The conveyer belt on the final boss wasn't in the Japanese original, Sega of America added it just to be d1cks it seems, also you just returned to the last place you saved if you died, there was no game over in the original. But I loved the game as a kid, but it was a bit of a step back from The Dragon's Trap. The Master System port is even more nerfed.
Interesting! It's strange how sometimes publishers thought games needed to be made easier to come over to North America, and other times they were made harder.
@@Victory-in-YAHUSHA Mortal Kombat for me. I got that and whooo. All my mates came around for a battle. It was £1 a go in the arcade. This is 25 years ago so probably £5 now or $8. A go. Good times.
I'm glad you made this documentary. I loved the Master System Wonder Boy series and wondered whether the Genesis/MegaDrive installment was worth it. Only with the pictures, I can say yes. I recognize the same mechanics as in Dragon's Trap.
Charming is the perfect word to describe this game. I’m enjoying your Genesis reviews since it’s not a console I grew up with or have taken the time to explore (yet). Great work as always!
@@Cannotbetamed1 I don’t know if you are into space shooters. There’s a game called “Truxton”, hard as nails. My first mega drive game. “Genesis” what is this alien language. Never finished it. Worth a look though. The music brings back memories.
@@mrmagoo-i2l Yeah I enjoyed Truxton(our local mall had a Japanese import with the original name Tatsujin). Great music, especially the stage 1. I never completed it at the arcade, made stage 3(of 5), but managed to complete the Mega Drive.
I love this game. I didn't have the original Sega Console, I was too busy being a a hippie madman in Missoula MT back in the '90s. But I have played it on the One X and Series X. The music....amazing! I don't bond with all retro-games--this one I do.
@@mrmagoo-i2l I'd been playing this game, retro-vibing, for a month or so off and on. Loved the music. But I picked up a pair of Steel Series Arctis 9x's for my One X and as I tested them, this was the game I happened to load up. Wow! Just a perfect earful. Made me enjoy the game even more.
If I hadn't seen the copyright 1991 I would have thought this game was an indy title from the last couple years. It looks amazing. Thank you again Pam for turning me onto yet another cool vintage game!
Another one of my favourite Mega Drive game and I also played this on my Master System back in the days but I do prefer the Mega Drive version. For the Master System nothing beats Wonder Boy 3 Dragon Traps it’s a really good Wonder Boy game 🕹👍
I've always been curious about this game since I've seen it pop up in small snippets during My Life in Gaming videos. You've convinced me to give it a chance. Also I like how you match the dark color aesthetic of you room.
I'm gonna play this with my son. I've been looking for the perfect "retro game" to start him on, and I honestly think he'd really enjoy this one. Thank you so much! 🤓😎🤓👍👍👍
This game looks fun, I like all the colors. :) The companions are cute, too. :) I hope this gets ported to modern consoles one day as I no longer own a Genesis.
Wonder Boy games were what I grew up on as a wee lil nugget in the 90s, so this one holds a special place in my library. I also think the Tyrant Dragon (the one on the title screen) is the cutest dragon I've ever seen before Mushu and Sisu came around X3 ...I had my own OC in elementary school based on him!
Genesis was such a cool system. I jumped from SMS/NES to TG16 to SNES, passing over the Genesis. I played a lot of the popular Genesis games on my friend's systems, but never fully appreciated just how deep the catalog was.
It did blow my mind that this 1991 game has impeccable graphics, with even some Yoshi's Island crayon-style colouring plus it has so many quality of life qualities that games didn't have (Link to the Past is an exception of course) in those days. And the action-adventure metroidvania-like gameplay puts it above many more famous Snes games of that period.
This game is adorable~! Sadly I am just terrible at side scrollers so I tend to stay away from them unless they are forgiving. Also girl your hair is getting long~~~
For anyone who would like to try playing this game, but has trouble with cartridge hunting, I bought a super combo cartridge from M&M Games in Upland, California, which has nearly 200 games on its menu. Those include "Wonder Boy In Monster World," and "Kid Chameleon," and "Alisia Dragoon," and "Gain Ground," and "Arcus Odyssey," and a host of others. The only fault is, all those games on one cartridge leave no room for battery backed save data. That means you can go to an inn with "Wonder Boy In Monster World," and try to save, but it doesn't really save. And it means some of the games on it, like "Light Crusader" and "Warsong," shouldn't really be there, because you can't save any results effectively. But ones that don't have a save feature to begin with, it plays normally.
That moment when you finally get out into the open ocean for the first time with that music was intense.
8 місяців тому+1
True, and that is one of the reasons i find the music in this game to be so good. A great soubdtrack must do things to you before you even realize that the music is actually very good
In brazil we got some reskinned games on the master system with Monica's Gang characters (a brazilian comic strip that recently broke in the US as far as I know). The monster boy games were licensed to a brazilian company called tectoy so these reskins were actually legal. Tectoy also ported street fighter 2 to the master system, which is considered quite a feat in the retro community.
If yo8u mess with emulation or get an SSDS3 sd device for your turbo grafx, then check out Dynastic Hero for the turbo CD. It is the same as this game, but with master higgins from adventure island, cd music, beter graphics etc. If you dont wanna play through it it is still cool to check out for 20 min or so runing around and seeing the similarites/differences.
A balanced and thorough review. 👍🏻 The Master System version of WBIMW was one of my favourite games as a kid, so I must give this one a try. I didn't even know a Mega Drive / Genesis version existed. Mega Drive and its cartridges were kind of expensive in the early 90s' Turkey, so my parents refused to buy me one and made me choose between an SMS and a Famiclone. haha
Thank you for covering my favorite game from childhood! I'll admit, my nostalgia mostly prevents me from letting the flaws of the game get to me. I'm glad the game's charm kept you through to the end despite them! The visuals are my favorite part, too, after all.
