Wonder Boy was created by Westone (formally Escape) and released in the arcades in 1986. It was a fast paced horizontal platformer and essentially a clone of Adventure Island from Hudson. It is argued that game was a response to Super Mario Bros which dominated at the time but much less so in Europe.

The port to the Master System (as was the more basic SG-1000 version) was reasonably impressive for the time retaining the arcade look and feel. It was eventually ported to many computer systems of the era including Amiga and ZX Spectrum.

The Wonder Boy series went on to become a staple of the Master System and Game Gear systems with games also released on the Mega Drive. The next title; Wonder Boy in Monster Land marked a distinct change in gameplay style giving the RPG sub-plot and gameplay to some of the series future titles.

Wonder Boy is fondly regarded by who play. The simple gameplay combined with a reasonable challenge, cute graphics and the catchy background tune make for a true retro title.

Wonder Boy European Case
	*Case Quote* "Brave deep dark forests. Cross endless oceans. Endure arid deserts. All the while, fending off nasty creatures and natural disasters. Until you find her. Until you rescue your girlfriend, Tanya from the clutches of a brutish king."

Story

Tom-Tom is a cave boy. His mission is to rescue his girlfriend Tanya from an undefined evil. Wearing minimalist clothing and armed with primitive hammers he braves all terrain's and dangers to be reunited with his love.

Gameplay

Wonder Boy is a simple and speedy forwards only side-scrolling platformer. The gameplay, which remains unchanged, can become addictive and is complemented by some challenging sections at times. You take Tom-Tom running from left to right across various terrains' avoiding wild animals and hazards like bottomless pits and wayward boulders. This is essentially repeated on all rounds with increasing levels of difficulty. The round ends when you reach the goal.

Video is shamelessly embedded from Youtube. All credit to the video owner. No infringement intended.

Different terrain's will bring different and increasing dangers in both hazards and creatures and terrain's will range from forests, underground, tropics, deserts, waterfalls and in the clouds. Some are more dangerous than others. For example, mountainous areas will have random volcanic eruptions as a danger and walking on ice makes control more difficult with the risk of icicles falling from above.

Deadly creatures include snakes, scorpions and marauding natives with blue skin! Death will be instant when touching an enemy, any of the hazards including falling off the screen or if all vitality is gone.

There are some trickier enemies worth mentioning. They are:

Wonder Boy Creatures
	Leaping Frog - They sit still with a smug look on their face but will suddenly leap at you as you get close. Two hits are needed to kill.
	Static Frog - Will remain still regardless of how close you get. 1 Hit needed to kill.
	Coyote - Looks more like a lizard. Their arrival onscreen will be pre-empted by a flower on the ground. They will run from behind and may also leap at some point. If killed from behind, a letter/envelope will be dropped that will be worth 500 points and some vitality. (It does not increase points values or give big boost in vitality)

The controls are fixed and they are as follows:

The D-Pad moves Tom-Tom left and right. Holding a direction will make him walk.

Button 1 is THROW hammers/hatchets when collected. It is also RUN when held down in combination with the D-Pad directions.

Button 2 is JUMP. A tap produces a small jump. Used in combination with running makes a higher jump/leap.

Vitality/Energy Bar

As you play, vitality (or energy) is constantly being drained and you must be aware of it. The drain remains constant but taking damage by running into a rock or similar will loose a few more blocks. When on the red you are in danger. You die when all vitality is gone.

Essential Items

To collect any items simply touch them.

Items in Wonder Boy
	Fruit and Vegetables - Restores the vitality bar. Some items are worth more points and vitality than others.
	Milk - will give a bigger increase in vitality. Looks more like a jar but with "M" on it. (Does not increase points from then on)
	Letter/Envelope - Linked with the appearance of the Coyote (see above). 500 points.
	Fries - Illusive item. Appears when jumping and throwing hammers in certain places. Worth 500 points. These are called potatoes in the games manual.

