New Adventure Island
Reviewed by Michael LoCascio
You've just got to feel bad for poor Master Higgins. After
romping through three perilous adventures on the NES and
another two on the Super Nintendo, Higgins was finally
prepared to hang up his axe and loin cloth, settle down, and
start a family. Wouldn't you know it that on our hero's
wedding day, evil forces would show up once again, and
abduct his new wife and a few of his pals. The usually
mild-mannered Higgins becomes understandably upset in
regards to these events, and he sets off to reclaim his wife
and defeat the villains who dared to mess with him on the
most important day of his life. The good Master will need
your help if he's going to get his woman back, and due to
his ubiquitous appeal, you'll probably be willing to give
him a hand (how can you not like a guy who wears a loin
cloth and a baseball cap to his own wedding?).
Thus begins New Adventure Island, Master Higgins' jaunt
through the land of the Turbografx-16. Veterans of the
Adventure Island series will know exactly what to expect
here; as a wise man once said, 'New Adventure Island is not
new at all' (SMcFadden, 2000). Higgins will run and jump
through six different levels, each consisting of four stages
apiece. As the fourth stage of each level concludes, Higgins
will have to take on a particularly hostile boss creature
before he can proceed with his mission.
Master Higgins survived so many dangerous adventures because
of the size of his heart, not his muscles. For all his
ambition and determination, Higgins just isn't a very strong
fellow. One hit from any of his foes is usually sufficient
to murder the unfortunate Master. Of course, this wouldn't
be a problem if all of the animals on Adventure Island
weren't having a bad day when Higgins set off on his
adventure, and decided that they would kill our half-naked
hero for sport. Some of these critters will merely get in
Higgins' way or stumble him up a bit, but make no mistake
about it: most of these guys are out for the kill.
Silly Higgins must have been in such a rush to rescue his
abducted wife that he completely forgot to bring a weapon
along. Thankfully, he'll run into numerous eggs that are
scattered about the island that just happen to hatch weapons
when they're cracked. Higgins is proficient with a variety
of arms, including axes, arrows, boomerangs and fire balls.
Each weapon is best suited for different areas and works
optimally against certain villains, but as long as you have
any one of them equipped, your chances of survival will
increase dramatically. Also of aid are the skateboards that
just happen to pop out of some of these eggs; taking a hit
while riding on the skateboard will simply mean the loss of
the board itself, not one of Higgins' precious lives. If
skateboarding just isn't your thing, maybe you'll be lucky
enough to stumble upon a kind, sweet fairy who will grant
Higgins temporary invincibility.
No matter how proficient he is with his weapons, however,
there is still a chance that Higgins will fail on his quest.
You would think that after all the video games he's appeared
in, Master Higgins would be in decent physical shape.
Unfortunately, that new wife of his must have spoiled him
with her home cooking, because Higgins automatically loses
energy as he huffs-and-puffs his way through each stage. A
vitality meter is displayed at the top-left corner of the
screen; when this meter completely runs out, Higgins is
charged a life. There's plenty of fruit scattered about the
island that Higgins can munch on to keep his meter at a
healthy level, however.
The controls are rather simple and responsive, although poor
chubby Higgins isn't much of a leaper. At least they altered
the usual Adventure Island button layout, and made the
button on the right the jump button (Previous AI's had
forced gamers to use the button on the left for jumping,
which went against the precedent that had been set by Super
Mario Bros. and followed ever since).
Appearance-wise, New Adventure Island sports a cartoonish
look that seems to mimic similar platform games such as
Super Mario Bros. and Bonk's Adventure. While the visuals
are certainly colorful, there's nothing at all fancy to note
here. Graphically, this title isn't much of an improvement
over the old, outdated NES Adventure Island games. It
certainly pales in comparison to the Super Adventure Island
carts that were released for the SNES, even though things
start to shape up a bit after the first few nondescript stages.
The music in New Adventure Island is absolutely awful. They
were apparently aiming for a cute, playful sound, but the
tracks are repetitive and obnoxious. Wait until you get
stuck in a certain area and are forced to hear the same
awful tune again and again and again... and again. It's
enough to even make passionate Master Higgins turn around,
head home, and forget about his kidnapped wife.
The challenge of the game basically comes in memorizing the
layout of each level and the attack patterns of all the
enemies. Any player that's reasonably skilled and can
tolerate the terrible music should be able to make it
through this game, although things do get a little tricky
later on. Even if a certain stage gives you fits (there are
a few incredibly frustrating segments), you'll have an
unlimited amount of continues at your disposal, so persevere
and you shall emerge victorious.
The most entertaining aspect of New Adventure Island may
very well be the 's howtime' scenes that take place in
between each level. Delighted that his adventure is going so
well, Higgins takes a little break from the action. He gets
all dressed up in wacky outfits and performs some hilarious
dance moves. Unfortunately, the rest of the game isn't quite
as amusing as the funny little interludes. If you're a
hard-core fan of the Adventure Island series, then you'll
have plenty of fun with this title, as it definitely isn't a
radical departure from the other AI carts. Otherwise, while
New Adventure Island might provide some short-lived
amusement, it doesn't present any elements that haven't been
explored many times before.
Overall: 6 out of 10
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