My Top 100: #34 – Adventure Island II

1991 - Hudson Soft (NES, Game Boy, Nintendo eShop)

1991 – Hudson Soft (NES, Game Boy, Nintendo eShop)

 

With all the Ninja Turtles, Mega Mans, Contras, Zeldas, Marios, Donkey Kongs, Kirbys, and Castlevanias of the NES library, it’s no wonder a few great titles get overlooked when talking about favourites.  Whenever I have these conversations, whether it be in person or in an online forum, I’m the only one who ever brings up the Adventure Island series.  They were definitely some of the more underrated games on the console, in my opinion.

I’m not sure if it was its beginnings as Sega’s Wonder Boy, or if it was the fact that Hudson Soft didn’t exactly have a gleaming reputation for putting out quality titles (Milon’s Secret Castle, anyone?).  Whatever it was, it just seemed like Master Higgins and his dinosaur buddies were never getting the attention they deserved.

The first Adventure Island had some cool platforming, and in the early days of owning an NES, quickly became a fun alternative to Super Mario Bros.  It could be unforgivingly difficult at times, but the whole “eating fruit to stay alive” thing was enough to keep me hooked from start to finish.

Avoiding the eggs with eggplant in them was also a must, since they drained your energy.  Damn eggplant!

 

Kid logic.To this day, I still despise eggplant.  Too gross for me, thanks!

Kid logic.  I still hate eggplant, too.

 

I remember being in Moncton at my kinda-cousins’ place (long story), playing the first AI in their basement one night, finding out that they knew one of the kids I went to school with.  This particular student wasn’t exactly a bully, but he and I didn’t see eye to eye.  Of course, I had to talk it up.

“Yeah, I know Marc!  I punched him!  He’s a wimp!  I pushed him over, and he fell over like a feather!”

Yeah.  No.  That never happened.  Although, later in life, I DID punch Marc (very weakly) in the face on the playground before running away, knowing he was fully capable of kicking my ass.

Anyhow, the first Adventure Island was one of those early games you could sit down and have a good time with, even though it wasn’t perfect.

 

 

The second or third issue of Nintendo Power that I recieved was the one with Metal Storm on the cover, and one of the featured stories was on the upcoming Adventure Island II.  This was a big deal to me!  I mean, I wasn’t really expecting a sequel to it, much less a sequel that added a whole bunch of new stuff!  There would be cooler-looking levels with more variety, an island map, and four different dinosaur sidekicks with different abilities…  and that was it.  That qualified as “a whole bunch”, back in the day.  I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it!

That summer, my cousin in Connecticut was getting married.  A whole bunch of us Acadian New Brunswickers made the pilgrimage to my Aunt’s in Bristol, including my (actual) cousins.  This was about five years before our yearly NASCAR trips, so it really was a treat to be south of the border, seeing things you didn’t normally see, and be with close family and friends on top of that.

We had a few days to kill, so naturally, I wanted to bring my NES along for the trip.  I felt like I was breaking some kind of international law when I suggested this to my parents!  Apparently, you needed a “green card” for it, and had to show it to the border patrol guards on the way into the U.S., as well as on your way back into Canada.

How’s that for Homeland Security, huh???

As it turned out, it was only a small, green piece of paper that stated that you owned the device before crossing over, just so you didn’t have to pay duty on it on the way back through.

Fair enough!

Anyhow, I can vividly remember going to the Toys R Us (across from West Hartford Mall) with my mom, aunt, and cousin, buying Adventure Island II, then coming back into Bristol for a trip to McDonald’s.  I drive by that place today, and I always think back to being in there asking my aunt…

“I’m excited to get back to ‘tante Jeanne’s, you know why????  TO PLAY THE NEW GAME I JUST GOT!!!  MMMMMMMMM chicken nuggets……..”

 

Hasn't changed much, except maybe the colour.  Remember brown and beige McDonaldses?  Good times.Also, it's still always hazy as hell in Bristol.  That hasn't changed, either.

Hasn’t changed much, except maybe the colour. Remember brown and beige McDonaldses? Good times.
Also, it’s still always hazy as hell in Bristol. That hasn’t changed, either.

2 Comments on “My Top 100: #34 – Adventure Island II

  1. Nice. I do appreciate AI 2 WAY more than 1, since 1 seemed to be 4 levels or so that just repeated and got harder and more mixed up (see The Legend of Kage), and there was variance to 2.

    Also, I watched that video waaaaaaaaaaay longer than I had expected to.

    • Indeed! The original was released in 1986 (in Japan, anyway), and that was before companies got a grip on what made a truly interesting platformer. It was good, but 2 was way above and beyond it!

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