Super Adventure Island (SNES) Playthrough
410A playthrough of Hudson Soft's 1992 platformer for the Super Nintendo, Super Adventure Island.
Super Adventure Island was the third console game in Hudson's Wonder Boy spin-off series to be released in North America, coming out two months ahead of Adventure Island 3 on the NES.
Rather than further iterating on the improvements made by Now Production for Adventure Island II (https://youtu.be/ZISo83NM2Ug), Super Adventure Island marks a return to the basics introduced in the first 8-bit Adventure Island game (https://youtu.be/vL3urZJBkQM). There are no dinosaurs to ride this time around, and progression is a strictly linear affair.
In this adventure, Master Higgins' girlfriend, "Jeanie Jungle," is turned to stone by a wizard named Dark Cloak, and Higgins has twenty stages to platform his way through in order to beat the bad guy and save his girl.
(But what was going on with the naming of his girlfriend in these games? In AI1, she was Leilani. In AI2, she was Tina. Now her name is Jeanie?)
Like in the earlier games, Higgins has to collect fruit to keep up his vitality gauge and skateboards still allow him to tear through stages at high speed. But, now he has a choice between two weapons - a throwing axe and a boomerang (weaker than the axe but can be thrown up or down) - and each can be upgraded. Collecting multiples of the same weapon will allow him to throw up to three of that weapon in a row, and collecting four will turn it into a fiery projectile that can destroy rocks.
Aside from the boomerang, the only other notable changes to gameplay from the previous games are Higgins' ability to super jump and to duck.
The gameplay is fun, but it's a big step in the wrong direction coming off of Adventure Island II. It's a comparatively simple and easy game with only a small fraction of the content seen in AI1 and AI2. Back when it first came out, I managed to finish it over a single weekend rental, and while I enjoyed it, I couldn't help but be disappointed.
On the up side, the graphics put the SNES's hardware to excellent use. The character sprites are huge, especially in the impressive boss battles, and the use of color is often striking. The game paints a very pretty picture. The music is also a major high point. Yuko Koshiro's soundtrack is full of catchy tunes that take heavy inspiration from early 90s dance music. It sounds like Streets of Rage, and it suits the game perfectly.
I liked Super Adventure Island, but I never loved it like I did the NES games. It lacks substance and I'd rank it as one of the weakest games in the series overall.
Finally, here's a fun trivia tidbit: Super Adventure Island was created by "Produce!" Produce! was the developer behind several Super Bomberman games, Brainlord, and The 7th Saga. Weird combo, huh?
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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