Sometime after getting Happily Married in New Adventure Island, Master Higgins has at last set sail with his bride Tina for the honeymoon of their dreams. But the dream becomes a nightmare when a freak storm catches their tiny raft, sending the groom into the crashing waves and Tina to locations unknown.
Some time later, Higgins washes ashore of the island kingdom of Waku-Waku with no raft, no lady, and no memory. Spirits are high in town - it seems that a beautiful princess fell to the island not long ago, and the king has asked for her hand in marriage.
But before wedding bells can ring, a monstrous bird swoops out of the sky and captures the queen-to-be before making off for the peak of forbidding Fuwa-Fuwa Island. The king of Waku-Waku quickly entrusts Higgins with her rescue, whereupon he sets off to explore the neighboring islands and track down the kidnapper.
Something about the princess seems so familiar, though... If he could only remember from where... ?
Super Adventure Island II provides examples of:
- Acrofatic: As in previous installments, Higgins may be a little chunky (and Tina won't let him forget it), but he can sprint endlessly and jump incredible distances.
- All There in the Manual: It states that Super Adventure Island II takes place after Master Higgins' "disastrous relationship with Jungle Jane" and describes Tina as his "new love", suggesting that things didn't quite work out with Jeanie Jungle after Super Adventure Island.
- Amnesiac Lover: Tina to Master Higgins and vice versa.
- Attack Its Weak Point: For bosses. Eyes, hands, and heads tend to be safe bets.
- Backtracking: New to the series. Throughout the levels are plenty of treasure chests that can't be reached until you learn a technique, throw a switch, open a shortcut, or find some other secret hidden on another island. Enforced by the final area, Fuwa-Fuwa Island: just to get in, you'll need to return to each previous island and play the Elven Flute at those shrines you thought were useless.
- Bandage Mummy: Higgins battles one at the end of Sala-Sala Island, with a floating torso and limbless hands. You have to get rid of the hands first before attacking the body.
- Battle Boomerang: Purchased from the Casino. You can throw two at a time, and they're much more effective than the Dagger.
- Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: Stationary white hairy dudes attack Higgins with snowballs in Hiya-Hiya.
- Brick Break: Floating stone tiles can be broken with a secret sword technique. Some can be smashed from above, some from below.
- Casino Park: Curly's Casino in Poka-Poka, where Higgins can play lots of minigames and win cash to buy new equipment.
- Cruel Elephant: Deep in the halls of Hiya-Hiya's ice temple is the island's master, a woolly mammoth that's half-frozen but plenty furious to see you.
- Door to Before: Later islands contain hidden shortcuts to earlier ones. They can only be opened from one direction, preventing Sequence Breaking.
- Dung Fu: The flying fox enemies do rather... interesting things in Fuwa-Fuwa Island. They fly back and forth and stick their behinds out and shoot projectiles, which are very clearly meant to be stools.
- Easy Amnesia: Both Higgins and Tina lose their memories as a result of being thrown around by the storm.
- Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: There's a limited system. Wearing armor of the correct element reduces the damage you take, and projectiles will fizzle against the right shield.
- Fire and ice are mutually effective; the fire equipment set is placed in the ice world to help you, and vice versa.
- Thunder is effective against water ("aqua"), but there is no opposing element. The thunder equipment is found on beachy Puka-Puka Island.
- Escape Rope: The Feather spell.
- Giant Flyer: A roc swoops out of the sky to abduct Tina in the opening cutscene. It's also the penultimate boss and master of Fuwa-Fuwa Island.
- Giant Hands of Doom: Several bosses, including the masters of Poka-Poka and Sala-Sala Islands.
- Giant Squid: The boss of Puka-Puka Island. It jabs at you from below with its tentacles, then surfaces to spit pearls. With each successive attack phase it ejects more ink into the water, making it harder to see the tentacles coming.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: Unequip your weapon and Higgins will simply rely on his fists to punch enemies.
- Healing Checkpoint: Every island contains a hot spring. These oases will fully recover your life (but not your magic). You can also warp to them later with the Wing spell.
- Heart Container: Life Bottles increase Higgins' life by half a heart. Magic Bottles add a single charge to his Magic Meter - and the first eight each come with a new magic spell, to boot.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: Though he can collect a variety of weirder weapons, Higgins gets the most fighting done with single-handed swords.
- Hint System: The king will give you a vague hint as to where you should go next for free, but if that isn't enough for you, spending 10 coins for a night at the inn will prompt a vision of Tina to tell you what to do next in more detail.
- I Have You Now, My Pretty: The Evil Sorcerer responsible for kidnapping Tina declares that, after Higgins is disposed of, "all her love and beauty will be mine".
- Ice Palace: The central feature of Hiya-Hiya Island.
- Infinity -1 Sword: The Power Sword from Fuwa-Fuwa Island is required to beat the game; before that is the Crystal Sword.
- Infinity +1 Sword: The Light equipment (sword, shield, and armor). It's super strong and beats the Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors triangle, but can only be bought from Curly's Casino for an astonishing total pricetag of 90,000 coins.
