Hudson created a new protagonist modeled and named after Hudson Soft's spokesmanTakahashi Meijin.[3] In the western version ofAdventure Island, the Takahashi Meijin character was renamed Master Higgins.
While theWonder Boy series adopted an action RPG system for its sequels (beginning withWonder Boy in Monster Land), most of theAdventure Island sequels stuck to the game system of the originalWonder Boy. Moreover, Hudson Soft also obtained the rights to port all of theWonder Boy sequels to theTurboGrafx-16, changing the title and character designs of each game (with the exception ofWonder Boy III: Monster Lair). Incidentally, the Japanese version ofDragon's Curse (the TurboGrafx-16 adaptation ofWonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap) was titledAdventure Island.
In 2004 Hudson Soft adaptedWonder Boy in Monster Land to mobile phones asSuper Adventure Island.
The rights to theAdventure Island series are currently owned byKonami, who absorbed Hudson Soft in 2012.
The NES version ofAdventure Island was re-released in Japan for theGame Boy Advance as aFamicom Mini title on May 21, 2004.[4] It was later re-released internationally for theVirtual Console service in 2008 for theWii and in 2014 for theWii U.[5][6]
A remake was also developed for thePlayStation 2 andGameCube titledHudson Selection Volume 4: Takahashi Meijin no Bōken Jima, which was released exclusively in Japan on December 18, 2003.
Two sequels were produced for the NES,Adventure Island II andAdventure Island 3, as well as a fourth game for the Famicom that was released exclusively in Japan titledTakahashi Meijin no Bōken Jima IV.[7][8] In addition to the standalone Famicom Mini re-release of the first game, all four games were re-released in a compilation for the Game Boy Advance titledHudson Best Collection Vol 6: Bōken Jima Collection, released in Japan on January 19, 2006.[9]
Sequels were also released on other platforms, such asAdventure Island andAdventure Island II for theGame Boy (based on the second and third NES games respectively),Super Adventure Island andSuper Adventure Island II for theSuper NES,New Adventure Island for theTurboGrafx-16,Adventure Island: The Beginning for theWii,Gacha wa shi Meijin no Bōken Jima in 2007 for mobile, andAdventure Island Quest by Takahashi Meijin in 2010 for mobile.
Takahashi Meijin appears as a playable character in the crossover fighting gameDreamMix TV World Fighters, released in Japan forGameCube on December 13, 2003.
Takahashi Meijin appears in the mobile gameGacha Washi Meijin no Bōken Jima in 2007, a cross-over between theGachapin series and the Adventure Island series.
Takahashi Meijin also appears in the sport mobile gameGachapin & Mukku no Dai Undoukai ("Gachapin & Mukku's Big Sports Day") in 2008, and crosses over withKatamari franchise in the mobile gameTakahashi Meijin and Katamari Damacy in 2010.
Takahashi Meijin also appears in thepachinko mobile gamePachinko Takahashi Meijin no Bouken Jima in 2008.
| Aggregator | Score |
|---|---|
| GameRankings | NES: 62%[10] |
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| AllGame | 3/5[11] |
| Eurogamer | 5/10[12] |
| GameSpot | 6.5/10[13] |
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(February 2015) |
GameSpot saidAdventure Island was a "fast-paced, challenging platformer".[13]GamesRadar+ ranked it the 23rd best NES game ever made. The staff praised it for the fact that its challenge comes from quality level design and not low quality. It is widely regarded as one of the most difficult NES games.[14]
| Famicom Runner: Takahashi Meijin Monogatari | |
| ファミコンランナー高橋名人物語 | |
|---|---|
| Manga | |
| Written by | Kazuyoshi Kawai |
| Published by | CoroCoro Comic |
| Published | April 1986 – February 1988 |
| Volumes | 1 |
| Honey Bee in Toycomland | |
| Bugってハニー (Bug-tte Honey) | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Adventure |
| Anime television series | |
| Directed by | Minoru Okazaki |
| Produced by | Hidehiko Takei Shunzo Kato Yasutaka Tarumi |
| Written by | Kasumi Oka |
| Music by | Hiroshi Tsutsui |
| Studio | Tokyo Movie Shinsha |
| Original network | NNS (NTV) |
| Original run | October 3, 1986 – September 25, 1987 |
| Episodes | 51 |
| Anime film | |
| Bug-tte Honey: Megalom Shōjo Rondo 4622 | |
| Directed by | Akinori Nagaoka |
| Produced by | Shunzo Kato |
| Written by | Kasumi Oka |
| Music by | Hiroshi Tsutsui |
| Studio | Tokyo Movie Shinsha |
| Released | July 21, 1987 |
| Runtime | 48 minutes |
Around 1986, there was an arcade game called Wonder Boy that we at Hudson all liked, and there was a suggestion within the company to turn that into a Famicom game. So the vice president and I went to take a look at the development of the character and the game, and as we were looking at the character being built, the character already somewhat resembled me. The vice president was looking at it and went, "Y'know, that character sort of looks like you, and you are a celebrity – it doesn't make any sense for us not to make this game about you". So they decided to turn me into that character, and that's how Adventure Island was born.
Adventure Island video games | |
|---|---|
| Series | |
| Related | |