The Wonder Boy/Monster World series was perhaps my favourite console franchise in the early '90s, me being a Sega owner. I really enjoyed Wonder Boy in Monsterland and Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap on Master System. I completed Wonder Boy in Monster World, Master System version, on rental in '93, but didn't try the Mega Drive/Genesis version till just last year actually. I wrote a review at Moby Games. It's not especially long, so I may as well paste it here. THE GOOD "The graphics, villages, towns, castles, deserts, snow fields etc. are often very nice. I like Dragon's Trap's idea of having a central town as your base from which you explore in all directions, some directions blocked until later in the game. Here your base is Purapril Castle/Town. Like Wonder Boy II, you play as "Wonder Boy" for the whole game, no transforming into beast-men, though you're a different Wonder Boy now, "Shion", a supposed descendant of "Bocke Lee Temjin", the previous Wonder Boy. The usual Wonder Boy music composer Shinichi Sakamoto has made some more nice background music, including new productions of his previous Wonder Boy music. I also like that they built on MEKA-Dragon from the previous games, this time having the BioMeka, alien monster up in space(it is perhaps MEKA-Dragon in a new form as he appeared to escape in a flying saucer at the end of Wonder Boy II, in the original arcade game anyway)." THE BAD "First the game doesn't play very well. Wonder Boy's sword is too short, causing you to often swing and miss, before learning to time it better. And your defence is often very weak, causing your hearts to run out quickly and are given potions that don't fully restore. You're forced to repeatedly kill enemies to raise money for stronger armour. Then there's the story and the objective. A lot of the time you are travelling in a certain direction just because a somebody suggests you go that way. You just have a vague concept of some evil master controlling the invaders of Monster World. It's a bit of a hollow victory when you're praised for saving everyone when you don't really build much connection with the people and can't really appreciate the danger they're in."
If you think this game is good, wait until you try Wonder Boy 3: The Dragon's Trap for the Sega Master System and Turbografx 16 (known as Dragon's Curse on that platform). I feel that it does what this game does even better. This game's sequel, Monster World 4, is also quite good, and arguably the most beautiful Genesis (well, actually, Megadrive, since it only came out in Japan) game. That one requires a repro or translation patch, however.
Oh by the way, I never played the next in the series Monster World IV/Wonder Boy V, in which you played "Wonder Girl" Princess Asha, dressed in pantaloons and wielding a scimitar as Monster World is now Arabic themed. It came out in Apr. '94, but wasn't translated and released for Mega Drive outside Japan, though I've watched a complete playthrough of it with fan translation. It seemed a bigger game, more depth and Asha has more moves. I see that a remake called Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World was released just last month for PS4 and Switch. It's due at Steam soon also.
In Brazil this game was heavily altered, with its sprites and story completely replaced by characters from a famous comic strip called Monica's Gang. Instead of Wonderboy fighting with a sword we had a girl fighting with a blue stuffed toy rabbit (which she uses to beat up the boys who call her mean names). The name of the game: Monica's Gang in Monsters,' LAND. The other games of the franchise got similar treatments.
Really long comment here: I literally just played through this game a couple of days ago! Your review is pretty spot on with my experience, but apparently I didn't get enough power ups before the final boss and concluded that beating said boss was going to be impossible without a lot more exploration. Sadly, this seemed like too much of a chore at that point, especially knowing how cryptic the secrets can be, but I did like it a lot otherwise. Oddly enough, I also heard that the original Japanese version actually had a much more reasonable difficulty for the final boss, but I haven't played through that one, so I can't say for sure. Just before playing Wonder Boy in Monster World, I played (and actually got to finish) a gorgeous remake of its predecessor, Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap. The structure is kind of similar (metroid-lite?), but your character gets turned into various anthropomorphic animals with different abilities which kind of reminded me of Demon's Crest, albeit less infernal and more charming. Actually, these particular (metroid-esque) Wonder Boy games are probably more akin to the Shantae series than anything else that I know of. The presentation of The Dragon's Trap is outstanding and I highly recommend it if you liked this game. Now having played those two (metroid-like?) Wonder Boy games, I just started the original version of the next (metroid-ish?) game in the series, Monster World IV for the Sega Genesis. Monster World IV has a similar exploration platformer structure but seems a bit more polished than the previous two titles (at least from the first hour or so of playing it), which is quite nice. The game stars an adorable female protagonist, Asha, in a middle eastern looking setting that is just beaming with content and personality, so I'm pretty excited to play through this one. I plan to move on to the most recent game in the series, Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom, thereafter :)
This was my first Wonder Boy game though I couldn't beat it on the Megadrive but went back to it's PS3 re-release and finally beat it. Cracking little game.
This is one of my favourite games! One of the few I've playthrough multiple times and still love it (although the first half n hour or so drags...). To me this game is what Zelda II wanted to be. This seems to be the most forgotten of the wonderboy games and I hope it doesn't et missed in the current spate of remakes. I would buy it in a flash!
Aliens and laser beams, eh? Wonder if that's a holdover from all that weird fantasy "but with spaceships and aliens" phase before that got snuffed out. EDIT: Did this get double posted? Oh UA-cam.
Hi Pam. Great to see you again checking out Genesis games!! First time I have seen a full review of this game, even when I have seen it so many times in pictures or in mentions. I am very surprised, it is much more charming than I thought. And I didn't know that it used RPG elements in its gameplay. I was hoping to see a port where Adventure Island characters had been replaced or something. Very charming and colorful. The bosses look very well done in terms of graphics and gameplay. Its replay value reminds me of the Mega Man series. And that return spell reminds me of the same spell used in Dragon Warrior for the NES. How its supposed you can fit in that tiny bed?? You would need to cast a shrinking spell on yourself or something XD
Theres a reworked version of this game released in Brazil by Tec Toy. It is essentially a rom hack where you play as Monica (from Monica's Gang), a beloved comic book character. Also the Brazilian version is in Portuguese. This was the version I had access to back in the day. Tec Toy recently released the game again.
