Adventure Island: Ace your first attempt with these handy tips
The good thing about playing old video games is that you get to sift through a lot of FAQ sheets, tips and guides, and come up with solutions of your own to some gaming problems.
Recently, I researched the mechanics—and inadvertently some walkthroughs—of the Nintendo Entertainment System game Adventure Island to help me remember tricks I had employed as a, uhmm, younger man to stay alive in the game (or to give me a bit of an advantage in saving Master Higgins’ life from rabid animals).
Well, I had to start somewhere, so like any good retro gamer, I assimilated everything there is to know about finishing Stage 1 of Adventure Island.
Here’s a list of the handiest Adventure Island tips for Stage 1 that I’ve read in the past week:
The first section of this stage should be easy to finish. It’s basically a collect fruit, find weapon, and eliminate nasty Master Higgins-eating snails thing. After learning the basics, such as movement, including jumping, and collecting fruits for points, you’ll encounter your first giant egg, which contains your first weapon, the stone hammer.
Watch out for the second egg you encounter as this contains a skateboard. Why do I seem hesitant when it comes to picking up this, uhmm, tool or powerup? Although the skateboard will give Master Higgins the ability to move faster, it also limits his movements. Believe me when I tell you that first-time players of Adventure Island should use the board with caution lest you miss a couple or more fruits and the next powerup, the fireball (which I first thought to be a bola).
Where is this fireball? Well, it’s in an egg … a hidden egg. There’s only one way to make the egg appear, and that’s to jump over it. How will you know where the egg is if it’s hidden? Your best clue is the first little brown bird you encounter. Spam your weapon button and witness how your hammers disappear a few pixels ahead of Master Higgins. Egad! It’s the hidden egg. Watch out for that bird, though. It can kill you. Absurd, I know, but it’s how the game works.
This stage also has a hidden level. To access it, find the two totem poles on the hill (it’s a little farther in … you’ll come across the poles eventually). The totem poles are preceded by a campfire, and just beyond them is a fire-breathing cobra. Before you go crazy looking for the portal to the secret level, go do something about that cobra first. After defeating the cobra, throw your hammers between the totem poles several times to summon a platform that will take you to the cow bonus level.
The last part of the stage is the trickiest because of all the jumping needed. Go crazy! Jump, twist, turn, shoot. There’s no real tip when it comes to jumping platforms except a reminder to jump from the very edge of every platform and land safely in the middle of another. Just before you reach the stage boss’ lair (marked by a sign stamped with the letter G), make sure to find and break open the hidden egg. Pay attention, this is very important because it contains a fairy (or a honeybee, or whatever) which gives Master Higgins immunity from damage (and death, I suppose).
There’s another reason why the final egg and the fairy are important. It will give you the ability to use what is probably the only cheat code available for Hudson’s Adventure Island. It’s called the “Continue Code,” which lets you continue (duh!) the game from the last area where Master Higgins died. To use the code, wait until the game is over (either by completing all four stages or expending all of Master Higgins’ lives) and key in the following sequence: Press and hold “Up,” press A, press Select, and then Start.
Whew! With these tips, I’m sure your Master Higgins can ace his first attempt at completing Stage 1 of Adventure Island … unless your fingers are not as agile as those of a 10-year-old.
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POSTED IN: Emulation, NES, Nintendo, Playstation 2, Re:Retro, Re:view
1 opinion for Adventure Island: Ace your first attempt with these handy tips
Adventure Island: Accessing the secret level
Apr 20, 2008 at 12:11
[…] find hidden stuff we did. We accessed the secret level of Adventure Island’s World 1. I wrote about where and how you can access the hidden level in an earlier post. Here’s an excerpt: To access it, find the two totem poles on the hill (it’s a little […]
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