Hello, my name is SNES Man. Today, I'm gonna do a quick review of an old platformer, Super
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.