I want to love this game because it's so charming, but the weird combat and slightly sluggish movement just suck my motivation to finish the game. I just loathe the ridiculously short weapon range and the limited attack directions. Edit: I persevered, the game finally clicked, and I'm now on my second playthrough of this game and have started the rest of the games in the series.
Monster World 4 is my favorite in the series. Plus it got a remake recently like the third game (Wonder Boy/Girl: The Dragon's Trap). You even get a little pet that helps you fight and can grow as you progress.
I bought this game when it first came out. It does have a few minor flaws but it's a good follow-on to Wonder Boy In Monster Land. I spent most of this video saying, "oh, it's that bit where you had to..." :-) Cheers, Pam!
It seems as if games back then were filled with secrets without necessarily ensuring the player has enough fair tip-off to be clued into them, seemingly to extend the play time. I wonder if not respecting the player's time is an issue only in hindsight since players seemed to favor more play time back when games were probably fewer in number compared to all the indie titles available today to play through. It's a bit of a shame that people (me included) almost seem to go for quantity over quality with games nowadays (in terms of completing as many games as one can versus replaying classics), but I think it's at least partially a logistical issue that couldn't be helped since so many developers want to put out their own games. I never knew about Wonder Boy until I noticed games like Wonder Boy Returns on the Playstation store. I've been a bit curious about those games... Also, it's ironic the term Metroidvania wasn't used at a time when both Metroid and Castlevania existed (I wonder if someone somewhere may have used the term back then).
Really cool game, wonderboy should have been sega's mascot not that chupit blue rat running around. there's also monster world 4 for megadrive that's brilliant.
This review hit deep with me. It was one of those games that almost seemed like a dream because I was so young. Thanks for the nostalgia treasure you helped me find. Keep it up
Aliens and laser beams, eh? Wonder if that's a holdover from all that weird fantasy "but with spaceships and aliens" phase before that got snuffed out.
Never played this, but I'm getting nostalgia from playing wonder boy and wonder boy in monster land on seg master system. Would you do reviews on those games in the future
this game only makes sense if you are familar with especially the original monsterland - the final boss is a robot dragon, so this end boss mirrors that. The ocarina is similar trinket you can pick up in the original game as well. Other than that, good review!
This game hasd good platforming mixed with with rpg gaming. I don't think the series needs to keep being con fused with Adventure island so much, though. Nice colors and characters, just like the Master System games (factoid - more colors on screen than the NES)
Well, the enemies respawn fast... if you're fast. It's actually based on distance. And enemies also do have limited respawns until you refresh the screen. I think most of the time they respawn about 3-4 times before needing a full area refresh to come back.
One of my favs for the Genesis. This is a great little gem, and yes it's very cute and simple but fun to play. It's often just what a game needs to be good and rememberable.
I really liked some of the Wonder Boy games. This one was pretty good though I do think it was more punishing than you let on. Enemies tend to do a ton of damage and with the super short weapon range, it's easy to get hit. Im really glad this part of the series has been getting remakes and they've been very good. It's still bizarre to think that the series started off as Adventure Island.
Quite the opposite. The games have always been Wonder Boy since the 1986 arcade game. Video game company Hudson had made a deal with the developers (Westone) to gain license in creating their own branded series, Adventure Island. Adventure Island is a in-game sprite swap of the original Wonder Boy game.
@@Victory-in-YAHUSHA Yes, thats more or less what I mean. The original Wonder Boy would be more familiar as Adventure Island. I mean it's more weird that it started as that type of game then went to a more action RPG.
@@githane Yeah, the genre started to shift by the third arcade game (Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair) as a rail shoot em' up, then found it's mainstay in the 2D open world/Metroidvania genre with The Dragon's Trap and onwards. It will be interesting if the next installment will be a 3D open world game.
@@YesterdaysMoose It's true that the shift may have began in Wonder Boy II, but to me action RPGs are games where your character levels up as you defeat monsters in real time. If Monster Land was an action RPG, then the Zelda series (with the exception of Zelda II) would be labled as an action RPG series. Zelda is actually an action adventure/open world series. The same applies to Wonder Boy in Monster Land, only that it is an action adventure platformer.
My ranking of the series so far 1. Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom 2. Wonder Boy in Monster World 3. Asha in Monster World 4. Monster World IV 5. The Dragon's Trap (2017) 6. The Dragon's Trap (1989) 7. Wonder Boy in Monster Land 8. Wonder Boy Returns Remix 9. Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair
Yep, now you can take all the Charmstones (by farming the money in the cloud castle against the vampires), and all the Hearts (there are a lot of guides where they are hidden). Enjoy!
5:24 What happens if you get the questions wrong? Every playthrough I've seen gets them correct so I don't know. I played the Master System version and while much of the content in the original was cut or downgraded to accommodate the lower spec I still thought it was a decent game (though I still prefer WB in Monster Land and The Dragon's Trap).
Most of us Brazilians know this game by the name "Turma da Mônica na Terra dos Monstros"(Monica's gang in monster world) because tectoy (our local sega publisher) made a retexture of the original game and put this brazilian animation on it, they changed the story a bit to fit in the world of monica's animation too. Great video as always!
I remember there were a few titles like this made by the same developer that started with Adventure Boy. Is Shion the same character from Adventure Boy? He just put away his prehistoric get-up, and tomahawk, in favor of some armour? If so, that's cute. EDIT: Sorry, I meant Adventure Island. Haha.
