There is a fifth Adventure Island for the Famicom.

[ReyVGM]

Well, not exactly.

There is another title in the Takahashi Meijin no Bouken Shima family (Adventure Island's name in Japan), titled Takahashi Meijin no Bugutte Honey. It came out right after the first one (Adventure Island) and it could be considered its sister sequel (it came out before Adventure Island 2).
I've known about this game for a while and it's obvious it has ties to Takahashi Meijin (called Master Higgins in English), but what I didn't know was... read on.

The game starts innocently enough with a heart throwing female bee player,  but you soon find out how unforgiving this game is.


The point of the game is to find hidden orbs/eggs that send you to Arkanoid type levels. In these levels, you uncover alphabet letters by destroying the blocks. You now need to complete a secret word, but only one of the many letters that you uncover is the one needed for your secret word (you also have no idea what the secret word is and a wrong letter kills you).


You need to keep entering these Arkanoid type levels until you complete the word. Once you do, you rescue...







Takahashi Meijin himself! You now play as him for the rest of the game. Unfortunately, the goal is still the same one, to enter the Arkanoid levels and figure out a stupid secret word.




It's definitely a lousy game, but it's nice to find out about yet another game starring Master Hig... I mean, Takahashi.

But man this game is EVIL!

Apparently, to get the last letter on the last level and beat the game, you have to stand in front of a Takahashi statue and mash the button as quickly as you can. I guess the game is forcing you to prove your button mashing skills to the great Takahashi.

Problem:
You actually have to mash the hell out the button on your own pathetic skill. I tried using a turbo controller and the game doesn't recognize the insane speed of it. So I assume the speed has to be above normal and below machinery.

[nintendodork]

I never liked this game.  I see why it was never released outside of Japan.  (This is actually one of the few times a bad game wasn't released outside of Japan. )

[satoshi_matrix]

Takahashi Meijin no Bugutte Honey may not be a great game, but it is an interesting piece of history. Apparently, it was made into a tv show of the same name, or was based on the TV show. The main theme that plays throughout the Famicom game was used in a wonderfully dated 80's opening for the anime. Play the game a bit, and then watch it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-eUPKENMbA&feature=related

And as a bonus, here's a rather awesome tribute live version of the theme:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aRYGPTdw1I

[crade]

That bee character is hot.

[nintendodork]

>_>

Try some Hacker International games, bud.

[crade]

I have a hacker game, but it doesn't have that bee character!  Its just tetris with mahjong tiles

[nurd]

I did not care for this game. It was my first Famicom game, and it cost me roughly  One Dollar.

[satoshi_matrix]

Hey manuel, can you dig up any info on the Takahashi Meijin no Bugutte Honey anime?

[UglyJoe]

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=1373
http://forums.lostlevels.org/viewtopic.php?t=1006
http://www.destructoid.com/blogs/Maudrid/adventure-island-the-anime--43823.phtml