This is a big improvement all-around from the original Adventure Island. Now I gave that game the same rating, but if that barely qualified for it, this is at the high end of that rating. They've definitely taken some influence from Super Mario Bros 3 and Super Mario World here. There's a world map, the level design is leagues better, and the dinosaur pals give you an extra hit point without constant forward momentum. Most importantly, the difficulty is much more fair this time around, with a lot less cheap shit and an inventory system to help you through the hard parts. All of these enhancements make the game much more fun than the original, while still keeping every ounce of its charm and also keeping things relatively simple.
Now you still can't save and continue, not even with passwords, but at least you can continue from the beginning of each island after a game over without needing to unlock continues via a hidden egg in the first level. There are still some difficulty spikes--eggplant eggs are much less common, but the fox enemies that dash in from the left side of the screen remain a serious pain--but nowhere near as often as the first Adventure Island.
If you want to jump into Adventure Island, I'd say this is definitely the game to start with. It's a solid NES platformer from late into the console's life cycle; just be prepared to tolerate some NES-era quirks like no saves and the occasional hardcore difficulty.
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Graphics: Poor Comparision: Super Mario Bros. II Controls: Mediocre Comparision: Super Mario Bros. I Gameplay: Good Comparision: Super Mario Bros. I,II and if Yoshi was available Music: Mediocre Comparision: FFI
Adventure Island hits about as close to the lowest rung of acceptability I have for a video game, just good enough to make the cut.
The graphics range from good to bad, the controls mediocre. With an emulator this is a piece of cake to master. Very similar to the Mario franchise, the goal is to pass through stages by jumping, shooting and timing your runs correctly all while collecting enough food so your energy bar isn't depleted and you die of ATP starvation.
With the help of skateboards to give you an extra boost and a few Yoshiesque companions you can ride and aid you on your journey the game has enough quirks to make it endearing. Seek out the purple serpent companion as that one seemed to be the most useful of the ones I used. The map of the world is cute and the strength of the game is that it is fairly short & sweet and mildly difficult for an NES cartridge.
This Review of Adventure Island III when it is added to the website:
Genre: Side Scroller
Graphics: Mediocre Comparision: Kirby's Adventure Controls: Mediocre Comparision: Super Mario Bros. I Gameplay: Good Comparision: Super Mario Bros. I,II and if Yoshi was available Music: Mediocre Comparision: FFI
Adventure Island III really cleans up the franchise graphically, a tiny bit control wise and quite a few more secrets and, power-ups and companions to team up with. Oh yeah, he can also lie down to avoid stuff which is pretty useful.
However like its predecessor it too barely makes the threshold of keeping in the library. The upgrades should have made it a much better game but the difficulty level due to the clumsy controls just makes this game infuriating at times. Without an emulator it would not have been worth the effort. Some of the levels require such intricate timing that one would have to be a prodigy to make it through unscathed. Apparently "the boss does not move to a different stage when the player loses a life"; bruh I'm using an emulator!
One thing I just don't understand is why developers didn't allow for an unlimited lives approach to these games with an opt out for gamers who preferred not. The biggest obstacle to these early games with save points is that it just wasn't that fun to have to start over after agonizingly mastering each level spending an eternity of time and patience to get there.
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Definitely preferable to the first game, and in turn to the first Wonder Boy, but this really feels like a game that should have come out about three years earlier. 1991 was pretty late into the NES' lifespan, Mario 3 had been out for years, and even Wonder Boy, which the Adventure Island games had originally spun off from, had already cranked out the fantastic Dragon's Trap a couple years prior. This game doesn't really do anything wrong, but I just can't see any reasons why you'd choose to play this over any of its contemporaries, even on the same system.
Also it's really funny to me how one of this game's advertising hooks was that it has horizontal and vertical scrolling. In 1991, they tried to use that as a selling point. Not to mention they advertise a stage select, which as far as I can tell is a straight-up lie. There's a world map, but I never found a way to navigate it beyond just pressing 'A' to advance to the next level.