Arctic Adventure

I completed all 80 levels of Arctic Adventure, the sequel to Pharaoh's Tomb. Like its predecessor, it was divided up into four episodes of twenty levels each. Unlike Pharaoh’s Tomb, the episodes were not named. Both games were fun and quite similar. There were some notable differences, however. Arctic Adventure swapped the red, green, and yellow colors of the first game for the cyan, magenta, and white palette. This made sense given the two CGA palette choices available. The first game was about exploring an Egyptian tomb while the sequel was about finding Viking treasure in the frozen north. While the levels in Pharaoh’s Tomb were completely linear, Arctic Adventure featured a map where the player could explore the caves in an order of his choosing. The search for keys was replaced by a search for pickaxes to complete most levels. There were still keys to find, which unlocked areas of the map. Spears were replaced by a gun with a finite number of bullets. The biggest change between the two games, however, was that Arctic Adventure had no limit on the number of deaths. You could keep playing as long as you’d like, which I found a nice plus.

Although the game ended with the line “Look for more Nevada Smith adventures in the future…,” I don’t believe George Broussard or Apogee ever made another game in this series.