The original Wonder Boy arcade game was very popular in the UK. It was one of the first arcade games I played. When i played it on my beloved Master System, it really did feel like having the arcade at home.
I'm glad to have found this great overview of the series! Excellent work. WBML was my first ever game rental on the Master System, and my appreciation for it is deep. Borrowing WB3 from a friend was a life changing experience - I never had an unhurried exploration game before that. These days, my son and daughter can enjoy the Collection, Asha, Monster Boy and the beautiful Dragon's Trap remake on the Switch. I also recently printed a sprite sheet from WBML for my son to reference in his current enemy and boss design frenzy. Cheers!
Monster Boy The Cursed Kingdom is so good. I was quite disappointed when I saw that the remake of Wonder Boy: Asha was not made by the same company (Game Atelier). it feel really cheap ahah.
Really hoping to play some of these hopefully in the near future. Specifically the Master System titles. The newer ones look great as well, but I like starting from the beginning. Great video!
Personally, I always thought DT was kinda overrated. It's a good and fun game for sure. But I played Monster World first and Dragon's Trap always felt kinda small in comparison to it. The transformations were fun, but I always thought Monster World did pretty much everything else better. Personally for me, Monster World and Monster Boy are the best games in the franchise.
I got wonderboy 3 for christmas in 1990 for my sega ms. One of the greatest games of all time. Great memories of playing it with my best friend after school all those years ago.
I can follow and distinguish all the Ys games and their remakes, all the Dragon Slayer and Legend of Heroes games, and even the Final Fantasy/SaGa/Mana spin-offs. Wonder Boy doesn't nearly have as much games as all these franchises, and they still manage to confuse the hell out of me; like for example that there are two distinct Wonder Boy III's, but no Wonder Boy IV, but a Wonder Boy V and Monster World IV. Like, what the actual?
Great review. My first game was WBIMW for the Genesis but in the past few years I've been trying out other games in the series and I haven't regretted it.
I love the Wonder Boy series on the Master System and Genesis. I will say the first one can't hold my interest for more than a minute. It actually blows when compared to the follow-ups.
Right??! WB2 is incredible!!❤ This guy should have made a video about "Adventure Island" instead, because he spends the whole video loving on them instead!😂 he spends the whole video talking about how Adventure Island was a knock-off of "Wonder Boy"...but then says how he prefers that dupe copy over Wonder Boy?!😂
Speaking of Wonder Boy clones... Tec Toy, from Brazil, made 3 games about "Turma da Mônica", a children comic book character. They are: - Mônica no Castelo do Dragão (Wonder Boy in Monster Land) - Turma da Mônica em O Resgate (Wonder Boy III) - Turma da Mônica na Terra dos Monstros (Wonder Boy in Monster World)
This was a fun video! One of my fave series, with the best games to me being WB3/MW2, Monster Boy and MW4. Still hoping there's a sequel to Monster Boy at some point. Monster Lair isn't that bad to me, pretty fun 2-player game if a bit repetitive and the length is more appropriate in the home ports.
I played the 1st game in the arcades when I was like 8 or 9. It was really hard; I’d call it a coin guzzler 😂 Then a couple of years later I played wonder boy in monster land on my Amiga 500. Still one of my favorites. I played it again like 10 years ago on ps3 & even wrote a guide for it. Like you said if you memorize where everything is & which route to go it isn’t so hard. Being older and more experienced I could easily complete it in like 5 hours. I am now playing monster boy on ps4. Truly amazing game.
@@neverchris I know its a matter of opinions bro, and I respect yours but definitely dont agree with it. For me (and many others) it's one of the best games in the system
One thing I might add, is that the TurboGrafx/PC Engine CD version of Monster Lair in Japan did include Wonder Boy in the name. It's the North American release, probably for licensing reasons and to save money, they strictly called it Monster Lair. Unfortunately, none of those games really push the limits of the system which is definitely a shame. There's been a few people that have tried doing some hacks to really push the graphics, but none of them have been finished that I'm aware of. Also of note, New Adventure Island is on the TurboGrafx, which one could consider to be a representation of the very first Wonder Boy game. So it's really only Monster World 4 that for some reason didn't get a port do the TG. It's likely Hudson started to work on their own version, but there's no evidence so far to suggest that.
