Wonder Boy in Monster World

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Wonder Boy In Monster World is a platform action adventure game developed by Westone and published by Sega on 1991-10-25 for the Genesis. It is the fifth game in the Wonder Boy series.

The game exists in four fairly different versions. The original Mega Drive/Genesis release, a Master System port which had various aspects cut to fit into a smaller ROM, a TurboGrafx-CD port which replaced the soundtrack and a lot of the graphics, and a special Brazil port which redid the graphics to fit a Brazilian children's comic strip.

I discovered this game while looking for older Metroidvania games I missed out on in the earlier days of the genre.

Status

I don't own this game. I'm currently playing it on Genesis.

Review

  • Overall: ?/10
  • Best Version:

Good

  • The cartoon artwork and detailed background graphics are fantastic.
  • The character design and animation is wonderful. I especially love the death animation for monsters and the large attractive boss sprites.
  • The game has a lot of hidden chests to collect.
  • Although I'm not a huge fan of the soundtrack, I recognize that it is well-composed and fitting to the game.
  • The indoor cut-aways are a good design.
  • As you buy better weapons and shields, your player sprite updates to match which is a good touch.
  • The sidekicks are a fun addition. They're mostly useless, but Priscilla's animation where she smacks enemies with her wand is hilarious.
  • There are lots of little graphic quirks that add to the game like heat emanating from fireplaces.

Bad

  • Unless you spend a lot of time searching for the hidden power-ups, the game will be really hard. Unfortunately, a lot of the power-ups are hidden really well.
  • Most of the bosses are really easy to beat. In my first play-through of the game, I encountered bosses with very few hit points remaining, but still ended up winning because they were to easy to defeat.
  • The dialog saying how much gold you picked up covers up a lot of the screen. It isn't necessary at all, but a simple sprite would have been less-obtrusive.
  • I don't like being told, every time I want to buy something, that I "have a discerning eye."
  • The game's documentation is pretty bad. The box art is horrible for pretty much every region and port. The game's manual is quite dry, and though it gives very detailed instructions on how to play, it has only a couple paragraphs of story and almost no art. The title is also stupid. I wonder how many more units could have been sold with better marketing.

Ugly

  • The moving platform puzzle above the dragon room in the Dark Castle is really annoying. It would have been annoying even if you didnt have to defeat the dragon every time.

Media

Boxes

Documentation

Maps

Videos

Titles

Language Native Transliteration Translation
English Wonder Boy In Monster World
Japanese (Mega Drive) ワンダーボーイⅤ モンスターワールドⅢ Wanda Boi V Monsuta Warudo III Wonder Boy V: Monster World III
Japanese (PC Engine CD) 超英雄伝説ダイナスティックヒーロー Cho Hideo Densetsu Dainasutikku Hiro Super Hero Legend: Dynastic hero

Links