Marvelous: Mouhitotsu no Takarajima (1996)

Marvelous is a shining example of how to do adventure games right on the SNES, combining a unique blend of character management, quirky action, and a charming (and at times hilarious) storyline.

A long time ago, a legendary pirate captain left his treasure in a mysterious place guarded by strange puzzles and even stranger denizens. Lost to time, this adventure is soon re-discovered when a group of children on a camping field trip find themselves on a quest to find the missing treasure and save their teacher!

The game is controlled from a top-down interface and very much resembles A Link to the Past in navigation and graphics. The player may control one of three boys with different characteristics (fast runner, large sports guy, smart inventor) and interact with the environment via cursors and paused command windows. The player can examine things, use items (either directly in real-time or via the command window) and do team-based actions when the three boys are aligned in place. Boulders, robots, and ship engines are no match when these three put their heads together! The player can also separate the boys for different tasks and later use a walkie-talkie to coordinate their movement separately, or whistle to line them up.

Given that this is an adventure/action hybrid of sorts, there are health bars, enemies, and boss battles where the players have limited attacks based on their items but sometimes have to employ different strategies based on what items they have handy. Luckily, there are health items a-plenty so the player won't be dying frequently. The other issue that some adventure games have (obtuse navigation, figuring out where to go) is also mitigated by a handy collectible/hint system, where Luck Rocks can be found around the game and used to either get to new areas via a ship engine or used to buy hints. The game itself is also remarkably intuitive, where I didn't have too much of an issue figuring out what to do next and could focus on the puzzles and action.

The story and visuals are the real star of the show, even with a solid game system behind it. The game never loses a sense of whimsy and wonder that fits the characters perfectly and features all sorts of fun characters (monkey tribes, tiny princesses, pesky pirates, quirky botanists) but can sometimes verge into deliciously dark territory (see: the Baobab Tree). More often than not the lovingly detailed renders that come up during examines can be a source of a lot of laughs, as one stretches monkey faces, accidentally sprays babies with saltwater, tickles cow noses, matchmakes penguins, and other such silly things. The game's music matches islands perfectly, starting with a subtle environmental track that turns into catchy tunes for desert lakes, mysterious kingdoms, and spooky forests.

Marvelous just recently got a fan translation so this adventure can be yours to play! It's a hidden gem that has Zelda's adventure DNA all over it, and is a load of fun to play.