Adventure Island 3

	Developer: Hudson Soft	Publisher: Hudson Soft
	Release Date: 1992	Also On: Game Boy

Can't stop, can they? That assumes that I'm going to say something bad, but I'm not really. After what was a brilliant sequel to an otherwise stolen title, Hudson Soft decided to continue their most popular game series, Adventure Island, with this game, Adventure Island III. Overall, you can expect more of the same with some more variation. It's not as drastically different as the second was to the first, but there are several new features here that make it worth taking a look, even for the casual gamer, albeit with a bit of caution.

Graphically, not too much has been improved on since the second game. You have basically the same backgrounds, enemies and so forth, with a little more refinement and style. So you get the same dinosaurs, except for one, which is unfortunately quite poorly animated in my opinion, and some pretty detailed bosses and a few new worlds with more expansive backgrounds. The only real difference you may notice is that the artwork has become more stylized overall, but really it's not that hard to confuse this game with the second unless you know them well enough. The ending and title stories were nice touches, but not too much new is to be found here, good though it may be.

You find pretty much the same issue with the music. There are some new things going on, a few tweaks here and there and tiny upgrades, but nothing that's really going to catch your attention or really throw you for a loop. More of the same. I guess they stuck with what worked, but I can't say there is too much that's memorable here, they set that bar way back with the first title and never really seemed to catch it again, good though the music and effects may be. No big problems for me other than the fact that it's more of the same.

Luckily, for those of you familiar with the second game, they've added a fair number of noticeable differences from the other in terms of the gameplay. However, yet again, expect more of the same, jumping, attacking, going through levels, fighting bosses and so forth. This time around, however, Higgins has a few more treats for you, including a new weapon, invincibility crystals, more secrets, a new bonus level, a new dinosaur friend and several interesting aspects including hidden level skip areas and such. However, yet again, I have the problem that there is really not too much new here, not to mention that some of the new features aren't that great. The new dinosaur, for starters, is totally worthless and quite a sad addition to the series. The others work quite well, one can walk on ice, one is fast in water and so forth, but the poor green bastard just spins in the air as an attack, but it's so brief that you typically end up getting struck anyway and losing him. He has no real purpose otherwise except for walking on quicksand, which you'll see once a millenia, so they blew it on that one. But okay, so it's the same basically, that can be okay with some gamers, how about some issues with the previous two titles? Were they fixed?

Unfortunately, not really. The controls are the same as the second, which is fine, but this time around I noticed that more often than not you can easily get past the most difficult of levels by simply using the pterodactyl and flying over everything, collecting fruit when you need to so you don't die. Really dropped the difficulty significantly in comparison to the second game, and to add to that they didn't do anything with the bosses. Though they look nice and are different, they're about a kabillion times easier. Even the last boss is pathetic, you'll figure out its lame pattern in a few seconds when it transforms so there is almost no difficulty presented by the bosses whatsoever, they're just larger creatures you see throughout the game in essence. The new weapon is more powerful, but awkward since it's a boomerang and you have to catch it to use it again. I can't tell you how many times I wished I had the damn stone axe instead of that stupid thing. The hidden secrets were a nice touch, but overall not too much was down with the whole idea of the game or the series, they just stuck with the old and pretty much made the same game again in many respects.

What really bugs me about Adventure Island III is that, in spite of the above, the storyline behind the game is pretty much totally avoided except for the final boss and some short moments where you see the alien craft above the current level you're playing. The whole idea was supposed to be that aliens are invading the island, but I have to say it didn't feel this way at all. Why wasn't I fighting more aliens instead of the same stupid Octots and pig people from the first two damn games? Couldn't you have thrown in some zombie, alien frogs or something, I don't care, but don't just throw a meaningless storyline over what is otherwise the same game as the first two in the series, come on. There's just not enough new here or inventive enough to call it creative. What creativity exists is too brief to mention. They just threw a story over it and said screw using it. Shame.

As far as replay value and game length, I'm going to give Adventure Island III high marks. This is one of the things that really worked with the second title and didn't need to be changed at all. It's roughly the same length, taking perhaps around eight hours to complete if you sit to play it through, but luckily they threw in a nice level select feature that's in the manual so you can come back when you want and start where you left off, this time with a nice inventory of one item each so in case you last played with a lot and lost it, you still have something. At least they got this bit right.

Overall, Adventure Island III is really only disappointing in the details, because nothing was really changed. Hudson Soft merely took what was an excellent sequel and basically rehashed it to create another title, changing very little of note in the process. I hate when companies do this because it takes advantage of gamers who are loyal to certain brands or series, making money off of an idea without really doing too much with it to save time. I'd definitely play it again, it's a fun title, just not the same comparison can be made with this as I did between the first and second game in the series, there's just not enough difference to bother. So, to sum it up, great game, but an incredibly poor usage of potential.

Graphics:	8.5
Sound:	7
Gameplay:	7.5
Creativity:	5
Replay Value/Game Length:	9
Final:	7.3
Written by Stan	Review Guide

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