This is my favourite Genesis Wonder Boy game! Recently, I completed the game 100% - I literally mean doing every conceivable thing possible - and uploaded the video to UA-cam. I appreciate you choosing this game to review, as I'm not sure it gets enough love. One thing, the Ocarina does have another purpose, albeit an optional one. Great video!
@@Cannotbetamed1 There's a hut near Poseidon's domain where you can talk to his daughter. She will take the Ocarina in exchange for a hint to the location of the Amulet, the one that reveals the entrance to the domain. This is not required, so it can be skipped without consequence.
Hi from Brazil, Pam! Do you know the game Ocean's Heart? Has a "Link to the Past" feeling, available on Switch and Steam...I liked the visual of this game but I'm not sure if it's worth to buy
I've only just started to get into the Wonder Boy games, (Got 3 for Sega Master System xD) I hope in the near future I can play more as they look fun 😊 Great review as always Pam 😁
Wonder Boy/Monster World games are *really* underappercieted among majority retro gamers, especially for quote-unquote "metroidvania" fans like myself, so thanks for reviewing it.
If you haven't tried them yet, there are two relatively new games in the Wonder Boy series, both of which I recommend, especially if you really liked the art from Monster World. Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap is basically a remaster of the game of the same name from the Master System - you can swap back and forth between the original graphics and the new. The art is absolutely gorgeous, by the same artist who did Streets of Rage 4. Graphically one of my favorite games ever, though I might be a little bit biased as a 2D artist myself. Monster Boy is a true sequel to the series, making references to- and continuing themes from- some of the previous games, most notably Dragon's Trap and Monster World. Being a more modern installment, it has many more of the creature comforts we've come to expect from Metroidvanias. It's also very nicely animated - it doesn't have as gorgeous a hand-painted look as Dragon's Trap, but it's still really cute, and is polished enough to feel at home in the 8th generation of consoles.
I recently played the Master System iteration of this and it was brutal in its refusal to give strong direction to the player. Might check this out based on your video - thanks!
I have never had a chance to play this game. It looks very nice. But I must say, your eyeshadow for this video is AMAZING. That dual tone with blend is just so well done. My hat is off to you for it. An excellent video! Have a great week.
I grew up playing this game at a friends house. And was so bummed out that I didn’t have a megadrive haha :) If you like this game Pam, then you really should try monster world IV for the genesis ;)
Really enjoying your game reviews Pam - only just discovered your channel and as many others have said here - you're chilled out and so easy to listen to - thumbs up from Australia =)
As a kid my mom became addicted to this game she wouldn't play but made me play 🤣
This channel reminds me of how low key and chill UA-cam game reviews were in 2011-2014. Keep up the amazing work!
Thanks :)
I don’t think I knew of UA-cam that long ago. 10 years.
God time flies.
It's all about jokes and flashy editing now.
Yeah honestly +1 on this comment, it’s very chill and easy to listen to. I don’t feel like the reviewer is trying to sell me something
The conveyer belt on the final boss wasn't in the Japanese original, Sega of America added it just to be d1cks it seems, also you just returned to the last place you saved if you died, there was no game over in the original.
But I loved the game as a kid, but it was a bit of a step back from The Dragon's Trap. The Master System port is even more nerfed.
Interesting! It's strange how sometimes publishers thought games needed to be made easier to come over to North America, and other times they were made harder.
Hello you.
Take it easy Larry, from sunny Harrogate.
Wasn't The Dragon's Trap its sequel, though?
Probably my favourite all time Sega genesis game
It is a toss up between Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Streets of Rage 2, and Phantasy Star IV for me.
It is up there I absolutely love the game and surprisingly Sega Sports NHL not the EA one that I never liked
@@Victory-in-YAHUSHA Mortal Kombat for me.
I got that and whooo. All my mates came around for a battle. It was £1 a go in the arcade. This is 25 years ago so probably £5 now or $8.
A go.
Good times.
@@wolfpacsyxx “EA sports, it’s in the game”.
The sprites in Wonder Boy look adorable.
I'm glad you made this documentary. I loved the Master System Wonder Boy series and wondered whether the Genesis/MegaDrive installment was worth it. Only with the pictures, I can say yes. I recognize the same mechanics as in Dragon's Trap.
Definitly one of my favourite games back in time.
Love your videos! You are so prefessional :)
Thank you so much!!
Charming is the perfect word to describe this game. I’m enjoying your Genesis reviews since it’s not a console I grew up with or have taken the time to explore (yet). Great work as always!
Thanks so much! I'm really enjoying discovering more of the Genesis library myself.
@@Cannotbetamed1 I don’t know if you are into space shooters.
There’s a game called “Truxton”, hard as nails.
My first mega drive game. “Genesis” what is this alien language.
Never finished it.
Worth a look though. The music brings back memories.
@@mrmagoo-i2l Yeah I enjoyed Truxton(our local mall had a Japanese import with the original name Tatsujin). Great music, especially the stage 1. I never completed it at the arcade, made stage 3(of 5), but managed to complete the Mega Drive.
I love this game. I didn't have the original Sega Console, I was too busy being a a hippie madman in Missoula MT back in the '90s. But I have played it on the One X and Series X. The music....amazing! I don't bond with all retro-games--this one I do.
Yeah, the music still resonates from this era.
@@mrmagoo-i2l I'd been playing this game, retro-vibing, for a month or so off and on. Loved the music. But I picked up a pair of Steel Series Arctis 9x's for my One X and as I tested them, this was the game I happened to load up. Wow! Just a perfect earful. Made me enjoy the game even more.
