What it was
Jeannie Jungle has been grabbed by aliens, and Master Higgins, the bumbling hero of the series, gives chase across eight islands. The deal is the one you know. A timer drains like an energy bar, fruit, milk and meat top it up, and you run, jump, swim and throw things at whatever's in the way.
The hook is the eggs. Hit one with a weapon or land on it and it might hold a weapon upgrade, a bit of energy, a key to a secret area, or one of five colour-coded dinosaur mates. The pteranodon flies, the elasmosaurus swims fast, and the others grip on ice or cross lava. Get belted while riding and your dinosaur leaves you to it. Some eggs are traps: an eggplant makes your energy meter drain faster.
Where it sits in history
Hudson Soft published it and Now Production developed it, the same studio behind Adventure Island II. Now made three of the Famicom games: the second, this one, and the Japan-only fourth in 1994. The Famicom version came out in Japan on 31 July 1992, Hudson showed it at that summer's Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago, and the NES release followed in September 1992.
A Game Boy version based on it came out in February 1993 as Adventure Island II: Aliens in Paradise, which is a confusing name for a third game's remake. Japan also got the NES game on Game Boy Advance in 2006, as volume six of Hudson's Best Collection series alongside the other three Famicom Adventure Island games.
How it plays today
Before each stage you pick a loadout: a weapon such as boomerangs or axes, a Honey Girl for invincibility, a Time-Stop to freeze the clock, or a dinosaur partner. You can bring one of each. That small bit of choice before you start is the best thing in it.
Critics at the time said it was too much like what came before. GamePro compared it to a rerun of an old TV series and thought it fell behind Super Mario Bros. 3, and Allgame later said it wasn't far off the second game, with a new dinosaur and not much else. Fair. If you haven't played the others, you won't care, and if you have, it'll feel like a comfortable pair of thongs.
Compared with
- Adventure Island II: The one before it, from the same studio, with four dinosaurs to this one's five.
- Super Mario Bros. 3: The NES platformer the critics measured this one against, and found it wanting.
- Bomberman: More Hudson Soft, from the same years.
Why it matters
Choosing before you go in is a small act of trust in your own plan. Take the Time-Stop or the Honey Girl and you've decided where you expect to struggle. You find out afterwards if you read yourself right, which is a lot like most real decisions.
Csikszentmihalyi describes flow as the absorption you get when challenge fits skill, with clear goals and fast feedback. A stage you can restart in a minute, with a drain on the timer that keeps you moving, builds that loop tightly.
Read: The zone: why good games make time disappear →
- Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.
What you're levelling up
You have been training these without noticing. Here is how to do it on purpose, and where it pays off away from the couch. All the skills games teach →
Planning ahead
In the game. You choose a weapon, a Time-Stop, a Honey Girl or a dinosaur before each stage, one of each. Take the wrong thing and you find out at the lava.
Do it on purpose. Before the next island, say what's going to hurt and pick your loadout to match. Check after.
Off the couch. Decide the day before what the meeting, the trip or the first date will need, and pack for the worst bit.
Judging risk
In the game. Some eggs hold an eggplant that speeds up your energy drain. You hit them anyway because the key or the dinosaur might be in the next one.
Do it on purpose. For one island, only open eggs when your energy bar is above half. See what that does to your run.
Off the couch. Every offer has a cost you can't see yet. Ask what happens if it goes wrong before you say yes. It's cheap and it works.
Teamwork
In the game. Five dinosaurs, each with a skill: flying, fast swimming, grip on ice, crossing lava. Get hit while riding and they bail, so you protect your mate.
Do it on purpose. Finish one stage without losing your dinosaur. Notice how differently you move.
Off the couch. Look after the people carrying you. The mate who covers you at work or lends you the car is easier to keep than to replace.
Verdict · 6/10
A sound, familiar platformer whose loadout screen is smarter than its level design. Pick it up if you liked the second one and want another round.
