Super Adventure Island
Super Adventure Island (高橋名人の大冒険島, Takahashi Meijin no Daibōken Jima; "Master Takahashi's Great Adventure Island") is a 1992 platform game developed by Produce! And published by Hudson Soft for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was the first Adventure Island game released for the SNES and came out between the releases of the NES games Adventure Island II and Adventure Island 3.
Super Adventure Island
- Date
- 1992.
- Publisher
- Hudson Soft.
- Genre
- platformer.
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Documentary summary
Super Adventure Island (高橋名人の大冒険島, Takahashi Meijin no Daibōken Jima; "Master Takahashi's Great Adventure Island") is a 1992 platform game developed by Produce! And published by Hudson Soft for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was the first Adventure Island game released for the SNES and came out between the releases of the NES games Adventure Island II and Adventure Island 3.
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In this article
Plot
Plot
It was later followed by Super Adventure Island II. The game's soundtrack was composed by Yuzo Koshiro. An unrelated game also titled with the same name was released for mobile phones in 2004. It is a remake of Wonder Boy: Monster Land, which was previously ported to the PC Engine by Hudson as Bikkuriman World.
Over the course of his adventures, Master Higgins managed to maintain the peace and tranquility of his home, the mystical Adventure Island, and even earned the love and support of the local "Miss Jungle", the lovely Tina (called "Jeannie Jungle" in English materials). At nighttime, the young hero was quietly enjoying a well-deserved rest with his grateful girlfriend Tina loyally leaning on his side atop a treetop (said to be stargazing in the English manual). When the warmth of Tina's soft touch suddenly becomes a chilling coldness, he turns around and is shocked to find that the evil sorcerer, Dark Cloak, used a spell to turn Tina into a stone statue for eternity. Dark Cloak retreats to the legendary Ice Mountain across the sea, and Higgins resolves to defeat the wicked sorcerer in order to restore her to life. The player controls Higgins as he travels his way through five stages with four areas each. The first three areas in each stage has Higgins fighting his way through an obstacle course, fighting many traps and enemies, in order to reach the goal ball. The final area in each stage consists of a boss battle.
Gameplay
Gameplay
Other than the improved visuals and audio as a result of the switch of hardware to the SNES, the rules of the game are not much different from the original Adventure Island. Although released shortly after Adventure Island II for the NES, Master Higgins' dinosaur companions are not present in this installment. However, Higgins now has a choice between two weapons: the standard stone axe from previous games and a boomerang (which was later introduced in Adventure Island 3). Whereas the axe can only be tossed left or right, Higgins can shoot the boomerang in four directions (up and down, as well as left and right). When Higgins first picks a weapon, he can only toss one shot at a time. By picking up the same weapon in a row, Higgins can toss up to three shots consecutively. When Higgins picks a fourth weapon of the same kind, his shots will turn into fireballs, which are more powerful and capable of destroying stones. At this point, when the player switches from axes to boomerangs or vice versa, the fireball effect will remain in place until the player loses a life. While Higgins has lost the ability to run faster in this game, he has gained the ability to crouch, which can be followed up with a super-jump. During gameplay, Master Higgins must collect tropical fruit in order to keep his life bar from depleting; he also can acquire a skateboard which will allow him to travel across the stage faster.
Other media
Other media
Super Adventure Island is one of the video games featuring in the manga titled Cyber Boy, by Nagai Noriaki, published by Coro Coro Comic and Shogakukan, from 1991 to 1993.
History of the object
Dated record
History of the object
The full dated record · 2 entries
1992
Super Adventure Island published.
1992
Super Adventure Island is recorded as published in 1992.
Reception
According to Famitsu, Super Adventure Island sold 19,562 copies in its first week on the market and 127,961 copies during its lifetime in Japan. The Japanese publication Micom BASIC Magazine ranked the game fourth in popularity in its April 1992 issue, and it received a 21.3/30 score in a readers' poll conducted by Super Famicom Magazine. It garnered an average reception from critics. VideoGames & Computer Entertainment's Clayton Walnum noted the developers' decision to swap the positions of the shoot and jump buttons, making the game's controls difficult to use and downright frustrating at first. Super Gamer praised the game's graphics but criticized its gameplay. AllGame's Brett Alan Weiss felt that the game had the same gameplay as its predecessor but with better visuals, a more varied soundtrack, and variety of challenges, but faulted the main character's slow movement and limited jumping. In 2018, Complex included the game on their best Super Nintendo games of all time list.
