Adventure Island (series)

***Adventure Island***, known as ***Takahashi Meijin no Bōken Jima*** (高橋名人の冒険島, "Master Takahashi's Adventure Island") in Japan, is a video game series produced by Hudson Soft that started with the release of *Adventure Island* for the Famicom and MSX on September 12, 1986 in Japan.

## Development

### Relation to *Wonder Boy*

Adventure Island began development as a direct port of the Sega arcade game *Wonder Boy*, to which Hudson Soft obtained the rights from developer Escape (now known as Westone Bit Entertainment). During the development of the port, the decision was made to change the character design of the protagonist, modeling him and naming him after Hudson Soft's spokesman Takahashi Meijin. In the western version of *Adventure Island*, the Takahashi Meijin character was renamed Master Higgins.

While the *Wonder Boy* series adapted an action RPG system for its sequels (beginning with *Wonder Boy in Monster Land*), most of the *Adventure Island* sequels stuck to the game system of the original *Wonder Boy*. Moreover, Hudson Soft also obtained the rights to port all of the *Wonder Boy* sequels to the TurboGrafx-16, changing the title and character designs of each game (with the exception of *Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair*). Incidentally, the Japanese version of *Dragon's Curse* (the TurboGrafx-16 adaptation of *Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap*) was titled *Adventure Island*.

The rights to the *Adventure Island* series are currently owned by Konami, who absorbed Hudson Soft in 2012.

## Games

### Appearances in other games

Takahashi Meijin appears as a playable character in the Battle Mode of *Saturn Bomberman*, a 1996 Sega Saturn title developed by Hudson Soft.

Takahashi Meijin also appears as a playable character in the crossover fighting game *DreamMix TV World Fighters*, released in Japan for GameCube on December 13, 2003.

Takahasia Meijin also appears in the sport mobile game *Gachapin & Mukku No Dai Undōkai* in 2008.

## Other media

### Manga

***Famicom Runner: Takahashi Meijin Monogatari*** (ファミコンランナー高橋名人物語 Lit. "Famicom Runner: Master Higgin Tale") is a manga based on Hudson Soft's characters Bee and Takahashi Meijin. It was released from April 1986 to February 1988 in Japan and was Published by CoroCoro Comics, and created by Kazuyoshi Kawai.

### Anime

*Adventure Island* also inspired an animated television series titled ***Honey Bee in Toycomland*** (Bugってハニー *Bug-tte Honey*), which was produced by TMS Entertainment and aired in Japan from October 3, 1986 to September 25, 1987, lasting 51 episodes and having a theatrical film. The series also inspired its own Famicom game titled *Takahashi Meijin no Bug-tte Honey* (高橋名人のBUGってハニー), released on June 5, 1987. The TV series featured Honey Girl (the bee-like fairy who grants Higgins temporary invincibility in the original game) as a major character. The plot involved the kidnapping of Takahashi (Master Higgins) by Kyura-the-Great. It is Honey Girl's mission to rescue him by enlisting the help of One-Up, Dal, and Midori, three Earth children who also happen to be video game aces. The series featured *Dragon Ball's* Minoru Maeda as character designer, and featured storylines incorporating elements of various popular video games of the day. For example, another Hudson character, Bomberman, makes a cameo in two episodes.

## Trivia

* The *Adventure Island* and *Monster World* series appear to have been a major inspiration to the online game *MapleStory*, as it shares some similarities with them, and its official Chinese version is known as ***Adventure Island Online*** (冒险岛Online), the logo including a coconut and yellow text.

## References

1. ↑ Insert Credit: Adventure Island Online - Maple Story is secretly Wonder Boy in Monster World