Nerdicus NES Review #33 : Adventures of Gilligan's Island

Title : Adventures of Gilligan's Island

Publisher :  Bandai 

Genre : Action Sidescroller

Players : 1 Player

Release Date : 1990

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $10-$14

Come on, everybody! All together now! Just sit right there, and you'll hear a tale! A Tale of a fateful trip. That started from this tropic port, aboard this tiny ship...okay fine, don't sing. Bastards.

This is one of those games I just don't understand. What was Nintendo / Bandai's target audience here? People who used to watch this show in the 60's over 20+ years from when it first came out? I don't remember even seeing this show on TV during the 80's besides being played on Nick at Night or something. Even then, this isn't the type of TV show that calls for a game. Kids wouldn't want to play this crap. Then again, this wouldn't be the first time something like this happened on a game console.

Ah well, what are you going to do? No wonder there are some many "angry gamer" rants about Nintendo games. It's taken me 30 years to realize that this library is mostly garbage. And Gilligan's Island doesn't prove me wrong.

First off, this game gets major bonus points for the awesome chip-tunes, 8-bit version of the Gilligan's Island theme song. I seriously just let the title screen sit so I can rock out. Don't judge me, it's a catchy beat. But I'm sure you don't care about the music. Let's talk about the game itself.

The whole gang is in this game, but you play as The Skipper, which is a bummer because I would have much rather played as the goofy, yet lovable Gilligan. Luckily he follows you around as an idiotic NPC who just irritates the hell out of you. He's always screwing things up, and I'm not talking about game glitches. He just gets trapped, attacked, etc. You have to keep on rescuing him constantly. And it's not like you can just forget about him. You need him (unfortunately)

The real problem with this game is the lack of coherent gameplay, and I guess it stems form the fact that this game is based on a comedy TV show. First you're faced with a time limit for each level, which always annoyed the hell out of me in NES games. I hate being rushed around in a game. I like taking my time and getting things done at my own pace.

Controls are wonky and unresponsive, and if you have even the slightest desire of fighting enemies that fly onto the screen randomly, you're out of luck. It's almost impossible to land a hit with the meager punch that acts as your only form of defense. You only have a range of two inches.

The only thing I could say that made this game remotely enjoyable was the banter between the Skipper and Gilligan. It's always fun watching Gilligan doing idiotic things on the screen, and having the Skipper mock the hell out of him. If you lose sight of Gilligan, the Skipper even goes on to say "good riddance.", like you want the poor sap to die. Oh, 1960's humor.

I could only stand playing this game for about fifteen minutes before I was ready to toss it for good. Apparently there are some bosses you can fight, but I can't even fathom how they programmed it. Maybe one day if I want suffer through this again, I'll actually get up to one.This is a monstrosity of NES gaming. Avoid it at all costs. You have been warned. Go watch the TV show instead. That way you don't have to bother jumping from level to level just to hear new jokes.

Final Score (out of 5) :

Until next time. Keep on gaming!