A new title is going to be made available on the Wii Virtual Console for our friends who own Wii consoles. New… isn’t really the best word for this one since it’s been around for quite some time! That being said, fans of the original Adventure Island series will now be able to relive the good old days from the early 1990s in their far more modern console. Or if you’ve played the more recent ‘Adventure Island: The Beginning’ on the Wii and want to go back to its pixelated roots, you can now do just that!
Users can now purchase the game for 800 WP ($8) on the VC circa May 30, 2011.
Super Adventure Island is the first game of this well-loved franchise on the SNES, starring the titular Master Higgins/Takahashi Meijin on his quest to save his lady love, Jeanie/Tina from the evil incantations of the malicious Dark Cloak. The Adventure Island/Takahasi Meijin series is Hudson Soft’s flagship series which launched them into fame in the late 1980s for the NES. With the influential and popular video game icon/mascot Toshiyuki Takahashi leading on, the title became an overnight hit and was a household name. As a matter of fact, this has become of the iconic games of the 80s along the lines of Contra, Street Fighter and Super Mario Brothers.
What makes Super Adventure Island stand out is it’s really upbeat OST which can be still appreciated by more modern listeners. It features a variety of music such as hip hop, funk and the African-Carribean calypso. The music of the game is very, very good. Maybe I’m just being too taken by it but it can really compete with the more recent OSTs at present.
This 2d sidescrolling platform game has a total of six levels and unlike it’s predecessors has a short introduction of Master Higgins’ motives for his island quest: to save his lady love who has been turned to stone. To do this, he must seek out the mastermind behind this menace but must transverse through high and low terrain.
Would you think of it as too much coincidence? They’re releasing the game not too long after Master Higgins/Takahashi Meijin’s leaving Hudson Soft.
That aside, many have said that games nowadays no longer pose a challenge because of save points and endless continue options and have gone back to the older games these ‘luxuries’ don’t exist. So if you’re one of the jaded gamers who want a challenge, try this one out then and face the challenge that is Adventure Island.