@@TheAncientGamerX Mega man music always gives me a retro vibe.
That music is fantastic. Loads of energy.
Being a nintendo kid this is the one game that every sega kid talked up. And now I know why.
This game looks beautiful.
it's the most Nintendo looking Sega game
If I hadn't seen the copyright 1991 I would have thought this game was an indy title from the last couple years. It looks amazing. Thank you again Pam for turning me onto yet another cool vintage game!
No problem!
Another one of my favourite Mega Drive game and I also played this on my Master System back in the days but I do prefer the Mega Drive version. For the Master System nothing beats Wonder Boy 3 Dragon Traps it’s a really good Wonder Boy game 🕹👍
I've always been curious about this game since I've seen it pop up in small snippets during My Life in Gaming videos. You've convinced me to give it a chance. Also I like how you match the dark color aesthetic of you room.
Thanks. I hope you enjoy it.
I'm gonna play this with my son. I've been looking for the perfect "retro game" to start him on, and I honestly think he'd really enjoy this one. Thank you so much! 🤓😎🤓👍👍👍
No problem, I hope you both have fun.
This game looks fun, I like all the colors. :) The companions are cute, too. :) I hope this gets ported to modern consoles one day as I no longer own a Genesis.
yess more sega. you should collab with Sega Lord X some time.
Wonder Boy games were what I grew up on as a wee lil nugget in the 90s, so this one holds a special place in my library. I also think the Tyrant Dragon (the one on the title screen) is the cutest dragon I've ever seen before Mushu and Sisu came around X3 ...I had my own OC in elementary school based on him!
Love your channel by the way. You really know your stuff--great presentation!
Thanks!
I have Wonder Boy III: The Dragons Trap and I like it. But, I haven't played Wonder Boy In Monster World yet.
That Wonderboy 3 is my favorite game. What a masterpiece
Genesis was such a cool system. I jumped from SMS/NES to TG16 to SNES, passing over the Genesis. I played a lot of the popular Genesis games on my friend's systems, but never fully appreciated just how deep the catalog was.
It did blow my mind that this 1991 game has impeccable graphics, with even some Yoshi's Island crayon-style colouring plus it has so many quality of life qualities that games didn't have (Link to the Past is an exception of course) in those days. And the action-adventure metroidvania-like gameplay puts it above many more famous Snes games of that period.
Nice review! Wonder Boy III is one of the best Genesis titles out there and definitely doesn't get enough love :)
Thanks!
This game is adorable~! Sadly I am just terrible at side scrollers so I tend to stay away from them unless they are forgiving.
Also girl your hair is getting long~~~
Too long! I need the hair dressers to open again.
I recommend Wonder Boy in Monster land for sega master system.
They should have gotten you to play Wednesday.
For anyone who would like to try playing this game, but has trouble with cartridge hunting, I bought a super combo cartridge from M&M Games in Upland, California, which has nearly 200 games on its menu. Those include "Wonder Boy In Monster World," and "Kid Chameleon," and "Alisia Dragoon," and "Gain Ground," and "Arcus Odyssey," and a host of others. The only fault is, all those games on one cartridge leave no room for battery backed save data. That means you can go to an inn with "Wonder Boy In Monster World," and try to save, but it doesn't really save. And it means some of the games on it, like "Light Crusader" and "Warsong," shouldn't really be there, because you can't save any results effectively. But ones that don't have a save feature to begin with, it plays normally.
That moment when you finally get out into the open ocean for the first time with that music was intense.
True, and that is one of the reasons i find the music in this game to be so good. A great soubdtrack must do things to you before you even realize that the music is actually very good
In brazil we got some reskinned games on the master system with Monica's Gang characters (a brazilian comic strip that recently broke in the US as far as I know). The monster boy games were licensed to a brazilian company called tectoy so these reskins were actually legal. Tectoy also ported street fighter 2 to the master system, which is considered quite a feat in the retro community.
I think Street fighter got ported to the Commodore 64 as well.
It’s not pretty though.
If yo8u mess with emulation or get an SSDS3 sd device for your turbo grafx, then check out Dynastic Hero for the turbo CD. It is the same as this game, but with master higgins from adventure island, cd music, beter graphics etc. If you dont wanna play through it it is still cool to check out for 20 min or so runing around and seeing the similarites/differences.
A balanced and thorough review. 👍🏻 The Master System version of WBIMW was one of my favourite games as a kid, so I must give this one a try. I didn't even know a Mega Drive / Genesis version existed. Mega Drive and its cartridges were kind of expensive in the early 90s' Turkey, so my parents refused to buy me one and made me choose between an SMS and a Famiclone. haha
Thank you for covering my favorite game from childhood! I'll admit, my nostalgia mostly prevents me from letting the flaws of the game get to me. I'm glad the game's charm kept you through to the end despite them! The visuals are my favorite part, too, after all.
You're welcome!
The Wonder Boy/Monster World series was perhaps my favourite console franchise in the early '90s, me being a Sega owner. I really enjoyed Wonder Boy in Monsterland and Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap on Master System. I completed Wonder Boy in Monster World, Master System version, on rental in '93, but didn't try the Mega Drive/Genesis version till just last year actually. I wrote a review at Moby Games. It's not especially long, so I may as well paste it here.
THE GOOD
"The graphics, villages, towns, castles, deserts, snow fields etc. are often very nice. I like Dragon's Trap's idea of having a central town as your base from which you explore in all directions, some directions blocked until later in the game. Here your base is Purapril Castle/Town. Like Wonder Boy II, you play as "Wonder Boy" for the whole game, no transforming into beast-men, though you're a different Wonder Boy now, "Shion", a supposed descendant of "Bocke Lee Temjin", the previous Wonder Boy. The usual Wonder Boy music composer Shinichi Sakamoto has made some more nice background music, including new productions of his previous Wonder Boy music. I also like that they built on MEKA-Dragon from the previous games, this time having the BioMeka, alien monster up in space(it is perhaps MEKA-Dragon in a new form as he appeared to escape in a flying saucer at the end of Wonder Boy II, in the original arcade game anyway)."
