Wonder Boy in Monster World

1991 · Action RPG · Genesis

About Wonder Boy in Monster World

Wonder Boy in Monster World (1991) is Westone's side-scrolling action RPG in which the young hero Shion answers a fairy queen's prayer and fights a monster invasion across interconnected lands.

Wonder Boy in Monster World in Depth

Monster World was once peaceful until an army of monsters appeared from nowhere. The Fairy Queen Eleanora travels to Purapril to ask the Princess for help after her town of Alsedo is attacked, only to find the Princess missing and towns across the land under attack. Her prayer for a hero reaches Shion, a young man who vows to drive out the monsters, and on his travels he is often joined by a small companion who follows him. The quest takes him through many interconnected regions in search of the evil BioMeka.

It controls like a standard platformer, with running, jumping, crouching and attacking, but adds adventure elements: talking to townsfolk, collecting money to buy items, extending the life bar with hearts and equipping a wide range of armour, weapons and magic, as Shion acquires ever stronger swords, spears, shields, armour and boots. The Genesis version introduced a single save slot at inns. In the Japanese original, dying returned Shion to the last inn and charged him its fee, so returning to save could be as simple as dying, but the English versions show a Game Over instead, making early trips back to inns tedious until Return magic is found. The Master System version uses a 45-character password.

Making Wonder Boy in Monster World

Westone developed it and Sega published it for the Mega Drive in 1991, following Wonder Boy in Monster Land and Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap. In 1994 Hudson Soft remade it for the TurboDuo as The Dynastic Hero, recasting Monster World as the woodland of Tarron, invaded by the reptilian Drillkor Empire, with a hero named Dyna. Electronic Gaming Monthly praised that version's music, graphics and vast size, while GamePro mocked its "doe-eyed" characters but praised its emphasis on action. Both the Mega Drive and Turbo Duo versions came to the Wii Virtual Console in 2007.

Wonder Boy in Monster World Trivia

In Japan it is called Monster World III.
It is the fifth Wonder Boy game and third in the Monster World sub-series.
A Master System version was made for Europe in 1993.
Hudson Soft remade it for the TurboDuo as The Dynastic Hero, with a new theme and cast.
EGM gave The Dynastic Hero 7.2 out of 10, while GamePro called it "run of the mill".