King Neptune’s Adventure
System: NES
Release Date: March 1990
Developer: Oetinger
Publisher: Color Dreams
Genre: Action Adventure
Time for an unlicensed action adventure romp with King Neptune’s Adventure. The Orb of Peace has been stolen. In fact, it is the last of King Neptune’s treasures that have been taken. There are eight others that have been pilfered over the years. Tired of being a rube, the king leaves his castle on a quest to traverse the depths of the ocean and get them back.
Neptune has an unlimited supply of lightning bolts that he can throw with the A Button. There are also Bubble Bombs that can be collected and thrown with the B Button. When they bounce to where you want, you can detonate them. This is an important skill to learn in order to kill enemies and bosses. Your life is measured by tear drops at the top of the screen. These can be replenished by drops after killing certain enemies. They can also drop seahorses, which give you an extra life after collecting 12.
The quest to find the nine treasures opens up in Neptune’s throne room. If you’re too fast, you may miss out on an important item! There are little red dolphins that I originally mistook as an enemy, but realized I could speak to them or collect them for free guys. I had originally found the sword treasure at the end of the open ocean, but couldn’t collect it. The dolphin told me why, I needed the crown! Next time I came by, it was mine.
The rest of the treasures are found on the different areas shown in the map. The maze requires you to collect keys and bounce lightning off walls to hit enemies. The sunken ship features hidden doors that are the way forward. Here you learn that enemies are deadly if they get close to you. The Dark Castle and Volcano are both short and linear screens that aren’t very interesting. Atlantis is your last stop before fighting the final dark octopus boss. Beating him gives you access to his treasure horde and an underwater firework display?
Graphics: 1.5
The graphics are alright. The backgrounds have a little bit of variance and sprites aren’t too small.
Sound: 1.5
The music isn’t my favorite, but I’ve heard worse. The sound effects didn’t grate on my nerves too much.
Gameplay: 2.0
Moving Neptune around is pretty easy, even if his bolts aren’t that strong or precise.
Difficulty: 2.0
It wasn’t too hard to find the treasures, but you do need to shoot at everything to open them up.
Fun Factor: 1.5
I had an alright time, but mainly because it’s short.
Overall Grade: 1.7
King Neptune’s Adventure earns a C-. Color Dreams has a decent release with this one. It was a better adventure game than ALF, that’s for sure.