Hudson Soft's library of games are some that I have not taken full advantage of talking about here on the Retro of Reboots. Their influence gets overlooked, mostly due to the larger publishing and development giants throughout the 80's, 90's, and 2000's. They manufactured the TurboGrafx-16 console, a pretty cool machine that got DEMOLISHED by the Sega Mega Drive and NES.

I had the pleasure of talking about the mini console Konami released several years ago. Perhaps the story of the PC Engine can wait for another day, and I'm getting ahead of myself. May as well start at the first game I became familiar with Hudson Soft. Released in 1988 in the US, Adventure Island, which was also one of the very first NES games I've ever played, you take control of Master Higgins as he embarks on a journey to save Princess Tina from The Evil Witch Doctor. I'm tempted to make a Ross Bagdasarian joke here, but I'll spare readers my hideous dad humor JUST THIS ONCE. 

The NES and side-scrollers go together like cookies and cream, and Adventure Island is a solid piece of software. Like Ninja Gaiden, I consider this a game that relies more on finding ways to maintain your momentum to get through stages with the best accuracy. Higgins can get vertical leaping, but familiarizing oneself with the hazards, like tripping over rocks and getting roasted by fires. I sometimes forget there's a life bar in the game, which can be negated by picking up poison items. Yup, this wouldn't be a Hudson Soft game without the tiny ways they can screw you over with hidden items that hurt/help you.

Adventure Island sports fairly tight controls, jumping and attacking with your stone axe or magical fireballs rely on timing Higgins' momentum, as sometimes a higher throw requires more velocity. It's an interesting science that differentiates itself from the fire flower in the Super Mario Bros. series. It never feels unfair, and the game has great level design. For 32 stages (which go faster than you'd think once you get on a roll) that bear some similarities to each other, juuuust enough changes and traps are scattered about, and they keep me on my toes. The Witch Doctor changes magical heads each time he's encountered, giving him a higher constitution.

This might get me flamed in some threads, but I feel like the Adventure Island games should've been how Sonic the Hedgehog modeled its speed and reflexes after, it would make the damage and deaths seem significantly less cheap and you aren't punished for running fast. Lastly, I give mad props to people who can clear stages without losing the skateboard.

As far as music and sound FX goes, Hudson Soft is fairly underrated in my eyes. It's something I should research, but very much like SunSoft, a lot of their audio quirks and ques are as memorable to me as companies like Konami and Capcom. There may be only a handful of background music compositions in Adventure Island done by Jun Chikuma (known for producing music for the BomberMan series), but they end up becoming themes I find myself humming along to. 

When it comes to 8-bit platforming, Adventure Island is a series that's certainly a staple of the times, and felt like one of those NES titles that almost every kid owned or rented often. If there's any real knocks against it, it can be a little TOO hard in spots. Mostly because it becomes quite the bout of endurance. Remembering where all the vital items are for points, weapons, and extra lives, I'll find myself forgetting them. Once I get on a roll though, the work pays off. It's a solid mid-level game for the Nintendo, may not topple the cream of the crop, but it's one I like to revisit.