Gilligan's Island is a classic American Television comedy show from the 1960’s. It is critically acclaimed according to Internet sources. The Nintendo Entertainment System game however is not as revered. It has so many flaws. The enemy hit boxes are practically nonexistent. Your attacks are pretty much useless against the animal enemies, and there are so many. You’re better off just running and avoiding them as best you can. The only time you have an effective attack is when you face a stage boss, but even those are tricky. The hit boxes are so tiny, you’re basically bouncing and exchanging blows until one of you goes down. I encountered a glitch on the first level. I had to reset the game, because the key item I needed was not interacting correctly. And the music is not so great, because it is very repetitive and droning. I did like the 3rd level music though.
Gameplay wise it is not the worst concept. The game is basically an escort mission and multiple fetch quests. Gilligan is invulnerable and thank goodness for that. It be game over very quickly, due to how much abuse he takes during gameplay. You are racing against time. Each level has the same gameplay, just larger and more complex maps. You get health and time bonuses as you traverse the island, so look out for them. You need to find all the cast aways, retrieve whatever they seek to progress the mission. Gilligan climbs a tree in every stage, so be on the lookout for the same tree graphic. The Professor gives you a club to defeat each boss of every level. Like I said, it wouldn’t be so bad, if it wasn’t for the very bad enemy hit boxes and attack detection.
Gilligan’s Island on the Nintendo Entertainment System gets a pass, but barely. It has its charm. The characters’ dialogue is very accurate to their television portrayals, from what I can tell when I found the episodes on YouTube. It’s a broken game, but if you like challenges like I do, you can take it as it is and beat it. It’s a short game if you’re familiar with it. If you’re new to it, it will likely run you a good 3 Hours. You can say it’s a solid “ 3 Hour Tour “ .