Essential items are contained in eggs. Walk or run at them to kick and break open. Beware of kicking eggs down holes or into water because they will be lost to you.

Items in Wonder Boy
	Tom-Tom's weapons in the game. Use these to kill creatures. You can launch 2 in quick succession.
	Tom-Tom gets a skateboard and dons on helmet and knee pads. The main advantage to the skateboard is speed but it can also protect from one collision with a creature or hazard. When aboard controls are affected slightly. You will constantly be moving forwards and D-Pad FORWARDS accelerates and D-Pad BACKWARDS brakes. Button 2 is JUMP.
	Fairy/Angel - Invincibility. Walk though enemies and objects whilst the fairy hovers.
	Red Mushroom - Will make all items collected worth 500 points until you miss collecting a piece of fruit or vegetable, you die, the round is completed.
	Spotty Eggs - will contain a demon which floats overhead and will drain vitality at a faster rate for a time. Taking damage will be doubly bad with this. Having one still attached when you reach a goal causes it to explode and returns 1000 points.
Other important items include:
	Hand Bag/Wrist Watch/A Pair of Shoes/ A Teddy Bear/ A Bottle of Perfume/A Pair of Glasses/A Pendant/ A Ring/ An Umbrella/ A Pair of Socks - sometimes items will leave behind another object of Tanya's. Collecting this leads to a Bonus Area in the clouds where hearts can be collected for bonus points and a boost in vitality. Collecting the same object again returns to the ground usually with a minor shortcut. If you fall you return to where you collected the ascending item.
	SEGA Signs - These are illusive and will appear when a hammer is thrown in a particular place. They are worth 1000 points each (and a familiar chime) and collecting all four letters rewards an extra life.
	Doll - In each round will be a doll usually placed in some awkward location. It is necessary to collect all the Dolls in order to enter the final area of the game. You will get 1000 points and 4800 points at the end of a round for its collection. Sometimes they are not visible and running into a rock or going off the screen via a spring maybe needed. Once collected it becomes replaced with a red flower worth 500 points if you die and are repeating the round.

The game consists of 10 areas, each of which contains 4 rounds. Each round will have 4 markers which act as restart points if you die. The 4^th round of an area will be a boss encounter. To enter the 10^th area, all of the Dolls from Area's 1 to 9 must have been collected.

You will have a limited amount of space in which to defeat a boss. You must aim for the head. As the game progresses the bosses charge at you more quickly and need more hits in order to defeat them. Some will have the ability to throw lightening and fireballs.

At the end of each round bonus points will be given for the amount of remaining vitality the maximum being 4800. If the doll has been found then the doll bonus will be same as what was awarded for the vitality bonus.

You begin the game with 3 lives. Extra lives can be earned with every 30000, 70000, 170000 points and for each 70000 points after that. The number of lives you have is displayed each time before play.

Upon Game Over you have unlimited continues. The boss of the current area waddles across the screen while you make your decision by moving the D-Pad left or right.

The game has a 2-Player mode which simply allows turn based play of 2 individual players.

Screenshots

There are 14 locations in total but some locations are repeated making for 10. They are:

The Woods, A Valley, The Ocean, A Long Open Road, A Steep Slope, A Glacier, A Slippery Cave, An Even Deeper Cave, A Volcano, A Long Bridge, A Burning Desert, The Woods at Night, In The Clouds and Inside The Mansion.

Wonder Boy Screenshots (Areas 1 -10)

Cheats and Tips

Level Select

Press Button 1 x3 times on the title screen. Press Button 2 twice and hold both buttons down. Press UP to change the levels on the opening screen.

Other Versions

Original Arcade

The arcade version of Wonder Boy ran on SEGA's System 1 arcade board which is moderately more powerful than a Master System. It is fully playable with current versions of MAME.

Wonder Boy - Original Arcade

The differences are minor mostly to do with the layout of items on the screen. For example, the score is continuously displayed and updated.

