Ironically worse than the series actual beginning
| Platform | Presentation | Controls | Variety | Audio | Depth | Value & Fun | OVERALL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WiiWare | 5.00 | 6.00 | 4.00 | 5.00 | 6.00 | 6.00 | 5.32 |
| General Information |
|
Multiplayer Importance: Very low Previously played game in the series: Adventure Island, Adventure Island II Television set-up: 19" Sylvania CRT, SDTV 480i, composite cables. |
| Gameplay Description |
| Adventure Island: The Beginning is a WiiWare title for 800 points, which is a new entry in the classic Hudson Adventure Island series. You control Master Higgins in a 2D platformer wherein you must reach the end of the stage without running out of fruit power. Your gauge is full at the start, but decreases slowly over time, and decreases when you're struck by an enemy or trap. You are provided weapons to use throughout the levels which can be used to defeat enemies as opposed to simply avoiding them. |
| Dedication Meter | 0.00 |
| As is typical of platformers, it's very simple to just jump in and play. | |
| Presentation | 5.00 |
|
The story is presented in the first 5 seconds of the game, and that's about the last you see of it until the 5 second conclusion of the game. Your love interest in kidnapped, go get her. Simple enough, it's not really what has ever mattered to the series (or the genre, for that matter). The visuals are the so-called 2.5D, where as the game is played on a 2-dimensional plane, but the characters, enemies and obstacles are 3D. The designs are dull and lifeless, and come across as very, very cheap. Where it really starts to have some issue is that the collision detection just isn't as tight as it needs to be with this kind of game. There are needless delays in the presentation as well, such as fades in and out, an animation and sound showing the stage level instead of letting you just get on with it, etc. I understand the need for flare, but it's simply irritating. Overall, it's just plain sub-par all around. |
|
| Controls | 6.00 |
| In general, the game controls well-enough. It's controlled in the NES style, with the D-pad for movement, the 1-button (if using the Wiimote) for attack/run, and 2 for jump. Master Higgins general feels in control and jumps through the air as expected. Where problems arise is primarily in the camera. There are plenty of areas in the game where the level is much more vertical than the zoom of the screen, and the camera moves haphazardly up and down causing difficulty in determining where everything is and where you need to go. This results in the ultimate failure of platformer design, the leap-of-faith. | |
| Variety | 4.00 |
|
I applaud the effort to bring back a series such as this, and that's part of the reason I purchased the game. However, if the intent all-along was to release the game as is, there was little-to-no reason to do so as The Beginning adds absolutely nothing to series, if not detracts. Virtually nothing in the game is new to the franchise, and most of it is done much worse. The level design is uninspired and the enemies are the same as always. Even things that were in prior games, such as the different dinosaurs you could ride are missing in action. Tokens are hidden in each stage that once collected can be used to purchase upgrades, such as double-jump and more powerful weapons. To be honest, I had forgotten about them until the final stage, at which point I was having difficulties at which point they did wonders. They work as a balance for difficulty but don't really make the experience any more engaging. There are a few throwaway minigames, but that's virtually no added value. |
|
| Audio | 5.00 |
| The audio in the game follows the theme of everything else, which is that it screams “generic”. Gone are the happy, island music of the past, in is the essence of stock-music, and the same applies to the sound-effects. There's nothing bad, per se, there's just nothing good either. | |
| Depth | 6.00 |
| The formula has been successful for a reason. It adds an extra dimension to the gameplay of 2D platformers, and The Beginning maintains a level of difficulty to show that off. While the level design is less-than-inspired, there's enough there for it to feel sufficient at the least. As was said before, the absence of features in previous games without anything to replace them is a disappointment. | |
| Value & Fun | 6.00 |
|
Simply put, Adventure Island: The Beginning is dull. Hudson had an opportunity here to win over some fans who may never had played the older, better titles with this updated WiiWare release, but that has been squandered. One would have expected a lot more for a release with what developers have to work with, but that's clearly an incorrect position. The game only has 16 levels (4 worlds, each with 4 stages), and four very similar bosses to boot. The levels don't have any checkpoints, the only point at which lives make any difference at all are on the boss stages where if you die during the boss fight, you can start the fight over, but if you lose all your lives, you have to start the stage over, which works out to just be annoying. There's nothing in the game that makes the game bad, but there's also nothing in the game that makes it good, either. Cookie-cutter design with little content, and no imagination. |
|
| Overall | 5.32 |
| Given the large selection of quality platformers available on the Virtual Console, including earlier Adventure Island games, there's really no reason to give Adventure Island: The Beginning your time. This is not a grand return for Master Higgins. | |
Posted by Ellyoda Mon, 15 Jun 2009 03:42:35
Mon, 15 Jun 2009 22:20:51
The graphics looked pretty awful from the screens/videos I've seen. I'd much rather play the originals than play this half-assed attempt to bring the series back. If Hudson was trying to pull a Mega Man 9 with this game, they failed.
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