![]() It was bold for Westone to switch to a role-playing lean back in the world of 1987’s arcades, but it works. Toddling through stages with your sword and shield and uncovering secrets, you vanquish enemies for cash and then level-up by purchasing items. Wonder Boy now looks like a cherub in a nappy, but that doesn’t stop various business outlets trying to sell him beer and cocktails, often in exchange for awful advice like “I think there’s a store that sells armour”. Wonder Boy in Monster Land, the sequel, changes the format to a side-on action, role-playing take. For those who dwelled in arcades of the '80s, it’s pure nostalgic dynamite. And, if nothing else, its theme tune will burn right into your brain and never, ever leave you. It’s precision heavy, tough but fair with tight controls, and deserves its historical dues. You can grab skateboards and throwing axes to swat things from afar, and learning to run flat-out while negotiating strings of obstacles is great fun. The game’s genius is in the way fruit appears and its requirement for staying alive, pressuring the player to leap for it while exactingly traversing platform-littered terrain. ![]() Inordinately long for an arcade game, a full clear is going to take an hour only if you have it totally mastered. You steer Tom-Tom through enemy-filled seas, jungles and caves, until he’s reunited with his girlfriend Tanya. The original arcade Wonder Boy is a fantastic game, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. ![]() Annoyingly, we won’t be looking at those today. If you’re buying the Collector's Edition physically via Strictly Limited Games, Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair and the superb Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap, are included. The Wonder Boy Collection, then, handpicks four notable entries in Westone’s original series: Wonder Boy (arcade), Wonder Boy in Monster Land (arcade), Wonder Boy in Monster World (Mega Drive) and the beautiful Monster World IV (Mega Drive). Here, the protagonist was remodelled to resemble famous '80s Hudson Soft executive, Takahashi Meijin.Ĭaptured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked) Hudson Soft licensed the Wonder Boy IP in 1986, but because Westone had already sold the rights to the name and character to Sega, they renamed their version “Adventure Island”, retaining the same gameplay structure as the original arcade game, while branching out into a new platform series for the NES, Game Boy, and Super Nintendo. From there, Monster World VI, the sixth entry, was the 16-bit era’s swan song and wasn’t followed up until Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom landed on Nintendo Switch in 2018.Ĭonfused? Let’s continue. Compounding the perplexity, the fifth game in the Monster World series is known as Wonder Boy V: Monster World III in Japan, originally released for the Mega Drive. Oddly, there are two chronological entries for Wonder Boy III - Monster Lair (originally an arcade title), and The Dragon’s Trap (originally for the Master System). Initially a platform arcade game featuring a squat caveman-boy in a grass skirt, and developed by Westone (then Escape) for Sega, the sequels quickly splintered off into action role-playing territory. Wonder Boy has a convoluted gaming lineage.
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