SEGA SG-1000

The version for the predecessor console of the Master System was only ever released in Japan on card format.

It is very similar but much more basic and clearly suffers from the limitations of the hardware.

Wonder Boy SG-1000

Game Gear

This game was also ported to the Game Gear with the post-fixed title "Revenge of Drancon" although this addition to the title was never explained.

Wonder Boy Game Gear

There are few differences. The viewing aspect is smaller but is still good and the game will report remaining lives before starting a round. The most noticeable difference is the music. It is the same tunes but re-composed and sound rather inferior.

The game itself is essentially the same.

SEGA AGES 2500 Vol 29

Wonder Boy (this game) has been re-released as part of SEGA Ages 2500 Vol 29: Monster World Complete Collection.

Sega Ages Vol 29 Monster World Complete Collection

Also included in this compilation is Wonder Boy In Monster Land, Wonder Boy III - Monster Lair, Monster World II, Monster World III, Monster World IV and available as their different versions: Arcade, Master System, Game Gear and Mega Drive.

There are options for smoothing the graphics and output at 480p.

Like most of the SEGA AGES 2500 Series, these have only been released in Japan on the PS2.

Sequels

The Wonder Boy series went on to have a total of 6 games across SEGA's platforms and their names differ between the regions because not all games had releases in all territories which makes for a somewhat confusing legacy.

The series went on to become a staple of the Master System and Game Gear systems with games also released on the Mega Drive. Most of these were also ported to the Turbografx-16.

Some of the titles were published for non SEGA platforms.

Wonder Boy In Monsterland (Super Wonder Boy Super Monster Land)

The first sequel marked a distinct change in gameplay and introduced Wonder Boy into Monster World/Land giving the RPG sub-plot and gameplay to future titles. For this game though, its fair to say this has a balance of that style and the gameplay of the original.

Wonder Boy must save the kingdom of Wonder Land from a mysterious fire breathing Dragon which has seemingly appeared from nowhere.

Wonder Boy In Monsterland (Master System)

For in-depth information about the game checkout the Wonder Boy II feature.

After this game and in typical SEGA fashion, the sequels split across different platforms, however the final title that completes the trilogy is below.

Wonder Boy III: The Dragons Trap (Monster World 2: Dragon's Trap)

Is a direct sequel to Wonder Boy In Monster Land, and even begins at the last round of the predecessor.

After defeating the Dragon a curse is put upon our hero. He must travel across the kingdom being changed into several forms such as Lizardman and Hawkman by the dragons he defeats to ultimately once again become human.

One major difference is that this game is no longer presented level-by-level instead having an open kingdom to freely roam.

Wonder Boy III: The Dragons Trap (Monster World 2: Dragon's Trap) (Master System)

Sporting possibly the best graphics and sound on the system its considered one of the greatest games on the Master System games ever. It was later ported to the Game Gear.

Further Adventures

The adventures continued with titles for the Mega Drive including Wonder Boy in Monster World (Monster World V) which retained the action RPG style of gameplay. It was later ported the Master System. Whilst technically an advanced 8-Bit game the quality of the port caused some issues.

Wonder Boy in Monster World (Mega Drive)

This was then followed by Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair which revisited the spirit of the original.

Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair (Mega Drive)

All the console versions barring the (SG-1000 version) of Wonder Boy are available on the Nintendo Virtual Console.

Emulation

Perfect! This game can be played with the Dega or KEGA Fusion Emulators which can be downloaded from the Master System Emulators page.

Misc Info

The status of the original developers Westone is unknown though their official website is still online. If you can read Japanese check out http://www.westone.co.jp/index.html.
Setting the emulator to Jap (Master System Mark 3) causes the game title to change to Super Wonder Boy.
In the arcade version you earn points for each hit landed on a boss.

Wonder Boy Games Of the Month Archive January 2005

Wonder Boy In Monster Land Archive Games of The Month February 2005

Wonder Boy III Games of The Month Archive February 2005