Draft:Adventure Island 4 Plus

Adventure Island 4 Plus is an unofficial non-profit PC/Windows remake of a 1994 platform game Master Takahashi%27s Adventure Island IV by Hudson Soft for NES/Famicom;

Summary
This game was created as an attempt to bring more attention and interest in the game that was originally released only in Japan, despite being part of the globally acclaimed and beloved franchise. Part of the reason for the missing localization for the rest of the world is the fact that the original game was the last known officially released NES game.

Development
Interestingly, despite being a visually simple 2D game, this game was developed using Unreal Engine 4. The game uses edited assets from the original Adventure Island 4, as well as it's predecessors - Adventure Island 2 and Adventure Island 3.

Comparison with the Original
Much like the original game, this one follows a rather simple plot: the evil Eggplant Wizard kidnaps Master Higgins' dinosaur friends and later his girlfriend Tina, and the Player, represented by Master Higgins, must save them and stop the evil Aubergine. There are a total of 9 visually distinct zones in the game - Tropics, Subterranean Cave, Volcano, Ice Valley, Crystal Land, Clouds, Dessert, Pyramid, and Dungeon. These zones are then divided into 6 Levels, each one having a Mini-Boss and a Zone Boss, with the Zone Boss of the Dungeon being the Evil Eggplant Wizard. Unlike the original game, a larger variety of music tracks is used to better emphasize the division of the Zones and to underline the overall tone for each of them.

New Features
The first 3 Adventure Island games for NES are known for their brutal 1-hit-death difficulty. Adventure Island IV introduced a Health Bar mechanics, which allowed Player to take some hits before dying and respawning near the Tropics House. The remake dissolves the concept of failure and death even further - dying at any point in he game simply moves the Player to last visited Checkpoint. The obtainable Fairy Inventory Item whose original role saw very similar to this feature now works much like it does in previous games - it grants invincibility to Player for set amount of time, and is a one-time use Item that can be re-obtained. In order to activate any Checkpoint, however, the Player needs to obtain the Egg Item first, just like in the original game. At a later point in game, a Ticket Item can be obtained, which also has it's function altered - instead of transporting the Player to the Tropics House, it now serves as a non-consummable Warp Ticket that allows Player to travel between previously activated Checkpoints. The Password feature from the original has been completely replaced with a New Save/Continue feature - Player starts the game in one of the 3 Save Slots (or in No Save Slot), and can then later save the game upon (re)activating any Checkpoint in the game, meaning the Egg Item must first be obtained. Another new feature is a separate Health Bar for Dinos - the original game had Dino mount removed from Player's inventory immediately upon taking damage. In the remake, when you free the first Dino, it gets a separate purple-colored Health Bar (unlike the pink-colored Character Health Bar), albeit with only 1 Heart Container; the Player can then find special Eggs in the Game World that contain new Health Power-Ups which grant additional Health Containers to Dino's Health Bar - most of such containers are hidden from the main path, and some of those hidden Eggs even have the additional condition for spawning the Upgrade - the Player must be using any Dino while hatching the Egg in order for the Upgrade to show up. The Health Bar and it's upgrades are shared between all usable Dinos. Most of the Mini-Games had their Controls completely reworked - in the original, winning any Mini-Game required altarnating between A and B buttons repeatedly; the remake changes it so that more natural controls are used - for instance, climbing Mini-Game works just as how Player climbs the Trees and Ladders, by pressing Up/Down. The same logic is applied to all other Mini-Games, where applicable. The original game has the ending Credits sequence set on the beach, and is automated. In the remake, the sequence is pretty much the same, except it is not automated, and Player can control Higgins on his way to the far right end of the beach, while Tina follows him automatically.