Nintendo

Bible Adventures is an unlicensed religious game released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990. It was developed and published by Wisdom Tree in 1990. It was later ported to the Sega Mega Drive in 1995.

In this single or multiplayer game, there are three different stories that can played throughout, including Moses in the Bullrushes, Noah's Ark and David and Goliath, all being from the Old Testament of the Bible. The game has a gameplay style similar to Super Mario Bros. 2 itself.

Plot[]

Gameplay[]

The game is a collection of three games based on stories contained in the Old Testament:

In Noah's Ark, the player must round up animals and food — sometimes by knocking animals out with an object that resembles a barrel or catching fruit thrown by a monkey — and carry them onto the Ark. Noah's health is recharged when the player reads Bible verses that are scattered around the four levels. Snakes seen on the trees are decoys; the real snakes the player has to capture are inside of a cave.

In Baby Moses, the player controls Miriam, Moses' sister, as she tries to save her brother from the Pharaoh's decree that all male Hebrew children be killed. In order to do this, the player carries Moses from one end of the level to the other, in a manner quite similar to the way in which characters in Super Mario Bros. 2 carry vegetables. Moses can be thrown around without harming him, but enemies cannot be harmed in any way. The adversaries attempt to throw Moses into the Nile. There is a quirk in the game that allows the player to throw Moses into the Nile, upon which the game says that the player forgot Moses.

In David and Goliath, the player starts out controlling David as he herds sheep and avoids predators such as lions and bears. Acorns can be used to stun the beasts. The player then obtains a sling and goes on to dodge guards, scorpions and stones before he fights Goliath's shield bearer and ultimately Goliath himself, whom the player must strike once in the head to defeat.

Development[]

Reception[]

The game was panned by critics for being overly didactic (e.g., gameplay is broken up by Bible verses), derivative of Super Mario Bros. 2, and poorly designed. It also has been criticized for its recycling of its other levels; each level contains similar objectives and the same style of gameplay. Nevertheless, it reportedly sold 350,000 copies in Christian bookstores. GamesRadar ranked it as the 68th worst game ever made. The staff criticized the developers for their choice of Bible stories to adapt and for the sloppy design.

Electronic Gaming Monthly's Seanbaby placed it as number 19 in his "20 worst games of all time" feature.

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