Oh no!! Higgins & Tina's dinosaur friends have been gobbled up by a mysterious fiend! Strap on a bikini, grab the nearest weapon, and prepare to conquer the isles of adventure. Today's review is centered on Hudson Soft's last game for the venerable Famicom. Its late release (1994!) meant that it'd never make its way to the west. What a shame. It also turned out to be Hudson's worst-selling game on the platform. What a double shame. Nevertheless, Adventure Island IV would eventually receive a fan-translation, and we're all glad it did. This is a nice little companion piece to Super Adventure Island II, which also added exploration and problem-solving to the hop & throw platforming that has defined the series.
I'm starting this look off with a wild assumption. In both story and mechanics, Adventure Island IV is actually a prequel that takes place before the 1986 classic. While Higgins (or Tina in this case) is fully capable of walking and jumping, he has not yet learned the art of dashing. Holding down the attack button doesn't do anything. To add to this, his weapon of choice isn't the hammer (or tomahawk), it's a mere bone. In fact, neither hero nor heroine obtain their trademark weapon until the last ten minutes of the game. Furthering my suspicions is the last boss, who is none other than the mighty Eggplant King. Destroying this dino-napping brute kicked off an eternal fued between the Higgins' and the Eggplants. The main characters also look noticeably younger than in previous instalments, but that could just be Now Production playing around with the art-direction.
In accordance with the action-adventure format, this entry is comprised of six themed dungeons. If you've participated in Higgins' previous (future?) escapades, then you'll quickly recognize sights such as the ice caverns, a quicksand-filled desert, fire caverns, and so on. Once you've established the next direction that you're supposed to be heading, then it's just a matter of avoiding baddies, making a couple of minor detours for health-replenishing meat or heart-containers, and then battling the boss. Unlike what its genre suggests, this game isn't particularly non-linear. You're welcome to return to previous areas in case you missed anything, but the boss of the current area must be destroyed before you can proceed to the next. There is somewhat of an "overworld" that glues these disparate locations together, but that's all it really does. This isn't like The Legend of Zelda where tools you find in the dungeons can uncover secrets elsewhere.
In an attempt to +1 my vocabulary, I'm going to mention a word that's been rattling around my otherwise empty head for a hot minute: perfunctory. Adventure Island IV does feature a lot of items, and they all have a purpose. The problem with that is a singular purpose doesn't leave space for experimentation or fun. In preparation for the fire cavern, Higgins (or Tina!) receives a water gun. This tool puts out fires, grows springy fungus, and that's it. The water gun can't be used in the ice cavern to create frozen blocks. You will however obtain a spear. It can latch onto moving platforms from underneath. You'll use it once. Other items like the snowboard, surfboard, and skateboard exist almost solely because of some Hudson Soft mandate. There is a crystal-smashing mallet that smashes the one crystal in the entire island.
Maybe the dev team thought that keys were too boring, and I should stop being such a fun-hating fuddy duddy. To that I say... fair enough. Giving players a tool to fool around is more interesting, even if that interest fades minutes after the dungeon is completed. There's also the rare occasion that a tool has value outside of opening a door. My favorite weapon - the boomerang - has returned. It retains its double attack power and unique learning curve. Too bad it isn't obtained sooner. Having to rely on bones for most of the game is pretty annoying.
One of the features that could've alleviated my criticisms about the bone is if I had a dinosaur to ride. Over the course of my playthrough, I kept wondering when the damn game would let me hop on their backs and employ their powers to slay baddies or find secrets. Before I knew it, I was at the entrance to the final dungeon. All of the rescued dinosaurs are found at a nearby village... a village I had somehow never noticed or thought to look up information on. Yeah, so I just went dino-less for the entire adventure. "Oops!" doesn't even begin to describe it. Like, you ever read those stories about the person who didn't know Resident Evil 4 had a run button or whatever? That's how I feel. In fairness, even if I had managed to find the "enigmatic" creatures, I probably would've shelved them the instant I realized they disappear back to their village the second Higgins gets hurt while atop one. Rushing back to obtain a replacement probably would've been too much trouble, even with the convenient ability to set warp points in various locations throughout the island.
** It's bad enough that I've failed to engage with all of a video game's mechanics, but it really speaks to my unprofessional character that I would attempt to undermine them further with a typical sour grapes attitude. I might as well review Espgaluda and say that I don't see point in kakusei. Although do I really want to put out the idea that some temporary dinosaurs are as essential as the central survival & scoring mechanic in a STG? That's an outright insane can of worms to op- **
Sorry, it seems my internal monologue sprung a leak. Just ignore that, thanks.
In terms of difficulty, Adventure Island IV is about as relaxing as the series is going to get. A big part of it is the health meter. If need be, you can pick up a health-restoring potion and a revival fairy. You might not need either though, since aside from a couple of bosses, you're unlikely to be in a ton of danger. Instead of serving as a time limit, the food gauge simply replenishes a heart every time you obtain eight fruits. This is a nice feature in that keeps players moving at a relatively brisk pace. Its secondary function becomes apparent when you tackle the minigames. Most of these are simply a means to obtain additional items, but the few required to progress are actually much harder if you attempt to take them on with 1 or 2 fruits instead of 6 or 7.
Going further, the level of dexterity needed to navigate the various platforming challenges and enemy encounters throughout the land just isn't as high as before. You won't be making a series of death-defying jumps while maniacal creatures attack from every angle. A leaping frog or devilishly placed campfire isn't going to spike your anxiety. Death is still a possibility, but the aforementioned warp point system mitigates almost all lost progress. If you really wanted, you could skip the heart containers and reduce checkpoint usage, but I don't know if that's a good idea. From what I can tell, the hitboxes are actually worse than in Adventure Island II. Projectiles are much more likely to connect, even if it looks like they shouldn't.
While I did enjoy my playthrough of Adventure Island IV, it does lack some of the precision and spark that makes the other games so exciting to run through. Each of the six dungeons is structured well. Some even get a little creative like with the Pyramid and its many false walls. However, the moment-to-moment hop & throw action just isn't as compelling. I also can't ignore the unrealized ambition permeating throughout Higgins' (and Tina's) quest. The tools serving a perfunctory role might have meant more to me earlier this year when I was drowning in Zelda-likes and every visit to an inventory screen felt like an aluminum bat to the abdomen. Now, I'm left wishing the game did more with what it had.
Still, I suppose what really matters is that I didn't think about most of these issues while I was actively playing. Then again, was I thinking about anything? Obviously not a single thought of where the rescued dinosaurs might be hanging out ever crossed my mind.
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