ElbinoBunny
Treasure Adventure Game is an action adventure platformer released in 2011 for Windows PCs. It was developed by Stephen Orlando and published by Robit Studios. The music was composed by Robert Ellis.
An evil demon attempts to wipe out all magic from the world. A young apprentice called Huayin, who was training to become a wizard, gathered 12 enchanted items with which he used to face the demon. Though Huayin was ultimately successful in defeating evil, the battle between himself and the demon caused all the land of the world to break up into small islands scattered about the world.
Centuries later, an archaeologist by the name of Baggus, along with his friend Gagwin and his son, go on a quest to find all 12 lost enchanted items from the epic battle fought between Huayin and the demon with the intention of opening a museum to house the lost artifacts. Upon finding all of them, Baggus opts for them to retire with their treasures while Gagwin convinces Baggus to press on in order to find the temple that can only be accessed by the one who has possession of the 12 artifacts. Gameplay begins on the island supposed to have the location of the missing temple. The player takes control of Gagwin’s son. They enter a cave and then the player’s character wakes up to his grandmother in her home.
The player’s grandmother presents him with a boat and encourages him to seek his fortune as an adventurer. Traveling to the east, the player very quickly meets up with Baggus in his shiny new museum that is soon to be opened. Baggus vaguely recognizes the character but doesn’t give it much thought. He tasks the player with finding the three essential items all treasure hunters must have, a hat, a compass, and a sail. Once the player finds these items, he may return to Baggus for additional training.
Treasure Adventure Game plays a lot like Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. The game is quite clever and to its strength doesn’t take itself too seriously. That being said, I have seen this action adventure platformer formula in many sorts of games released for the PC spanning decades. There is nothing revolutionary here and not much new. If you enjoy this tried and true game formula however, you will have fun with Treasure Adventure Game.
Treasure Adventure Game serves up an extra bit of nostalgia in one way I never expected nor wished for. In order to change the game controls there is a companion Setup.exe file installed along with the game, like many of the DOS games from the late 80s and early 90s, instead of being an option in the game’s main menu for some unknown reason. This is also the tool that must be used to change the size the game graphics take up on the screen. When in game and you are told to press any key to continue, the game actually means it will only respond to any key currently configured on the virtual gamepad. Pressing any other key does nothing but increase the frustration of the player. Though I have been stubbornly playing Treasure Adventure Game using the keyboard, I would imagine it’s far more fun to play with a gamepad given its action platforming style.
Treasure Adventure Game plays like a PC game that really wants to be a console game. There are extremely verbose scrolling text dialogs to convey the story everywhere throughout even where it doesn’t make sense to have them, much like what you would expect from a 16-bit title. The player may have at most three save files, which is pretty standard for many console titles. Perhaps most frustratingly, Treasure Adventure Game also implements save points. These save points are shiny blue orbs you will encounter in various places throughout the game. When they are used, the player’s progress is saved and health is restored. You will want to keep your eyes peeled for these and make use of them each and every time you see one. While playing, I would ignore one eager to move on to the next area only to be faced with creatures in the new area I could not quite handle. When you die you go back to the last save point and lose all of the progress made since the last save. To my knowledge there is no autosaving mechanic anywhere in Treasure Adventure Game.
In the beginning of the game, it is important to look out for the jumping fish in the waters between islands. They will tax you one point of health any time they jump out of the water and touch you. This isn’t so bad when you are at full health, but when you’re trying to get back to another island to save and heal, it’s bad news. My strategy has been to move directly toward the fish until they jump, then pull back just enough where the arc of their jump falls short of my boat, then push forward quickly before they have a chance to jump again.
Treasure Adventure Game doesn’t seem all that original, but my brief encounter with it thus far as been enjoyable. While it’s not at the top of my gameplay list, I do want to continue further in it and keep playing. At the time of this article’s publication, Treasure Adventure Game was being offered for free on GOG.com in celebration of the release of its sequel, Treasure Adventure World. I would recommend picking up a copy; this is a cute game worth playing.