Bible Adventures
Description official description
Bible Adventures contains three different side scrolling platform games, each with a different bible theme.
The first game is Noah's Ark. Here the player needs to search forests, caverns, and mountains to find a male and female of each species and bring them back to the ark before the flood begins. The next game is Save Baby Moses, where the player needs to get past numerous soldiers and other obstacles to bring the baby Moses to safety. The last game is David and Goliath. As the shepherd David, the player needs to round up and protect the family's flock of sheep. After all of the sheep are safe, the player will then need to face Goliath.
The game features scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version to provide clues or information.
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Screenshots
Credits (NES version)
5 People
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Reviews
Critics
Average score: 24% (based on 8 ratings)
Players
Average score: 2.1 out of 5 (based on 22 ratings with 1 reviews)
Thou Shall Not Make Bad Video Games
The Good
There is nothing wrong, in theory, with a Biblical video game. The industry has tried, with mixed results, to get more women to play games and their is no reason why a similar effort can not be made with people based on other factors, i.e. gender, social class, career, religion, politics, disability or sexual orientation....in theory.
The Bad
The Bible Adventures offers three mini-games to choose from, which are very loosely based on Biblical stories and are made for very young children. The game features inferior graphics, music and sound effects alongside control mechanics that are as odd as they are sloppy. None of them are fun. People are unlikely going to develop a greater interest in or respect for the Bible after playing these games.
The Bottom Line
The Bible Adventures is a poorly designed video game for very young children. It is entirely appropriate that games, like novels, comics, music, films and TV shows, be made for the general consumer as well as for more specific demographics. Why not make a good game for people who enjoyed the 'Passion of the Christ' or 'Brokeback Mountain' films? Sadly, it would seem that the makers of this game hoped to sell the game based on the idea, with little regard for quality or playability.
NES · by ETJB (428) · 2010
Trivia
Cancelled Game Boy port
A Game Boy port was planned and created but never released. It was referenced in the instructions in lines like "From the red (dark shade on Game Boy) monkey comes fruit." and "From the yellow (light shade on Game Boy) monkey comes coconuts."
Glitches
The original release had a glitch in the Noah’s Ark game which prevented the user from obtaining all of the necessary creatures to complete the game.
Nintendo license
Before the Entertainment Software Ratings Board was used, Nintendo had very detailed rules about what sort of content, images and/or references were not allowed on any game sold for their system. Religious and political themes were generally banned. This is why the game had to be released without the Nintendo Seal of Quality. Also, the reason was that Color Dreams never got a Nintendo license, perhaps to try to save money. As such, they could never submit their games for approval, even those that met the censorship criteria. As such, Nintendo scared away most retailers. When they started up, then changed to, Wisdom Tree, they were able to then sell through religious book stores and other religious places. While Nintendo fought hard to stop Color Dreams, they never tried to stop Wisdom Tree, perhaps because of fear of reprisals.
Promotion
Since religiously themed games was something new at the time of Bible Adventures' release, the company behind it created small video presentations which they sent out to Christian stores in order to promote the idea. In the videos they showed footage of the game and stated, among other things, that "this game promotes bible literacy and teaches children about the bible while they play a fun and exciting Super Mario Bros. style video game". The promotion campaign was deemed a success.
Releases
At least three variants are known to exist: version 1.2, in blue cartridge case; and versions 1.3 and 1.4 in black cartridge cases.
Information also contributed by Apogee IV, Edward Brown, LepricahnsGold and Sciere
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Related Sites +
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Video review of the game (WARNING: Language)
The Angry Video Game Nerd, James Rolfe, reviews Bible-based games on various consoles, including Bible Adventures for NES. -
Video review of the game (WARNING: Language)
The Angry Video Game Nerd, James Rolfe, reviews Bible-based games on various consoles, including brief looks at Spiritual Warfare, Exodus: Journey to the Promised Land, Joshua & the Battle of Jericho and Bible Adventures, all on Genesis.
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Servo.
DOS, Genesis added by Sciere.
Additional contributors: lugnut, LepricahnsGold, Patrick Bregger.
Game added February 26, 2003. Last modified September 7, 2023.