Adventure Island is the product of an arcade to console port of Wonderboy that had a licensing issue when it came to making the NES version, so they altered the main character, slapped a new title on it and out came the Adventure Island series. The campy soundtrack by Jun Chikuma helped distinguish it from its successor too.

I had no idea what those creepy looking pots were for. Turns out there is one (sometimes hidden) in each level and by collecting it you will receive double points for your remaining health meter at the end of the stage. Anybody here like to play Adventure Island for high score? In the Master System version the pot was actually a doll named Tanya and if you collected all of them, it would unlock extra levels at the end of the game. Sounds brutal.

The vitality bar gradually depletes so you need to pick up fruit along the way. There's also alot of dangerous wildlife coming at you all the time so the game is definately one of the more difficult retrogames to get into. Make sure you pick up the Hudson Bee at the end of the first stage so that you can continue.

The skateboard is fun but requires you to memorize the level in advance, or use save states. Let's hope they bring Adventure Island to the Nintendo Switch so it can be revisited by the next gen. What's your favorite version of Adventure Island / Wonderboy? Start a dialogue in the comments.