Wonder Boy

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This article is about a series of video games. For the first game in this series, see Wonder Boy (video game). For other uses of the term, see Wonder boy.

Wonder Boy was a series of video games published by SEGA and developed by Westone (formerly Escape).

The series itself consists of the "main" Wonder Boy series, and the "Monster World" sub-series. Games may be part of one, the other, or both. This has resulted in a sometimes confusing naming structure resulting in titles like "Wonder Boy V: Monster World III". In North America and Europe, the series is kept under the Wonder Boy brand, but in Japan there is one title that belongs exclusively to Monster World and is not part of the Wonder Boy series.

To further complicate matters, Westone had a unique licensing arrangement with Sega whereby Sega retained the rights to the names and characters of the games in this series, but Westone retained the rights to everything else. Westone, in turn, had a licensing arrangement with Hudson Soft, who created new characters and titles and ported these games to non-Sega platforms. The most well known of these is Adventure Island, which was more commercially successful than Wonder Boy was.

Contents

[edit] Condensed series chronology

There are a combined six official titles in the Wonder Boy and Monster World series. Below are their Japanese titles, original release platform (in Japan), and notes on the right.

[edit] Series Overview

The Wonder Boy series is complicated by suffering from regionalization, a once-common practice of adjusting elements of a game to suit the area, usually involving small edits to in-game art or changing the name of the characters, locations or even the game itself. It has caused confusion for a number of franchises including the Sonic the Hedgehog, Street Fighter and Super Mario Bros. series.

In Japan the first Wonder Boy game Wonder Boy was created for and released on the Sega SG-1000 and was then followed in 1986 by Super Wonder Boy, as much an enhanced remake as a sequel (compare Super Street Fighter II Turbo). Super Wonder Boy was an arcade game and was the first Wonder Boy title to be released worldwide where by and large the SG-1000 had not been available and where there was no need to differentiate between Wonder Boy and Super Wonder Boy so the 'Super' prefix was dropped and outside of Japan Super Wonder Boy became simply Wonder Boy causing most western players to believe that it was the first game in the series and not the second. These first two games are set in a prehistoric setting not the medieval lands of the others and the Wonder Boy in question is a caveman named Tom Tom.

Super Wonder Boy was ported to the Sega Master System but could not be ported elsewhere because Sega owned the Wonder Boy name, instead two games Adventure Island and Dragon's Curse was released on the Nintendo Entertainment System and TurboGrafx-16 both games are Super Wonder Boy only with the changed graphics and a different main character, this was to become a common occurrence with the series, specifically its Turbographix 16 ports, but in the case of Adventure Island the series would continue into its own franchise totally independent of Wonder Boy.

The following year Super Wonder Boy: Monster World was released in Japanese Arcades but only its Master System port was released worldwide in keeping with its predecessor the 'Super' prefix was dropped and it was released as simply Wonder Boy in Monster Land in the rest of the world. The game was nothing like Super Wonder Boy however and was the start of the Monster World series, now set in a medieval world with added RPG elements. The TurboGrafx-16 version again was not a Wonder Boy title but instead tied into the anime Bikkuriman.

In 1988, Westone released an arcade title that was to be the third in the Wonder Boy series, Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair . It was not, however considered a part of the "Monster World sub-series. The title received a port from Hundson on the PC-Engine CD calleded, simply "Monster Lair." Later that year, Westone developed a title they intended to be called "Moster World II." Unfortunately, the SMS was struggling in Japan and the Japanese release was scrapped. In Europe and North America, the market was stronger so the title was released. Since it was a direct sequel to the second Wonder Boy game (featuring the same character, and continuing the same story), Sega decided to call it Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap. This has lead to some confusion between it and the "other" Wonder Boy III'. Officially, Dragon's Trapis the 4th game in the Wonder Boy series. Dragon's Trap would see an eventual release in Japan on Sega's Game Gear hand held, as well as another Hudson port with the usual new titles/characters called Dragon's Curse.

Wonder Boy V Monster World III was the final game in the Monster World series to be given a release outside of Japan, and the last game in the Wonder Boy series. Known as Wonder Boy in Monster World it was made especially for the home console market released on the Mega Drive and Master System, the only Wonder Boy game released on both systems the world over. Like all the previous games the TurboGrafx-16 version featured a different set of characters and was called Dynastic Hero. Monster World IV was the series' final installment, released only on the Mega Drive and only in Japan there is no Wonder Boy in the series instead a girl called Arsha is the game's protagonist, it also replaces Medieval look of previous games with a Persian style.

[edit] Game List

[edit] Arcade

[edit] Amiga

[edit] Atari

[edit] Amstrad CPC

[edit] Commodore 64

[edit] MSX

[edit] NES/Famicom

[edit] Sega Game Gear

[edit] Sega Master System

[edit] Sega Mega Drive/Genesis

[edit] Sega SG-1000

[edit] PC Engine/TurbografX

  • Bikkuriman World (An adaptation of Wonderboy in Monster Land, released only in Japan)
  • Dragon's Curse (Curiously, this game is called "Adventure Island" in Japan)--Another version of Wonder Boy 3: Dragon's Trap/Monster World II: Dragon's Trap
  • Monster Lair (Called Wonderboy III: Monster Lair in Japan)--Turbo CD
  • The Dynastic Hero (Another version of Wonder Boy in Monster World/Wonder Boy V: Monster World III)--Super CD

[edit] PlayStation 2

  • Monster World Complete Collection (Japan only)

[edit] ZX Spectrum

[edit] Mônica

[edit] Mônica's Background

The first three Monster World games were published in Brazil by Tec Toy, Sega's official Brazilian distributor. The games were translated into Portuguese and the characters were replaced with characters from the Brazilian comic book, Turma da Mônica (Monica's Gang). Other cartoon characters were superimposed on the Brazilian releases of Teddy Boy, Ghost House, Astro Warrior, Psycho Fox, and Kung Fu Kid. (The latter three forming the Sapo Xule series)

[edit] The Mônica Games

[edit] Sources

[edit] External links


v • d • e
Wonder Boy video games

Wonder Boy • Monster Land • Monster Lair • The Dragon's Trap • Monster World • Monster World IV
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