Adventure Island II (NES) Playthrough
266A playthrough of Hudson Soft's 1991 platformer for the NES, Adventure Island II.
In this video, I play through the game twice, each time taking a different route in order to show all of the stages. The second game begins at 1:08:53.
If you're looking for the Game Boy port, you can find that one here: https://youtu.be/OezmnHdWLgQ
Two years after the North American release of his first adventure (https://youtu.be/vL3urZJBkQM), Master Higgins made a most triumphant return to the NES in early 1991 with Adventure Island II.
The first Adventure Island is often seen as Hudson's response to the popularity of Super Mario Bros. (https://youtu.be/Gx5--eK2k6Y), and like many other post-1988 NES hop'n'bop platformers, Adventure Island II is similarly likened to Super Mario Bros. 3 (https://youtu.be/U3zzaoB9yiw). It's fair to say that, like SMB3, AI2 eclipses its predecessor in every conceivable way and effectively moves the series forward, but the comparison doesn’t give this game its due credit.
The quality of the graphics and sound have improved dramatically, the controls are more fluid and the physics less rigid, the level designs are more creative and diverse, and there are a couple big new features. There's a world map and multiple paths through each stage, a new inventory system, and four new dinosaur pals for Higgins to ride around on. (Remember how Nintendo said Yoshi couldn't be done on the NES? Hmm.)
Most importantly, the game is fun. The difficulty level is far more reasonable than the original game's, and the entire package feels more modern overall.
Something interesting to note about Adventure Island II: unlike the first game, this one wasn't created by Hudson. Adventure Island II was created by Now Production, and if you're familiar with that company's NES games from 1990-91, you'll immediately notice the similarities in terms of style, graphics, level design, and the feel of the controls.
Consider the line-up: Yo! Noid (https://youtu.be/wGCk2QuVut4), published by Capcom, came out in November of 1990. The following month, Hudson released Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu (https://youtu.be/L_MBCedXFdg), and Adventure Island II followed in February of 1991. Coincidence? Not a chance, but that's not a bad thing. I personally think that this unlikely trio is made up of some of the best feeling, smoothest playing platformers in the NES library.
If you loved Adventure Island, check out this sequel. It's every bit the classic that the first game was.
Finally, do you remember how video game advertisements around this time were adorned with awkward slogans that sounded like literal translations from Japanese? Adventure Island II's American print ads carried the tag line, "Enjoy Hudson."
Sure, Hudson. Whatever you say.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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