Adventure Island IV (Famicom – English Translation Mod) Full Game Session 🥚🛹🏝️
86 / @nenrikigaming
Title: Adventure Island IV
Platform: Famicom (NES-style Fan Mod)
Edition: Fan Translation by @ZynkOxhyde
Publisher: Hudson Soft
Developer: Now Production
Release: Fan Translation: Global, July 14, 2018 / Original: JP, June 24, 1994
Genre: Platformer-Adventure (proto-Metroidvania) ¹
⭐️ Personal Score: A+
🌐 Consensus Score: B–
💬 Cultural Impact (Ψ): B▲
📆 Historical Tier: C ↓
Adventure Island IV unfolds across six areas (1–6), each divided into zones A and B—except Area 5, which adds a Section C.
While nonlinear, access to new zones is gated: each contains at least one boss whose defeat unlocks regions and grants tools.
After beating a boss, the player earns a key item, rescues a dinosaur, and either triggers automatic map changes (via cutscenes) or must use the new item to unlock paths.
Blocked zones are clearly marked—via lava, ice, rocks, or barriers needing specific items.
For instance, a frozen lake melts after defeating the Glacier Demon Boss, and flames can be put out using the 💧 Water Gun.
Rescued dinosaurs live in the Dino House (Area 2-A) and provide traversal or combat abilities.
One can assist the player, but if hit, it returns home and must be recovered.
Because of their vulnerability, using weapons or items is often safer for basic challenges.
Areas 1-A and 2-A act as hubs for minigames and event systems. Some challenges require revisiting.
Exploration is central. Hidden rooms contain fragments, hearts, and unique items.
Reaching them often requires activating switches, solving puzzles, or combining traversal tools and dinos. For example, a heart fragment in Area 1-B’s lower entrance can only be accessed with the Water Gun or Ptera, gained after defeating the third boss.
These upgrades are permanent. Other objects—fruits, destructibles, enemies—respawn when off-screen.
Fruit no longer affects score or time. Every eight collected restore 1 life unit. ❤️ Heart and 🧪 Medicine heal directly, while 🧚 Honey revives Higgins once.
Saving uses a password system: return to Higgins’s home and press ↑ at the bed to generate a password and restore health. After each boss, players are auto-warped home—ideal for saving.
Each boss unlocks a short segment designed to test the new item’s function, encouraging the player to experiment before pressing on.
Weapons are situational and non-hierarchical; the starting 🦴 Bone remains useful throughout the game. Others serve focused needs:
🔨 Hammer breaks rocks but requires close range.
🔥 Torch is faster and lights dark areas or melts ice enemies.
💧 Water Gun activates springboards, puts out flames, and affects puzzle elements.
🗡️ Stone Spear thrusts forward and lets you latch onto overhead branches.
☂️ Umbrella allows floating while falling and functions as a canoe over water.
💎 Diamond Hammer breaks diamond blocks but has limited overall use.
🛹 Skateboard and 🏄 Surfboard are speed-focused tools for flat or aquatic terrain.
🪃 Boomerang offers piercing mid-range attacks.
🪓 Stone Axe is the game’s strongest ranged weapon with rapid fire.
Special-use items include:
🎫 Return Amulet: Warps the player home instantly for recovery or saving.
🥚 Ptera’s Egg: Allows warping back to the last pedestal where it was set.
🧭 Compass: Displays a 3D map with the player’s location and boss room direction.
🧚 Honey: Revives the player instantly after defeat.
❤️ Heart / 🧪 Medicine: Recover health immediately upon pickup.
Various events and minigames enrich the world—most are hosted in Area 1-A and reward players with items like Honey.
However, if the reward item is already held (such as Honey), the mini-game becomes locked.
Fruit serves as a participation cost—bringing more improves success odds.
Stat-enhancing Power Medals offer passive permanent boosts:
Ⓟ Power – increases attack strength.
Ⓙ Jump – heightens jump distance.
Ⓓ Dash – increases movement speed.
They’re earned in skill-based contests such as sumo bouts, hurdle races, or sprints.
Notes:
¹ The game’s design revolves around progression through area-unlocking and item acquisition. Structured as a fully interconnected world, it emphasizes exploration, revisitation, and traversal gated by acquired tools and mounts, in line with Metroidvania conventions. The entire gameplay takes place in side-view perspective, with one exception: the map, which displays a 3D cutaway visualization distinct from the core gameplay view. Horizontal scroll is fully manual and bidirectional, with free tracking up to region limits, where a lateral flip connects to the next area. Vertical transitions are discrete and always triggered at the screen’s edge. No vertical scrolling is present.
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