- Lethal Lava Land: Boa-Boa Island is full of lava pits and flame-spitting baby dragons. Entering it requires triggering a volcano to blast the door down.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Higgins can equip one of four different shields. They don't reduce damage taken, but they can No-Sell some projectiles.
- May–December Romance: After Tina's arrival on Waku-Waku Island, it only takes the elderly king about three days to pop the question. But from what little we can tell, she doesn't seem terribly against the idea.
- Mini-Boss: Two, in small caverns near Boa-Boa and Sala-Sala. A stone tablet explains them as a sort of strength challenge.
- The lizardman trundles back and forth spitting balls of flame. He wears an armored breastplate and can only be hit in the head.
- The tigerman jumps around the arena, and has no armor but a ton of health.
- Minigame Zone: Curly's Casino is located just inside Puka-Puka Island and features three Betting Mini Games. They've also got some very valuable - and very expensive - prizes for sale.
- Money Sink: Most things in the game are not very expensive. You need a mere 900 coins to learn the 3 moves necessary to beat the game, and 10 for a night at the inn (which is how much you get from a single enemy drop). There's also a Life Bottle for sale at the casino for a more moderately priced 1450, but by the time you get to the casino you should be able to afford it. The rest of the prizes at the casino, however, start at a whopping 9000 coins and go up from there. You will very likely not be getting even one of them without spending many hours gambling.
- Mook Maker: The giant bird at the top of Fuwa-Fuwa drops eggs on you from its nest. There are only four, but the chicks that come out are almost a Mini-Boss each: they've got shields, energy blasts, and fast plummeting attacks.
- Mr. Fanservice: Master Higgins is quite muscly in the opening cutscenes along with being stocky; he's mostly naked for the first level or so until he finds armor and the soles of his feet can be seen down to the individual toe beans.
- Orbiting Particle Shield: The Fireball weapon. It's fairly weak, but useful for dangerous jumps where Ledge Bats might lurk. The final boss' first form has these too.
- Plot Coupon: One is needed to access each island, another to open each gate leading to the next island, and yet another to undo the five spells protecting the final island.
- Pyramid Power: Most of Shifting Sand Land Sala-Sala Island is devoted to two large pyramids full of monsters and treasure. Inside you'll find bats, snakes, spike traps, bouncing golden heads, and mazes of false doors. The boss is a floating Mummy whose slapping hands aren't nearly as deadly as the loose strip of fabric flailing across the room.
- Random Encounters: Fairly common when sailing at sea. Higgins will appear in a short stage filled with enemies to both sides; but you only have to leave the screen to win.
- Shovel Strike: The Shovel weapon. It's not very useful for combat, though.
- Standard Hero Reward: Double Subverted. Initially, Higgins has no idea that the kidnapped Princess Tina is his own wife - he's questing to get her back to the king she's newly betrothed to. But once they recover their memories and reunite, they resolve to get the honeymoon right this time.
- Talking in Your Dreams: Each night after defeating one of the island bosses, Higgins is able to speak to Tina in telepathic visions. Through a surprisingly sweet series of conversations, they slowly remember each other.
- The Computer Is a Lying Bastard:
- The first weapon you get, the Silver Sword, claims to be able to break "most rocks". It breaks exactly one rock, and has no effect on any other rock.
- A stone tablet in Sala-Sala tells you that you'll need the Ax in order to beat the island's boss, implying it's immune to all other weapons. It's not, you can beat it just fine using a sword, and may even have an easier time doing so.
- Took a Level in Badass: Higgins has become quite formidable from a gameplay standpoint compared to the prior Adventure Island games. He's quite athletic, no longer needs food badly, no longer dies in one hit and can punch enemies out on his own (provided he doesn't equip a weapon).
- Utility Weapon:
- The Shovel deals moderate damage to enemies, but it's slow and unwieldy to swing... and can only be used naked. Its chief purpose is to dig up soft earth and uncover secret paths.
- The Fire Sword is required to break certain icy columns on Hiya-Hiya Island. No other weapon will work - not even the Fireballs.
- Ditto with the Power Sword, which breaks heavy blocks that only appear in the last area.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: The boss of Hiya-Hiya Island (the second area) constantly waves its trunk in a sinuous pattern, blocking most attacks and hurling chunks of ice at hard-to-predict angles. In its second phase, the boss charges the full length of the screen; the only way to dodge is with a perfectly-timed jump at the very edge. Too soon or too late and you'll take heavy damage for your still-short lifebar. What's more, hanging back and throwing daggers - while safer than swinging the Fire Sword up close - makes for a very long fight.
- Warp Whistle: The Wing spell can only be used from the world map, and lets you teleport to any island's entrance or hot spring - provided you've discovered them before.
- When Trees Attack: The boss of Poka-Poka Island. An angry-faced tree that tosses apples and swings its wooden fingers at you.
- Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: Exactly one line when unlocking Hiya-Hiya Island.The ice giant cometh and breaketh openeth the dooreth.
- You Are Fat: Tina just can't stop bringing up Master Higgins' figure. Especially in the ending.
- You Have Researched Breathing: There are three bearded old men scattered around the game world who will, for the right price, teach you their well-kept secret techniques of... pushing things, stabbing your sword downward, and stabbing your sword upward.
