In fact: Adventure Island IV has been translated into more than just English.

Now – thanks to the magic of fan translation patching – the game can be played by people who don’t read Japanese. It was nothing that Steve Demeter of Neo Demiforce fame couldn’t handle in a couple weeks, even after he outdid himself by hacking in a professional-quality English title screen.The fourth and final Adventure Island game for the NES/Famicom was only ever released in Japan, in 1994. In the context of the contemporary 16-bit console wars and Doom for PC, Adventure Island 4 still feels comfortably retro, an aesthetic largely unaccounted for in console gaming until Mega Man 9 and other digital download purchases gave the idea fresh legs.Įven the unofficial translation to English was a chill process: The game’s sparse dialogue was uncharacteristically stored as plain ASCII text. While Adventure Island IV takes interesting liberties by featuring a simple hub-like level structure, the game plays like a comfortable, familiar, tight-controlling Famicom platformer in the mold of hundreds that came before. For once, he could take his time grabbing fruit, exploring a pleasantly compact island world, rescuing his imperiled prehistoric pals at leisure, and even strutting his button-mashing skills for the occasional minigame. Even better - while the forces of evil had kidnapped his dinosaur friends, he was relieved to see his lady at home safe and sound.

He had never looked better: slimmer, a couple gray hairs perhaps, happy with his long-term paramour. This must be how Master Higgins felt coming into Adventure Island IV, the final official Japanese Famicom release. It’s just how people are wired - despite the physical failings or grey hair we collect along the way, at a certain age we become content and comfortable with ourselves. If there is a soul or spirit in our beloved NES, it’s destined to grow happier in its old age.

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