Primary material
Documents and archives
institutional register
- Internet Archive holdings naming Super Adventure Island
General reference · Internet Archive
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q2440904: Super Adventure Island
General reference · Wikimedia Foundation
reference work
- “Super Adventure Island”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Nintendo of America. Super NES Games.
- 2.Weiss, Brett Alan. Super Adventure Island - Review. AllGame. All Media Network. 1998.
- 3.O'Connor, Frank. Review: Super Adventure Island. Computer and Video Games. EMAP Images. 124. 78–79. March 1992.
- 4.Harris, Steve. Review Crew: Super Adventure Island. Electronic Gaming Monthly. Sendai Publishing. 32. 22. March 1992.
- 5.ASCII Corporation. New Games Cross Review: 高橋名人の大冒険島. Famitsu. 160-161. 39. 2016-10-22.
- 6.McNamara, Andrew. Master Higgins is Back For His Most Colorful Quest Yet in Super Adventure Island for SNES. Game Informer. Sunrise Publications. 4. 22–23. Spring 1992.
- 7.Firme, Matthew A. Review: Super Adventure Island. Game Players Nintendo Guide. GP Publications. 5. 9. 65. September 1992.
- 8.Europress. Console Connexions: Super Wonderboy III: Adventure Island. Games-X. 39. 24. January 23–29, 1992.
- 9.van Duyn, Marcel. Super Adventure Island (Wii Virtual Console / Super Nintendo) Review. Nintendo Life. Nlife Media. May 15, 2011.
- 10.Davies, Jonathan. UK Review: Super Adventure Island. Super Play. Future Publishing. 2. 84. December 1992.
- 11.Beaven, James. SNES Round-Up: Super Adventure Island. Total!. Future Publishing. 11. 61. November 1992.
- 12.Walnum, Clayton. Video-Game Reviews: Super Adventure Island. VideoGames & Computer Entertainment. Larry Flynt Publications. 39. 36–37. April 1992.
- 13.Maverick Magazines. SNES Out of Control. Control. 1. 1–16. September 1992.
- 14.Goldman, Jane. Import Review: Adventure Island (Super Famicom). Game Zone. Dennis Publishing. 5. 49. March 1992.
- 15.Roberts, Nick. Reviewed! Super Adventure Island. N-Force. Impact Magazines. 3. 60–61. September 1992.
- 16.Impact Magazines. Guide Directory Enquiries. SNES Force. 1. 92–97. July 1993.
- 17.Kirrane, Simon. Super Review: Super Adventure Island. Super Action. Europress. 3. 48–49. December 1992.
- 18.Paragon Publishing. A-Z of Games - Nintendo Games Index: Super NES. Super Gamer. 1. 122–124. April 1994.
- 19.Paragon Publishing. A-Z of Official Games: Super Adventure Island. Super Pro. 1. 76. December 1992.
- 20.Game Search. Game Data Library.
- 21.Tezuka, Ichirō. Super Soft Hot Information: Super Famicom. 118. 242–243. April 1992.
- 22.Tokuma Shoten Intermedia. 超絶 大技林 '98年春版. 42. 316. April 15, 1998.
- 23.Earth Angel. Super NES Pro Review: Super Adventure Island. GamePro. IDG. 32. 62. March 1992.
- 24.Maverick Magazines. The Official Story: Super Adventure Island. Control. 2. 53. October 1992.
- 25.Knight, Rich. The Best Super Nintendo Games of All Time. Complex. Complex Media. November 21, 2016.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
institutional register
Internet Archive holdings naming Super Adventure IslandInternet Archive
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witnessinstitutional register
Wikidata, structured authority record Q2440904: Super Adventure IslandWikimedia Foundation
General reference
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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