The original High on Life packed in a handful of notoriously terrible old films that you could stop to watch in full as you progressed through the game, and the sequel is one-upping those Easter eggs. Not only does High on Life 2 feature even more bad movies to watch, it's also set to have an assortment of very bad video games, including the notorious NES title Bible Adventures.
Chief creative officer and art director Mikey Spano confirmed the inclusion of Bible Adventures in High on Life 2, telling IGN that "you can play the whole thing. And it's not the only emulated game that's in there." In fact, there are "more than five" other titles included, though Spano did not reveal what they are.
If Bible Adventures is setting the tone here, I think we need to prepare ourselves for a murderer's row of Angry Video Game Nerd-worthy legends of the worst parts of video game history. Bible Adventures is a notorious NES game turning a handful of Old Testament stories into a Super Mario Bros. 2-style platformer. It may not be the absolute worst game on the NES, but it's in the conversation.
Despite the game's quality, Bible Adventures was quite successful in Christian bookstores of the early '90s. At the time, Nintendo of America set heavy restrictions on third-party game production, and developer Wisdom Tree sought to bypass those restrictions with a line of unlicensed, bible-themed titles. I don't know how deep the religious beliefs of those at the studio actually ran, but cynically, the themes of these games seemed to serve as insulation from any real pushback by Nintendo's notorious lawyers.
Very few of Wisdom Tree's old games are available to play legally these days, which you might ultimately take as something of a blessing – though you can go buy the infamous Wolfenstein clone Super 3D Noah's Ark on Steam right now. But hey, bad games need preservation too, and it's deeply funny to see Bible Adventures take on a new life in a very M-rated comedy game. Here's hoping the rest of the games included here can live up to this unfortunate pedigree.
Somehow, I doubt any of the best NES games are making the cut for High on Life 2.