THE BAD
"First the game doesn't play very well. Wonder Boy's sword is too short, causing you to often swing and miss, before learning to time it better. And your defence is often very weak, causing your hearts to run out quickly and are given potions that don't fully restore. You're forced to repeatedly kill enemies to raise money for stronger armour. Then there's the story and the objective. A lot of the time you are travelling in a certain direction just because a somebody suggests you go that way. You just have a vague concept of some evil master controlling the invaders of Monster World. It's a bit of a hollow victory when you're praised for saving everyone when you don't really build much connection with the people and can't really appreciate the danger they're in."
If you think this game is good, wait until you try Wonder Boy 3: The Dragon's Trap for the Sega Master System and Turbografx 16 (known as Dragon's Curse on that platform). I feel that it does what this game does even better. This game's sequel, Monster World 4, is also quite good, and arguably the most beautiful Genesis (well, actually, Megadrive, since it only came out in Japan) game. That one requires a repro or translation patch, however.
I love this game. Just got stuck at one point and quit. But love the graphical design.
Oh by the way, I never played the next in the series Monster World IV/Wonder Boy V, in which you played "Wonder Girl" Princess Asha, dressed in pantaloons and wielding a scimitar as Monster World is now Arabic themed. It came out in Apr. '94, but wasn't translated and released for Mega Drive outside Japan, though I've watched a complete playthrough of it with fan translation. It seemed a bigger game, more depth and Asha has more moves.
I see that a remake called Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World was released just last month for PS4 and Switch. It's due at Steam soon also.
In Brazil this game was heavily altered, with its sprites and story completely replaced by characters from a famous comic strip called Monica's Gang. Instead of Wonderboy fighting with a sword we had a girl fighting with a blue stuffed toy rabbit (which she uses to beat up the boys who call her mean names). The name of the game: Monica's Gang in Monsters,' LAND.
The other games of the franchise got similar treatments.
Really long comment here: I literally just played through this game a couple of days ago! Your review is pretty spot on with my experience, but apparently I didn't get enough power ups before the final boss and concluded that beating said boss was going to be impossible without a lot more exploration. Sadly, this seemed like too much of a chore at that point, especially knowing how cryptic the secrets can be, but I did like it a lot otherwise. Oddly enough, I also heard that the original Japanese version actually had a much more reasonable difficulty for the final boss, but I haven't played through that one, so I can't say for sure.
Just before playing Wonder Boy in Monster World, I played (and actually got to finish) a gorgeous remake of its predecessor, Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap. The structure is kind of similar (metroid-lite?), but your character gets turned into various anthropomorphic animals with different abilities which kind of reminded me of Demon's Crest, albeit less infernal and more charming. Actually, these particular (metroid-esque) Wonder Boy games are probably more akin to the Shantae series than anything else that I know of. The presentation of The Dragon's Trap is outstanding and I highly recommend it if you liked this game.
Now having played those two (metroid-like?) Wonder Boy games, I just started the original version of the next (metroid-ish?) game in the series, Monster World IV for the Sega Genesis. Monster World IV has a similar exploration platformer structure but seems a bit more polished than the previous two titles (at least from the first hour or so of playing it), which is quite nice. The game stars an adorable female protagonist, Asha, in a middle eastern looking setting that is just beaming with content and personality, so I'm pretty excited to play through this one. I plan to move on to the most recent game in the series, Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom, thereafter :)
This was my first Wonder Boy game though I couldn't beat it on the Megadrive but went back to it's PS3 re-release and finally beat it. Cracking little game.
This is one of my favourite games! One of the few I've playthrough multiple times and still love it (although the first half n hour or so drags...). To me this game is what Zelda II wanted to be. This seems to be the most forgotten of the wonderboy games and I hope it doesn't et missed in the current spate of remakes. I would buy it in a flash!
Aliens and laser beams, eh? Wonder if that's a holdover from all that weird fantasy "but with spaceships and aliens" phase before that got snuffed out.
EDIT: Did this get double posted? Oh UA-cam.
Hi Pam. Great to see you again checking out Genesis games!! First time I have seen a full review of this game, even when I have seen it so many times in pictures or in mentions. I am very surprised, it is much more charming than I thought. And I didn't know that it used RPG elements in its gameplay. I was hoping to see a port where Adventure Island characters had been replaced or something.
Very charming and colorful. The bosses look very well done in terms of graphics and gameplay. Its replay value reminds me of the Mega Man series. And that return spell reminds me of the same spell used in Dragon Warrior for the NES.
How its supposed you can fit in that tiny bed?? You would need to cast a shrinking spell on yourself or something XD
Theres a reworked version of this game released in Brazil by Tec Toy. It is essentially a rom hack where you play as Monica (from Monica's Gang), a beloved comic book character. Also the Brazilian version is in Portuguese. This was the version I had access to back in the day. Tec Toy recently released the game again.
I want to love this game because it's so charming, but the weird combat and slightly sluggish movement just suck my motivation to finish the game. I just loathe the ridiculously short weapon range and the limited attack directions.
Edit: I persevered, the game finally clicked, and I'm now on my second playthrough of this game and have started the rest of the games in the series.
Monster World 4 is my favorite in the series. Plus it got a remake recently like the third game (Wonder Boy/Girl: The Dragon's Trap). You even get a little pet that helps you fight and can grow as you progress.
