In my Wonder Boy review, I claimed that Wonder Boy and Adventure Island are "the exact same game". I said that because I had read that the level design and the mechanics in both games were identical, and simply assumed that Adventure Island was Wonder Boy with an NES skin. In some ways, I was right, but in the way that matters most, I was dead, dead wrong.


Yes, Adventure Island shares a ton of similarities with Wonder Boy: you play as a chubby hero out to rescue his girlfriend. You will have to avoid snakes, rocks, fire and bats while constantly moving forward and collecting fruit in order to refill your vitality meter, which always ticks down. Sometimes, you will gain items like tomahawks to kill enemies, or a skateboard which allows you to get hit one additional time, but means you will scroll automatically forward.

I praised Wonder Boy for its sense of rhythm and the careful layout of the enemies which managed to reward speed and quick reflexes, and punished hesitation.

Adventure Island is the complete opposite, somehow, despite sharing the same basic level layout. Subtle differences in the way the hero and the enemies move, differences in enemy placement, make for a much less forgiving, and less fun, game. In fact, "less forgiving" is an understatement that borders on being a flat-out lie: the game is best described as "a series of dick moves by the developer". The only goal behind the obstacle placement in the game seems to be to punish the player: punish quick reflexes, punish hesitation, punish less-than-perfect execution. It is simply impossible to finish a level in the second half of the game without dying over a dozen times and learning the level by heart, unless you have a weapon still from the previous stage.

The best analogy I have to describe this game is that it is to Wonder Boy what The Lost Levels is to Super Mario Bros. One feels right, and the other feels like the game designers hate your guts. While BIT.TRIP RUNNER fans would do well to check out Wonder Boy, only fans of masochistic platformers such as Mighty Jill Off! or I Want To Be The Guy need apply for Adventure Island.

With its impossible difficulty, its distracting flicker and its ugly art and colors, it is hard to fathom how Adventure Island could be considered a classic, and yet the game has had half a dozen sequels. And it is especially hard to fathom how this brutally unpleasant game could have sprung out of the Wonder Boy formula, how with only a few changes, something beautiful can be turned into pure evil.


This game and I did not part on the best of terms.