Can anyone actually just straight up beat this game...???    

I'm not talking about Bea-Iank, or Tom Votava here or anything.... 

I'm talking regular folk like me. Sure, I can beat some "hard" games.... but holy shit. Adventure Island, what in the effing hell?

It's been one of my favourites since I was a kid. 

But I never bothered to actually see how hard it was. I usually throw it in and play until I die... Usually Area 3-4... That gives me my fill of Adventure Island. I like it mostly because I played the Wonder Boy cabinet as a kid and thought Adventure Island was the same game. So just a few minutes give me enough joy without actually playing the game too long. 

Then the other day I'm looking at a Wiki-Adventure Island page and read about the Hudson Bee... Hahaha... fuck. So... I get the bee every once in a while but didn't know it gave you unlimited continues? Yeesh. Rookie mistake. 

So I'm like "Fuckin' rights! Here we go... I'm actually going to power through this thing!" In these cases I use my "Ghosts 'N Goblins Logic". That being if I can hack through GNG with unlimited continues, I can do it with any game....

Well... Apparently not. God damn Adventure Island has me defeated. I'm on Area 7 Round 4, and apparently if you die on that level you're absolutely fucked because you don't get a weapon back. 

So brutal. Been playing the last couple nights... can't get past one set of bees just after the 3rd post. Apparently I suck shit because I can't beat this damn level. 

Anyone else? I mean.... This is absolutely brutal. 

TLDR: Adventure Island is fucking hard. 

I've beaten all 3 on NES many times. Takes some practise and memorization for sure, but I believe in you!

You've beaten the first one front to back, without continues, many times????  

Also, thanks for believing in me, but I can 100% tell you with confidence that I will never, ever, EEEEEEEEEEEVVVVVVVVVVVVER, beat this game. Apparently I'm going to have to start all over again just to try to play 7-4 with a damn weapon. 

Well, let's see...

I've beaten Battletoads without continues many times.

I've beaten Bayou Billy without continues.

I've beaten Ninja Gaiden without dying.

I've beaten Batman without dying.

I've beaten the first two Double Dragons without dying.

I've beaten frickin' Bump n Jump.

I can scarcely imagine myself beating Adventure Island without continues. You reached 7-4. It gets even worse. 8-2 and 8-3 are among the hardest levels in the history of video games, IMO.

Possibly the best NES platformer.

The Hudson Bee is a necessity. I know Basil has 1 CC'd it or possibly 1 deathed it. I don't think it's on my list of potential challenges at this point.

It's very hard but worth seeing it to completion, as maddening as the process can be.

Yeah it's an excellent game. It's just sadistic in its difficulty.

A big part of the difficulty comes from there being so much to remember. Oops, forgot there was a frog there, I'm dead. Oops, forgot that platform was going to drop... RIP.

 

Oh sorry I must have skipped over that when I read the post. Without continues, I don't believe so. Didn't mean to mislead! I'm not down to put that much effort into memorizing any platformer, I'm a shmup guy.

AI's probably the hardest NES game I can beat (with continues obviously). It really stops messing around like halfway through. The crushing difficulty and memorization is offset by the generous single level checkpoints and super easy bosses. Great game, pure platform brutality.

I die a lot, obviously, but I never felt like losing my weapon was a setback. I basically expect to lose it every time I start a level. IIRC 8-1 is a bit of a reprieve then 8-2, 8-3, and 8-4 are quite the gauntlet. Good luck with the grind, it sure doesn't get easier!

How about the dudes who can beat it with the skateboard? Those are some straight up psycho runs.

You and I enjoy "these types" of games Michael. And why shouldn't everyone? Put the time in and get good, there's nothing more satisfying *gaming anyway haha*

Finish Master Higgins quest and then conquer Battletoads folks.

That's a thing?? Without losing it??
 

Well, it disappears before each boss battle, but speed runners use every skateboard to get the fastest completion.
 

Once I am fully retired and start streaming, I should hook myself with an AVS and stream some Adventure Island runs.
Game is really fun. Fairly challenging too.
Gotta practise it hard again when I plan to do that because I would love to do a no death run and a no death pacifist run live.

I beat Adventure Island in one sitting, one summer night in 1996, so I guess I must have gotten through 7-4 without a weapon since there's no way I blazed through the whole thing first try.