While watching this I was beginning to think Shantae was quite similar, and the. You mentioned this later at the end, may this is why I’m a fan of Shantae! Wonder Boy Dragon’s Trap is one of my favourite titles!
It's crazy how many good series I missed out on as a kid. I had Sega genesis but I never played any of the Wonder boy games, I had all the Sonic when it came to platformers and I thought they were basically the same. My cousin's had it NES and SNES but they didn't have mega Man they had super Mario and I figured as a young kid that they were basically the same. And for Castlevania I only ever played a little of the first one on NES and it was just way too hard for me I progress very far. So I never realized how much variation and how many mechanics these three game series featured above Sonic and Mario's very simple gameplay.
if i were to make the next Wonder Boy game... It will take notes from warioland 3, as the New Hero will Mainly use a Hammer, and also this new Hero's another Girl, named Beatrix, set on a adventure to stop a Evil being known as the Masked Skull, hence the name. Monster World: Slam-Hammer!
Maybe as an honorable mention, the Tomba! games could also be considered a Wonder Boy clone, I mean I think there’s an argument to be made there (Main character a cave man-boy similar to WB1 and Adventure Island and the Pig enemies looking similar to the Smoking Pig.)
Wonderboy in monster world, me and my brother were 38 and 36 got it for Xmas. Hated it we were stuck in the pre net days at the ocarina part. Then after a year we figured it out and stuck with it. What a game. I’m so happy they are all getting re-releases and remake this series deserves it.
Great video, The Wonder Boy series is one of my all time favourites. I used to have Wonder Boy in Monster Land on the Master System as a kid. I have never once finished the game, in fact the furthest I got in Lonster Land was when I got the Wonder Boy Collection on the PS5 but I have still not finished. The only game I have ever finished in the series is Wonder Boy III: The Dragons Trap on the Game Gear. I have every release via The Wonder Boy Collection, Wonder Boy Asha In Monster World, and Wonder Boy Returns Remix.
Great retrospective. Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap will always be my favorite in the series, as it's also my favorite game of all time. I agree regarding Monster Land. It is NOT fun in comparison to the other titles...it feels unforgivingly hard with the hour glass mechanic, especially the last dungeon, where going the wrong way, or battling the controls to make a precise jump from one sinking block to another can lead to you having to repeat portions of the castle again and again. I wish Sega/Westone/Anyone would create new games for this series...it's truly one of the best.
I remember that I get the Wonder Boy : The Dragon's Trap remake in EGS on a giveaway like all games there, accidently. But when I played it, yep that's definetly 10/10 game, I replayed it on my phone even and original 1989 game as well.
Great video with thorough detail Gotta be honest though - I feel like while the Anniversary Edition MAY be quite impressive the fact that it doesn't include ALL the content from Wonder Boy Returns Remix + Wonder Boy - Asha in Monster World - Remix seems 'cheap' to me :-(
On a whim i downloaded monsterboy and the cursed kingdom off ps plus. Didn't really know what to expect. I thought it was pretty amazing. At first I it was a decent platformer with good graphics and then it really opens up and you realize just how huge it is and it becomes pretty difficult. I felt alone of super Mario bros and Zelda influence but it seemed like it was purposeful. I mean you have to get an ocarina at one point. I totally get the metroid reference as well. Instead of unlocking new areas when acquiring new weapons, you unlock them by getting a new monster form. Definitely recommend and I really want to go back and check out the other games.
The ocarina instrument (and the pixel art sequence accompanying it) was a direct reference back to Wonder Boy in Monster World, which features the same ocarina as a puzzle solving tool and actually slightly predates the first Zelda game with an ocarina, so that specific thing definitely isn't a Zelda reference. But yeah, I think the structure of Dragon's Trap (and by extension Monster Boy) was influenced by Metroid for sure, and some of the more creative puzzle areas (particularly the haunted mansion) gave me a Zelda vibe as well.
@@barleybap9528 Closest games to Dragon's Trap-style Wonder Boy games in terms of gameplay style and structure would have to be some of the Shantae game. Risky's Revenge and Pirate's Curse especially, even down to some of the climbing animations. Of course I know Shantae came much later, but I do think the franchise takes heavy inspiration from the Wonder Boy games.
![Every Wonder Boy Game [Reviewed]](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
