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Adventure Island II Game Review

Adventure Island II is a 1991 platform video game published by Hudson Soft and released for the NES. It’s one of the best installments in this franchise.

While the original game was just a copy of ‘Wonder Boy’ with visual changes only, this is the first true game in the series that differentiated itself from the other franchise. It continues to receive strong reviews and is regarded as one of the best in the series and for many very good reasons. It’s a stellar platformer for sure.

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This is a side-scrolling game, but one that also includes vertical levels from time to time, adding to much-needed variety. The level design is much stronger overall than it was in the original and the entire game is more versatile and fun. The enemies are mostly repeated from before and there is still the case of unfortunate enemy placement that plagued certain sections and made them too difficult to pass, but the bosses are much better this time around. Whereas before we had the same boss repeated throughout, here we have more diverse bosses that are all distinctly different. Their patterns are also smarter, making for tougher fights.

But the main new addition that differentiated this one from its predecessor has to be the inclusion of an inventory system. You can garner a dinosaur friend from an egg that you crack and if you succeed in finishing the level while riding him, you can choose him for the next level from the inventory. I liked this addition as it made the game more RPG-like, but still it wasn’t really necessary and I didn’t end up using it all that much. It’s more of a nice addition than a core component of the game.

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But I appreciated that the dinosaurs all had unique abilities and that some levels really benefitted from having them at your disposal. I did not care for that addition of a transporter that can take you to the next level and I didn’t use it as it felt like a cheat. But the elimination of the checkpoint system was done for the better. If you die, you are brought back to the beginning of the level. This made the game more demanding, but not too frustrating. The overall difficulty curve was just right and I did manage to beat each and every level with no save states.

Adventure Island II features pretty good visuals for the time. I liked the designs of the enemies and bosses in particular. The world building is pretty solid with each world feeling unique, though the themes are basic for the most part. The best islands were the volcano and cloud ones as those were the most visually appealing. The underwater levels thankfully weren’t as insufferably hard this time around. The sound is solid, but the score is quite chirpy and fun. The game also controls well and its length is just right.

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