I bought this game when it first came out. It does have a few minor flaws but it's a good follow-on to Wonder Boy In Monster Land. I spent most of this video saying, "oh, it's that bit where you had to..." :-) Cheers, Pam!
It seems as if games back then were filled with secrets without necessarily ensuring the player has enough fair tip-off to be clued into them, seemingly to extend the play time. I wonder if not respecting the player's time is an issue only in hindsight since players seemed to favor more play time back when games were probably fewer in number compared to all the indie titles available today to play through. It's a bit of a shame that people (me included) almost seem to go for quantity over quality with games nowadays (in terms of completing as many games as one can versus replaying classics), but I think it's at least partially a logistical issue that couldn't be helped since so many developers want to put out their own games.
I never knew about Wonder Boy until I noticed games like Wonder Boy Returns on the Playstation store. I've been a bit curious about those games...
Also, it's ironic the term Metroidvania wasn't used at a time when both Metroid and Castlevania existed (I wonder if someone somewhere may have used the term back then).
Right.. could use a better title.. like how Back to the Future could've been called Spaceman from Pluto. Lol
Really cool game, wonderboy should have been sega's mascot not that chupit blue rat running around. there's also monster world 4 for megadrive that's brilliant.
This review hit deep with me. It was one of those games that almost seemed like a dream because I was so young. Thanks for the nostalgia treasure you helped me find. Keep it up
Glad you enjoyed it!
I don't remember this game, but my favorite scene was the rabbit head floating around pooping fire 😄
My goodness, who thought of that?
The last boss is nearly impossible to beat. Why those bastards touch the Japanase game to make it impossible?!!!
Aliens and laser beams, eh? Wonder if that's a holdover from all that weird fantasy "but with spaceships and aliens" phase before that got snuffed out.
Never played this, but I'm getting nostalgia from playing wonder boy and wonder boy in monster land on seg master system. Would you do reviews on those games in the future
this game only makes sense if you are familar with especially the original monsterland - the final boss is a robot dragon, so this end boss mirrors that. The ocarina is similar trinket you can pick up in the original game as well. Other than that, good review!
I vaguely remember this game. Righteous trip on the Wayback Machine. I dig it.
ok seriously that cover art atthe beginning, the dragon looks like it came out of dragon quest or dragon ball xDDDD
I love your reviews, calm and great narrative thanks for sharing big hugs from Denmark :D
I replay this one every few years, a true classic. Great review!
Thanks!
A sphinx that asks questions about the game you have been playing... Where have I seen that before.
I agree, this is a solid game. I have the entire series across both PS3 and PS4 through various collections.
I loved this game growing up and the first time I played it was on the C64. I bought it a bit back on steam and need to try it out again.
Man, you really made me feel bad by saying how easy the game is. I've never got past the second world. Just can't seem to handle the bosses 😅
I had a hard time with it too, especially the bosses. You are not alone. Pam is just really good at games.
Really? I stopped playing it because I was more invested with the fourth game than this one.
This game hasd good platforming mixed with with rpg gaming. I don't think the series needs to keep being con fused with Adventure island so much, though. Nice colors and characters, just like the Master System games (factoid - more colors on screen than the NES)
Well, the enemies respawn fast... if you're fast. It's actually based on distance. And enemies also do have limited respawns until you refresh the screen. I think most of the time they respawn about 3-4 times before needing a full area refresh to come back.
One of my favs for the Genesis. This is a great little gem, and yes it's very cute and simple but fun to play. It's often just what a game needs to be good and rememberable.
SIMPLE? I get killed all the time,.because I cannot dodge the projectiles
I highly doubt, but in the future could you do reviews on retro Godzilla games?
I love this game, and as a young man I rented it a bunch of times but never beat it. I just should have bought the damn thing.
Want to instantly make the fight 10x more aggravating? Add a conveyor belt!
I really liked some of the Wonder Boy games. This one was pretty good though I do think it was more punishing than you let on. Enemies tend to do a ton of damage and with the super short weapon range, it's easy to get hit.
Im really glad this part of the series has been getting remakes and they've been very good.
It's still bizarre to think that the series started off as Adventure Island.
Quite the opposite. The games have always been Wonder Boy since the 1986 arcade game. Video game company Hudson had made a deal with the developers (Westone) to gain license in creating their own branded series, Adventure Island. Adventure Island is a in-game sprite swap of the original Wonder Boy game.
@@Victory-in-YAHUSHA Yes, thats more or less what I mean. The original Wonder Boy would be more familiar as Adventure Island. I mean it's more weird that it started as that type of game then went to a more action RPG.
@@githane Yeah, the genre started to shift by the third arcade game (Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair) as a rail shoot em' up, then found it's mainstay in the 2D open world/Metroidvania genre with The Dragon's Trap and onwards. It will be interesting if the next installment will be a 3D open world game.
@@Victory-in-YAHUSHA I'd say the shift to RPG started with Wonder Boy in Monster Land, the second game in the series.
@@YesterdaysMoose It's true that the shift may have began in Wonder Boy II, but to me action RPGs are games where your character levels up as you defeat monsters in real time. If Monster Land was an action RPG, then the Zelda series (with the exception of Zelda II) would be labled as an action RPG series. Zelda is actually an action adventure/open world series. The same applies to Wonder Boy in Monster Land, only that it is an action adventure platformer.
I got into chiptunes because of this game ❤️ gotta love those YM2612 vibes
Check out “Toni Leys, Through a cardboard world”.
Nice chilled chip tune. Good analogue vibe.
