Adventure Island IV
A 1994 Famicom metroidvania with interconnected levels and puzzle-solving.
Adventure Island IV, sometimes referred to as Adventure Island IV, is a 1994 Hudson Soft game for the Family Computer. It follows Takahashi Meijin as he rescues his kidnapped dinosaur companions. The game is notable for replacing the series' separate stages with a complex scrolling map and puzzle-based progression.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Now Production
- Publisher
- Hudson Soft
- Series
- Adventure Island
- Platforms
- Family Computer
- Released
- June 24, 1994 (JP)
- Modes
- Single-player
Facts from the source article.
Plot and gameplay
A mysterious entity kidnaps Takahashi Meijin's five dinosaur companions, recurring characters in the series. Meijin sets out to rescue them. He navigates the game world by moving forwards and backwards and jumping, and can climb trees and enter doors. A variety of items are used to interact with the world: some serve as weapons like boomerangs and spears, while others such as the water gun solve puzzles. A compass shows the player's location on a 3D map. Defeating boss enemies rescues a dinosaur and opens paths to new areas. The complex map connects areas without explicitly separated stages. A life gauge allows Meijin to take multiple hits; collecting fruit restores part of the gauge, and two heart-container fragments expand it.
Development
The Adventure Island series began in September 1986 and produced sequels and spin-offs for multiple consoles. In 1994, Famicom games were still sold in Japan, and Hudson Soft's sales department suggested a new game for the system, believing it could perform well. Hudson Soft chose an Adventure Island title because it required the shortest development time and avoided copyright issues with licensed properties. Now Production, which had developed Adventure Island II and Adventure Island 3, created the game. They had also worked on Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti and Yo! Noid.
Release
Adventure Island IV was released on June 24, 1994 for the Famicom, becoming the final official release for the system in Japan. Takahashi Meijin stated that of the 36 titles Hudson Soft published for the Famicom, this game sold the fewest copies. Orders began in March 1994, but the number of Famicom cartridges on shelves had decreased and orders were low. Meijin said sales were just a few tens of thousands, less than 20% of Adventure Island 3's sales, leading to high prices on the second-hand market. The game was re-released on January 19, 2006 for the Game Boy Advance in Japan as part of Hudson Best Collection volume six, which also included the first three Adventure Island games. An English fan-translation was released as Adventure Island IV.
Reception
A reviewer in Electronic Gaming Monthly stated that Adventure Island IV had better graphics than any previous Adventure Island game for the Famicom and called it the best game in the series for the console. GamesTM, in a retrospective on the Metroidvania genre, compared the game to Super Metroid and praised its multi-functional, well-integrated items, such as the water gun used to defeat enemies, put out fires, and revive plants as bouncy platforms. Kevin Anderson of GameSpy said the game got the gameplay closer to right than ever, noting innovative boss battles and a pseudo-3D map display. He criticized that some weapons had only one or two uses and that the dinosaur partner choice mattered only near the end, but concluded the game remained an innovative 2D platformer.
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