Jump or die !

Useful link : Complete map

Tina, the pretty girlfriend of Tom-Tom has been kidnapped by a monster and our hero will try to find her back through 8 stages full with enemies. For that, he needs at every moment to jump to refill her vitality and not fall in the void.

With this game released in 1986, Hudson presents actually an alternative game to the first Wonder Boy, published by Sega for the SG-1000 console. Although everybody speaks by comfort about Wonder Boy, the real name of this game is Takahasi Meijin no Boukenjiman, what can be translated as Champion Takahashi’s Adventure Island. For obscure copyright reasons, the name of the game and the main character have been changed, but it is still the same concept in a simplified version for MSX. The sequels of both games will be very different, but that’s another story !

Action happens on horizontal level and is very fast, you can’t avoid to think about Mario from the Nintendo rival ! Platforms and enemies follow themselves in an infernal saraband and you need to be very dogged to follow the rhythm as it is unceasingly required to jump while shooting ! It means that you will not be a fish out of water with Wonder Boy if you are a Mario fan !

Jumping allows to avoid obstacles and to reach the next platform or fruits giving back vitality. Shooting allows to kill enemies and to break eggs hiding some surprises.

The hidden items

The destruction of the eggs will reveal items to take, so you will have different surprises : more vitality (miracle milk), full vitality (fish), more speed (skateboard – allows to crush the enemies, but jumping is slower), temporary and partial invulnerability (Chinese sign – allows to destroy the obstacles but is ineffective against the bosses and the jumps in the void).

The weapons

In this first version of Adventure Island, you have only one weapon : a boomerang. It will be very useful, but mixing of shoot and jump is not always so easy !

The walkthrough

The following walkthrough describes the 8 stages of this cool game.

Stage 1

Stage 1 begins in the forest.

You go to totems who are the sign of proximity of the platforms’ first zone.

It’s a good exercice before next steps of the game, you must avoid the butterflies, cobras, frogs and spiders !

Stage 2

On stage 2, you are on the open sea.

You go from one island to another one by using platforms requiring much desterity !

New enemies make their appearance : the octopuses, the snails, avoid mainly the coyote who is attacking you from behind !

Stage 3

Stage 3 happens in a cave where, you guess it, bats are living.

It’s also the first stage with springboards and the fruits are sometimes on a very high location on the screen.

In other words, you become an expert for jumps !

Stage 4

Stage 4 begins just like stage 1.

it includes more enemies.

It ends with a boss, a king who throws fireballs and whose the weak location is the head.

Stage 5

Stage 5 is a kind of variant of stage 1 but is of course more difficult !

You will notice especially the first superposed platforms, what enhances still more the game options.

Stage 6

Stage 6 will make you think about stage 2.

However, you need more and more skill to make this difficult course above water with success and without any mistake !

Stage 7

Back to the cave with stage 7.

It includes some difficult passages you can’t master at the first try !

Stage 8

As it needs to be the rule, stage 8 or final stage is a festival of difficulties.

It is longer than the other stages and leads to the fight against a second boss.

The end

Your mission is finished as you have saved Tina, your girlfriend, from the monsters who kept her captive.