Antarctic Adventure

Antarctic Adventure (けっきょく南極大冒険) is a video game developed by Konami in 1983 for the MSX, and later for video game consoles, such as the Family Computer and the ColecoVision. The player takes the role of an Antarctic penguin, racing to disparate research stations owned by different countries in Antarctica.

Gameplay[]

The gameplay is similar to Sega's Turbo, but plays at a much slower pace, and features platform game elements. The penguin, later named Penta, must reach the next station before time runs out while avoiding sea lions and breaks in the ice. In order to finish the level in time he can adjust the speed, increasing it or lowering it, depending of the situations.

Throughout the levels, fishes jump out of ice holes and can be caught for bonus points, collecting the flags also give points. The game has ten stages, but like many early video games, has no ending and features a system of loops – when the player reaches the last station, the game starts from the first level again, but with increased difficulty.

Legacy[]

Antarctic Adventure was followed by a sequel for the MSX computer in 1986, entitled Penguin Adventure. In addition, the penguin character Penta, and his son Pentarou became a mascot for Konami through the 1980s. They have made appearances in over 10 games. Of particularly note are his appearances in the Parodius series of shoot 'em up games.

Penta, or his son Pentarou, appeared in the Medal Games like, Tsurikko Penta, Balloon Penta and Imo Hori Penta. Following in 2002 (Not released for mobile in 2001), was released for Three Mobiles like Kekkyoku Nankyoku Choibōken (けっきょく南極ちょい冒険), in May 6, 2003, when titled Kekkyoku Nankyoku Daibōken Taisen-ban (けっきょく南極大冒険対戦版), as part of Konami Taisen Colosseum, and the following the Fishing game as Penta no Tsuri Boken, and released for i-Revo.

A screen from this game can briefly be seen in the introduction of Gradius ReBirth.

There was rumored to be a coin-operated arcade version of Antarctic Adventure released by Konami in 1984, but the existence of an actual example has yet to be confirmed.

Ports[]

In 1990, Konami released only in Japan a handheld electronic game of Antarctic Adventure, although it is usually listed as South Pole.

The MSX version was included in a compilation, Konami Game Collection Vol.1 for MSX in 1988. It was also included in Konami Antiques: MSX Collection Vol. 1 for PlayStation and Saturn in 1997, and was re-released for Windows Store as part of the EGG Project on November 25, 2014 in Japan.

A port of the NES version was included in Konami GB Collection for the Game Boy Color in 1997, featuring littles modifications, and the NES version was released in 2007 for the Wii Virtual Console, in 2013 for the 3DS Virtual Console and in 2014 for the Wii U Virtual Console, only in Japan.

In 2014, Antarctic Adventure was released on a special version of the ColecoVision Flashback by AtGames. available only through Dollar General stores.