Girl....this is a beautiful...awesome game. As pretty as you!!😍
My ranking of the series so far
1. Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom
2. Wonder Boy in Monster World
3. Asha in Monster World
4. Monster World IV
5. The Dragon's Trap (2017)
6. The Dragon's Trap (1989)
7. Wonder Boy in Monster Land
8. Wonder Boy Returns Remix
9. Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair
Wow, there are a lot of them.
@@Cannotbetamed1 Including the three remakes and none of the secondary ports, there are pretty much ten games altogether :)
Love this game, I believe I eve finished it as a kid and recently started revisiting it
Yep, now you can take all the Charmstones (by farming the money in the cloud castle against the vampires), and all the Hearts (there are a lot of guides where they are hidden). Enjoy!
yeahhh Hoorah i remember this game, go Pam go.
Great video. Have you done popful mail? I couldn't find it if you did. I'd like to watch your take.
No I never reviewed that. What I played of it seems fun though
5:24 What happens if you get the questions wrong? Every playthrough I've seen gets them correct so I don't know.
I played the Master System version and while much of the content in the original was cut or downgraded to accommodate the lower spec I still thought it was a decent game (though I still prefer WB in Monster Land and The Dragon's Trap).
I think you just get to try again.
If you get 4, he lets you through with no Thunder magic. Otherwise, you do it again.
Most of us Brazilians know this game by the name "Turma da Mônica na Terra dos Monstros"(Monica's gang in monster world) because tectoy (our local sega publisher) made a retexture of the original game and put this brazilian animation on it, they changed the story a bit to fit in the world of monica's animation too.
Great video as always!
Então era esse jogo que era da Mônica? Cacete, não sabia disso, hahahaha!
Thanks! That's really interesting they completely changed the character.
I still have this game. Play it all the time. Glad I found your channel
Thanks for reviewing this cute game for us Pam 😊
No problem
This is by far my favourite of ALL the Wonderboy games.
The best Wonderboy. So proud when I finished it. A lot of exploring and returning to old sites. The graphics and art style was very impressive.
Wonder Boy in Monster World was my favoite game in the series until Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom came.
Very cool game and was a wild find on the Genesis and I wish they would remake this one like they did the other ones. Good stuff 👍
Played the heck out of this game in my teenage days on my friends Genesis. The charm was the overall highlight of the game.
The Japanese have an unmatched affinity for kawaii-ness.
I remember there were a few titles like this made by the same developer that started with Adventure Boy. Is Shion the same character from Adventure Boy? He just put away his prehistoric get-up, and tomahawk, in favor of some armour? If so, that's cute.
EDIT: Sorry, I meant Adventure Island. Haha.
I think it's a different character. I don't even think the Wonder Boy series always has the same character.
Fantastic game this whole series is excellent
Wonderboy. What is the secret of your power?
Can't stop to see people's comment a Wonder Boy videos without this obligatory lines XD
such an underrated sega rpg. loved this game growing up
This is my favourite Genesis Wonder Boy game! Recently, I completed the game 100% - I literally mean doing every conceivable thing possible - and uploaded the video to UA-cam. I appreciate you choosing this game to review, as I'm not sure it gets enough love. One thing, the Ocarina does have another purpose, albeit an optional one. Great video!
What else is the ocarina used for?
@@Cannotbetamed1 There's a hut near Poseidon's domain where you can talk to his daughter. She will take the Ocarina in exchange for a hint to the location of the Amulet, the one that reveals the entrance to the domain. This is not required, so it can be skipped without consequence.
Hi from Brazil, Pam!
Do you know the game Ocean's Heart? Has a "Link to the Past" feeling, available on Switch and Steam...I liked the visual of this game but I'm not sure if it's worth to buy
No, I'm not familiar with that game
I've only just started to get into the Wonder Boy games, (Got 3 for Sega Master System xD)
I hope in the near future I can play more as they look fun 😊 Great review as always Pam 😁
Thanks!
Wonder Boy/Monster World games are *really* underappercieted among majority retro gamers, especially for quote-unquote "metroidvania" fans like myself, so thanks for reviewing it.
No problem
If you haven't tried them yet, there are two relatively new games in the Wonder Boy series, both of which I recommend, especially if you really liked the art from Monster World.
Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap is basically a remaster of the game of the same name from the Master System - you can swap back and forth between the original graphics and the new. The art is absolutely gorgeous, by the same artist who did Streets of Rage 4. Graphically one of my favorite games ever, though I might be a little bit biased as a 2D artist myself.
Monster Boy is a true sequel to the series, making references to- and continuing themes from- some of the previous games, most notably Dragon's Trap and Monster World. Being a more modern installment, it has many more of the creature comforts we've come to expect from Metroidvanias. It's also very nicely animated - it doesn't have as gorgeous a hand-painted look as Dragon's Trap, but it's still really cute, and is polished enough to feel at home in the 8th generation of consoles.
I've played Monster Boy, it was really good though it did get a little puzzle heavy at the end for me.
I recently played the Master System iteration of this and it was brutal in its refusal to give strong direction to the player. Might check this out based on your video - thanks!
I have never had a chance to play this game. It looks very nice. But I must say, your eyeshadow for this video is AMAZING. That dual tone with blend is just so well done. My hat is off to you for it. An excellent video! Have a great week.
Thanks so much. I had fun doing this eyeshadow look.
Dang, what a classic! Been watching since Kid Chameleon, so super psyched to see this pop up in my recommendations. Great review Pam!
Thanks!
I grew up playing this game at a friends house. And was so bummed out that I didn’t have a megadrive haha :) If you like this game Pam, then you really should try monster world IV for the genesis ;)
Thanks for the recommendation.
Really enjoying your game reviews Pam - only just discovered your channel and as many others have said here - you're chilled out and so easy to listen to - thumbs up from Australia =)
Welcome to the channel
Why it not working on flash cartridge?