Adventure Island. So, without further ado, let's get down to gaming. In the intro cut

scene, our hero is sitting around with his lady friend on top of a tree, awkwardly scratching

his head when a sorcerer flies in and turns his girl to stone. To say the least, the hero

is not happy. It's up to you to chase down the sorcerer and get revenge for this heinous

act!

Here's our first level. Our main character, Master Higgins is already jogging in place

with excitement! Super Adventure Island is a very linear adventure. Most of the game

is just running to the right and jumping past enemies. There are only two weapons: the hammer

which shoots in a short-ranged arc, and the boomerang which has a little better horizontal

range. A more interesting item is the skateboard that lets you go really fast. Not only is

it fun to use but it teaches kids safety. Always wear a helmet. It's a cool power up

and I wish it was in the game more but oh well.

Something weird about this game is that you have to eat fruit constantly to survive. If

you don't collect the fruit, a meter at the top of the screen will slowly drain. When

it runs out, you starve and die. I'm not sure why the game developers included this. Now,

I know the hero, Master Higgins is a little on the chubby side but does that really mean

he has to eat entire pineapples and watermelons to survive on a daily basis? I mean, he's

not freaking Kirby! Let's just say that when I play a side-scroller, I want to run, jump,

and fight enemies, not worry about food. It's not a Sim, it's a platformer and that's just

tedious.

Another annoying thing about the game is the damage system. Once you get hit, you die.

Gotta start the level over again. There aren't even power ups to give you more health - that's

it. This makes the game really challenging but not necessarily in a good way. I prefer

it when games let you can take a few hits before you die like in Mega Man X. That way,

you can focus on the action instead of worrying about even touching an enemy. And the enemies

aren't even that tough. Like these penguins! Are you telling me a little penguin

could kill a grown man in one blow? Simply ludicrous.

Super Adventure Island does have quite a few good aspects, though. First is the graphics.

For an early Super Nintendo game, the sprites are detailed, the levels all look different,

and the color scheme is bright and cheerful. The levels are in a tropical setting at first

but then they branch off in a million directions. There's always somewhere new. And there's

a pretty wide array of enemies like shell creatures, obese walruses, and little dinosaurs

floating on balloons. It's pretty enjoyable to fight your way through all these cartoony

monsters and wreak havoc.

Also, the music is great. True, there aren't any orchestral, Zelda-ish epics but there

are a lot of cheerful island tunes with really cool, funky beats. They squeezed some nice

drums sounds out of the Super Nintendo hardware and it's pretty impressive to hear.

Back to my complaining, though. The controls are nothing amazing. First of all, you can't

dash. That means you can't build up momentum when you jump which was really disappointing

to me. The only way to jump long distances is to use a super jump. To pull this off,

you need to crouch and then jump. Just like in Super Mario Bros. 2, you jump up to a really

high level.

I admit, I have to give Super Adventure Island props for resurrecting this old jumping style

but really, it's just not as good as a simple dash jump. So, the controls are just a little

bit awkward. You may be wondering what makes Super Adventure Island a pretty well respected

game? Well, it has a certain charm to it. The levels are varied and for the most part

interesting, the graphics are fun and cartoonish, and the music is catchy. True, there are downsides

that bring down the game a bit. It's certainly no classic but still, it's an entertaining

game with an interesting feel.

Things to Make it Better

-Put in a life bar. Instant deaths were already outdated and frustrating when this game was

released. -Don't make it mandatory to collect fruit.

That's just tedious. -Put in a dash button. It would have been

an easy feature implement but they didn't out of laziness, no doubt!

-And finally, a Password System would be nice. This game's not very long but it is hard to

beat in one sitting so it'd be nice.

In conclusion, Super Adventure Island is pretty good game; it's at least above average. On

my scale, it scores a 6/10. So that was my quick review of Super Adventure Island. Hopefully,

I'll get a chance to review its sequel, Super Adventure Island 2 in the future because I

love talking about these old platformers. Well, thanks for watching! This has been a

SNES Man Review and I'll talk to you again sometime soon.