First screens of Adventure Island: The Beginning

by JC Fletcher { Feb 20th 2009 at 4:00PM }

Finally, Hudson has revealed the first screens of the new WiiWare Adventure Island game. It looks like a return to the style of gameplay from the original NES game -- which means that axes and skateboards are in, and dinosaur riding (as seen in Adventure Island 2 and 3) is out.

While we're suitably (extremely) excited about playing a new Adventure Island game, we do wish that Hudson had taken the Mega Man 9 route, because the 3D makeover isn't working. The GameCube remake of Adventure Island looked a lot better, in fact.

The new game includes some exciting new features, like multiplayer and Adventure Island-themed minigames. Our favorite is the in-game version of the Shooting Watch, the button-press-timing toy made famous by Hudson's Takahashi Meijin, who is the inspiration for the Master Higgins character.

Tags: action, adventure-island, adventure-island-the-beginning, hudson, remake, wiiware

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Arex @ Feb 20th 2009 4:20PM

Although these first screens look more than a little lackluster, I am still glad they didn't go the Mega Man 9 route. 8-bit graphics belong in the 80s. And if you must have them, there's always the Virtual Console.

The Gamecube remake does look a lot better than what we've got here though. For shame.

Hardy @ Feb 20th 2009 5:30PM

That's like saying Victorian art should have only been made in the 1600s, what an ignorant little post.

It doesn't matter what the game looks like, it's up to the creators to pick the art style of the game, this includes making it 8-bit.

For this game, I'm going to note that the picture isn't doing the game justice. It probably looks better in motion.

SoshiKitai @ Feb 20th 2009 5:56PM

Agreed with Hardy.
If graphics were your problem, then obviously the Wii's quite inferior.
Afterall, the graphics are "pre-current gen".
And obviously, Odin Sphere must be an awful game because they didn't do 3D.

8-bit can be wherever the hell it wants to be. And you don't have to like it.

Arex @ Feb 20th 2009 6:24PM

@ Hardy - Agreed that it's up to the developers to determine the art direction of their own games.

My comment was simply directed at Fletcher's comment that he wishes they had gone the Mega Man 9 route. I simply disagree. What makes his **opinion** any more or less "ignorant" than mine? People are entitled to have their own opinions and preferences, no?

I simply don't like my games looking and sounding just like the games I played almost 25 years ago. I like all the bells and whistles that improvements in technology bring. Even though I have fond memories of playing Combat, Adventure and Air & Sea Battle, etc., I would certainly not like to go back to Atari 2600 era graphics and sounds.

@ SoshiKitai - Who said anything about 3D? The Wii is perfectly capable of generating aesthetically pleasing graphics in 2D or 3D. And you're right, I don't have to like 8-bit graphics.

j.howlett @ Feb 20th 2009 4:26PM

there's a game cube remake? did it come to NA?

Adolph @ Feb 20th 2009 4:50PM

I like the original on Virtual Console, but this looks like garbage.

I don't want to hear excuses. Lost Winds, World of Goo look fantastic. So many SNES and NEO GEO games look great.

I usually don't judge a game by graphics but for WiiWare games that is a way to see how much they care about the game.

BlueBomberTurbo @ Feb 20th 2009 5:18PM

Two limiting factors here:

1. The size limit on WiiWare games.

2. 3D graphics.

I'm 100% positive if this game were kept 2D (like all the games you just mentioned), it would look phenominal, probably close to Super Paper Mario. Unfortunately, when you go to 3D, you have to draw 6 sides vs 1 side in 2D. The memory usage skyrockets, so everything can't look like a full Wii game. Take that new FPS that's gonna be on WiiWare. It looks like a PS1 gen game, but that's the best they could do with the memory limitations.