The Only Gilligan’s Island Video Game Adaptation Was A Mess

At the end of the 80s, “Gilligan’s Island” had become an element of pop culture. Although the sitcom of Sherwood Schwartz only lasted three seasons and 98 episodes from 1964 to 1967, it was strongly unionized throughout the 1970s and 80s, ensuring that the new generations became familiar with Gilligan and his comrades of School. Not only that, the show produced two animated benefits with “The New Adventures of Gilligan” (1974-75) and “Gilligan’s Planet” (1982-83). In addition, the original cast has returned to three live TV movies: “Rescue of Gilligan’s Island” (1978), “The Castaways on Gilligan’s Island” (1979), and “The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island” (1981). Thus, in the late 1980s, the universe of “Gilligan” was certainly engraved in the collective consciousness of the public.

But you can also say that this was in popularity. The latest live TV movie, “The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island” – which almost entirely presented a different team – was not a great success of notes and therefore marked the end of television films based on the sitcom. Meanwhile, “Gilligan’s planet” did not last more than a season. Thus, while “Gilligan’s Island” had become well established, he was not exactly at the height of his popularity at the end of the 80s, which is only part of the reason why the game Nes De Bandai in 1990 “The Adventures of Gilligan’s Island” is such a mystery.

There have been a lot of video games based on popular TV IP. Anyone who grew up at PS2 / Xbox age will surely remember “The Simpsons: Hit & Run”, and many children from the 90s spent hours on the game “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers”. Heck, there was even an adaptation of “Desperate Housewives” video games. But “Gilligan’s Island?” Fortunately, the Bandai game turned out to be a masterpiece, venerated by players around the world as one of the best offers in the Nintendo entertainment system. I’m kidding, it was bad.

“Gilligan’s Island” was a spectacle that kissed the stupidity and never apologized once for that. The sitcom knew it was a ridiculous and campy comfort watch and never really tried to be many other things. Bob Denver’s first clumsy companion was only one of the many charming characters who invented the shipwreckedness of Minnow SS – named as such for a hilarious reason – which makes a show that, although it never had much In meaning, was essentially a kind nonsense. But none of this really shouts “the adaptation of the video game”, which did not prevent Bandai from producing a nes game in 1990. Lamously, “the adventures of the island of Gilligan” was terrible.

There is even something in the name. As a rule, “the adventures of” would precede the name of a character; “The Adventures of Tintin”, “The Adventures of Robin Hood”, “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” (itself inexplicably turned into a dull video game in 1989). Although “the adventures of the island of Gilligan” is not a technically incorrect grammar, it somehow suggests that you get a collection of all the adventures that take place on the titular island, when in fact you Launch in your own unique adventure. It may seem to be dotted, but the title is only the first sign of problem and alludes to what will happen once you have launched this poorly designed adventure game.

The next sign of problem? The 8 -bit Bandai taking of the CBS classic sitcom has made you play as a skipper, played by Alan Hale Jr. in the original show. It is true, in the video game “Gilligan’s Island” that you do not play as Gilligan. Instead, the first companion follows you while you explore the island through four levels – a game mechanic who obviously revealed incredibly frustrating for anyone really played the game. As Gamefaqs The 2006 revision noted that the AI ​​that guided Gilligan through the levels was horrible, and yet, keeping the boy unhappy by your side was “integrated into the game”, because leaving him behind caused the drop in the deadline for time. There was also a “random problem where Gilligan will in fact go out in the opposite direction, then trap the edge of the screen” – and these are only some of the problems with “the adventures of the Island of Gilligan “.

“Gilligan’s Island” has been at the center of several cultural developments perplexed since its broadcast for the first time, like the time that the theme song of “Gilligan’s Island” sparked a strange trial. But the decision to market an adaptation of video games to children in 1990, who were busy diving hours in “Mega Man” and “Zelda” seems to be one of the strangest moments in the history of “Gilligan’s Island” . Only two years after “the adventures of the island of Gilligan”, we were all busy freeing fierce deaths on our enemies in “Mortal Kombat”, so why was Bandai convinced that we would all be tempted to wander a version 8 bits from an island of a sitcom Campy from the 60s?

Suppose that if it was a decent adventure / strategy game that had just used the brand “Gilligan’s Island” would be another story. But according to all the accounts, the game was about as bad as any game never. It opens with a chiptune version of “The Ballad of Gilligan’s Isle” – the famous theme of the sitcom co -written by Sherwood Schwartz and George Wyle. But even then, there is something off, with the NES digital synth chip which has trouble recreating the real notes of the original song. Things only worse from there. Aside from the fact that you could not play as Gilligan in “The Adventures of Gilligan’s Island” and the fact that the AI ​​at stake was excruciating, there were several other problems with the Bandai game. Most of the time, players simply went back and forth the original sitcom.

According to GameFaqs, these expeditions between the characters involved interactions with “hyperactive monkeys, ferocious wild boars and headhunter hunters who were almost impossible to strike and who therefore deserve to avoid completely. This only left the exploration of the island – hardly the most exciting video game experience, especially when many other aspects of the game did not work.

The Gamefaqs retrospective of “The adventures of the island of Gilligan” sums up the game as a “three -hour bore”, but even it is not as bad as CableThe estimate of it as a “three-hour torture”. The magazine reviewed the game in 2009, only to assume that he “plays like a master’s degree in master’s degree and a graduate student in which he explores what happens to players when they are forced to play a game without Nothing.

While Gamefaqs at least recognizes that there are decent aspects in the game, overall “the adventures of the island of Gilligan” was an abject bad blow which remains a little mystery today. Why was it done? What Kid with an NES asked their parents the game “Gilligan’s Island” – surely a real world of real world for “Lee Carvallo de Put Challenge” by “The Simpsons”. Did Bandai really think that Gilligan and his stranded crew would appeal to the children who could have played “Super Marios Bros. 3” or “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game”, who also made their debut in 1990? The questions abound.

On this date, “The Adventures of Gilligan’s Island” is the only video game adaptation of the beloved sitcom of Sherwood Schwartz, and, all considered, it is probably for the best.