I remember it being punishingly hard, demanding incredible precision -- but it was doable.

I had a handful of NES games growing up. This one and Arkanoid always stood out to me for their challenge, growing up i always thought I sucked at games but maybe it's the fact that those two are both of pretty high challenge. Lol

I haven’t played battletoads since that time in the weekly contest. That burnt my brain. 

I still havent beaten it. 

 

LOL, nobody's going to learn all of Battletoads in a week. You have to stretch it out.

 

I've only beaten it with continues. I've never tried to beat it without continues, but I think I'd be able to if I really wanted to put the effort into it. Since losing a life only makes it harder, I feel that anyone who can beat with continues should be able to beat it without them with enough practice.

It's like I always say when practising a new shmup: you don't have to be perfect all the time, just a few minutes at a time.

I've beaten it two times with continues. To beat it without continues would take a lot of effort.

I suspect the difficulty is a bit of sloppy programming and not playtested enough before release, because 60-70% of the game isn't that hard, and bosses are usually pretty easy at any point. It doesn't seem like its supposed to be that difficult, and the sequels are walks in the park in comparion. Its more the unbalance in amount enemies, lack of weapons, unlikely hard jumps and things like that which seems to go overboard at the end. It is a challenge though, and its a game I have more fond memories of beating than say Mutant Virus.

I still would say Battletoads is a harder game all in all, but certain levels in Adventure Island are up there.

There comes a time in each mans life, where they should look at themselves and think, is all the time i'm using to spend to memorize this game worth it? Which is why I have never really beaten it. Too much for too little  . I think I made a thread about this a long time ago. Its the most evil NES game ever made.

Excellent convo...

Hahaha, Glovesy, I thought you were a little confident there. 

Kid Dracula... Finsih Master Higgins and conquer Battletoads??? I can max the score and get the past the inferno pretty easily in Battletoads, does that count??? It's been years since I tried, but when I did with a Game Genie, I still couldn't beat it.    ... SO... I won't be conquering it anytime soon. I'll try to beat it again with the Game Genie, though, haha.

 
"Best" = hardest and angering?

My bad mbd39, you're on the list, too! Beating Ninja Gaiden without dying I consider godly. 

Sadistic would be a good way to put it, haha. And you totally nailed it there. Forget literally one thing and you're dead. Happened countless times, haha. 

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This is why I thought I could get through it! My Ghosts N Goblins logic... but level 7-4 fucked on me. Thanks for that... I will attempt again and when I do, try to be ready for 8... although right now it's a terrifying prospect. 

 
 

 
YYYYyyyyyyyeeeeeeessssss! I knew Bea_Iank could handle this shit. 

Honestly.... that melts my brain. Just the thought of that is literally scary for me. Kind of like when you think of a nightmare, or something really scary? That's how I feel when I think about no deathing AI.   

 
Well... after you die (and subsequently continue a million times in my case) there are plenty of weapons the game gives you. Just not apparently in level 7-4. So you could have made your way through most of the game and just not died on 7-4 with your weapon. 

I'm fairly confident being careful you could just smash through it with any weapon. 

 
Yeah, but it's relentless!!! I can beat the levels individually, but putting together a string of performances for ALL the levels... that blows my mind. 

Just like GNG. Each level I can make it through given enough chances.... but to beat them all, in a row, would be basically be a "perffect" run to me. 

 
I was also thinking it's inherant difficulty stems from it's origins from an arcade game. Relentless quater eater...? 


Great Adventure Island talk....

How far can you regular folk get WITHOUT continuing? Reaching Area 4 is somethwat easy for me. I like to think I could beat Area 4 with enough practise... maybe further, I'm not sure, I only played those levels once and died uncountable times, haha.  

I was at the point where I could no death Ninja Gaiden, but could never beat the fuckin final boss! I can no death the whole game, but then can't beat the game!!

As for Adventure Island, most of my 'regular folk' buddies don't make it to the first cave door

Haha. I have beaten all 3 Adventure Island NES games. I went through the same struggles you did. I definitely used the continues. If you lose your ax on the last world you are pretty screwed. I lost it and it was a nightmare getting through. It is one of the absolute hardest NES games no doubt. The 2nd game is almost equally tough. The 3rd is a lot easier.