What hadn’t worked originally with the original Wonder Boy/Adventure Island was quickly thrown out with the next entry, Wonder Boy in Monster Land, and it was all the better because of it. It had the same basic look and style of the previous game, but it now included a mix of RPG elements, which were not only rare to see for an arcade game at the time, but one that managed to work out extremely well in the game’s favor, even if I wasn’t able to properly beat it back when I did play it. Nevertheless, I was still able to see the charm and appeal that this game had, as did most others, since this style would go onto being the main gameplay that the series would stick with all the way up to now…. but that wouldn’t be the case for all the titles in the series. Just a year later, a new title for the series would come along and completely undo all of what that game did, and it would simply be known as Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair.

Rather than sticking with the style that Monster Land introduced for the series, this game goes back to the style that the original game had, being more so a straight action platformer rather than one that mixed in RPG and adventure elements. When I found out about this, I then started to get pretty worried, cause if you couldn’t tell, I don’t like the original game all too much, so if this game was going to essentially be another one of those, I was in for a bad time. However, to my utter delight, not only were a lot of the problems I had with that original game fixed here, but they also managed to add more elements to it to where I would say that this is actually a pretty good game. It still does have its issues, and it definitely is an outlier for the entire Wonder Boy series, but for being essentially a course correction for the original game, it gets the job done, and does so in a pretty good package.

The story is typical for a game of this genre, where a group of invaders from space, or space invaders, if you will, attack the Monster Land and steal a set of powerful weapons to use for themselves, so it is up to the heroes Leo and Priscilla to stop them, which works well enough for a game with this style and tone, the graphics are pretty great, having a distinct style with charming designs for both the characters and monsters, the music is pretty good, having plenty of upbeat and hectic tracks that I did end up liking a lot, even if there are a few forgettable tracks, the control is exactly what you would expect from one of these games, and it works out pretty well, even if I could never figure out what this ledge grabbing mechanics is all about because I am stupid, and the gameplay is basically is somebody took the original Wonder Boy/Adventure Island, actually made it good, and added more to it to make it even more enjoyable.

The game is split into two different gameplay segments, with the main one being that of a 2D action platformer, where you take control of either Leo or Priscilla, go through a set of 14 different stages spanning over various environments, defeat many different enemies using many different weapons that you can find, and gather plenty of food items to keep your hunger bar filled up, as well as several different weapons and fairies to give you an advantage over the enemies that you find. After these, you then enter a horizontal shmup segment, where you fly around on a dragon and shoot down many different enemies, collecting weapons to help you out along the way, and face off against a bunch of big, fearsome, and unique bosses that will put your dodging and shooting skills to the test. Both of these gameplay styles put together end up actually being pretty fun, which is definitely helped out by the bouncy and colorful art style, the speed at which you can clear levels, and the items that you get.

Many elements that fell flat in the original Wonder Boy were made much better in this game, such as the bosses having plenty of variety in terms of design and attacks, the levels having some kind of variety between them (aside from the shmup segments, but whatever), and there is even proper co-op, where two players can play at the same time, rather than switching between players every time someone dies. The weapons, in particular, were pretty great to experience, as a lot of them do end up being very helpful and fun to use, such as one that shoots a barrage of fire at the enemy, a laser beam you can fire continuously, and missiles that explode upon impact with an enemy. That being said, not all of the weapons were too great, such as with the ninja star weapon, which just mainly serves as a shield that spins around you, but it doesn’t really help out too much when dealing with enemies. Also, the weapons are only limited use, which does kinda suck, but then again, those are more so annoyances that can be overlooked rather than a genuine problem with the game, as all of the other weapons were fun to experiment with and use.

Having said that, there were some issues that did hold the game back from being truly great. First and foremost, of course, we have a case of arcade syndrome on our hands, where the game mistakes “difficulty” for “throw a million things at the player and watch them die”, which is never fun to deal with. Thankfully, in this game, that isn’t too much of an issue, as enemy placements are much less random then in other games, but it does get to a point where it gets overwhelming in several areas. Secondly, the game is a little too long, having 14 stages that don’t really change up the gameplay in any significant way for the most part. Sure, the stages themselves aren’t that long, but they are just long and plentiful enough to where by the end, you feel like you have been playing for much longer then you would need to. Aside from those few issues though, I guess I could say the only real other issue that this game has is how different it is from other games in the same series, but then again, that doesn’t really bother me that much, since I haven’t played too many of these games.

Overall, despite being a little too long and having arcade syndrome breathing down my neck, this was a pleasant surprise for someone who didn’t like the original Wonder Boy at all, and I found it to be a pretty good game, one that is a great amount of fun to play for the time it lasts, especially when you have a friend to join you. I would recommend it for those who were fans of the original Wonder Boy, and even Adventure Island to an extent, as well as those who are a fan of arcade platformers/shmups in general, because this game manages to do quite a lot that could satisfy any big fanatic of those genres. But either way, it doesn’t matter, because the series would abandon this gameplay style entirely after this game, which does kinda suck, but oh well, at least Adventure Island picks it back up. Then again, Adventure Island would then go and die, while Wonder Boy lives on to this day… eh well, who cares.

Game #481

It's definitely the oddball of the Wonder Boy franchise, but interestingly enough, the overall game design is what the dev actually had in mind for the original Wonder Boy before it became the game we know today. It's a shooter/platformer hybrid, and one of very few. At the time of writing, Atomic Runner (which is definitely not very good) and Son Son (which I honestly don't remember enough of to really comment on) are the only other games I can think of off the top of my head that play similarly.

As some here have said, this looks more like something on the Sega Master System and that isn't necessarily a negative to me. It is after all an early Genesis game and the cute character designs the series is known for are still here- I especially enjoyed the bosses.

The main things that really dragged the experience a bit for me were the abrupt difficulty spikes and rather crappy power-up system. The desert stage is absolutely terrible and is probably one of the main reasons why I will never bother trying to 1CC this game on subsequent playthroughs.

Then there's the awkward springs a couple stages later on. There's this weird mechanic where, if you push up on the control pad, you can descend slowly. It's never explained anywhere in the game (of course), and it can help with the springs a bit, but it still felt inconsistent even after finishing the game twice.

On its own, it's a decent enough game that's somewhat carried by its aesthetic. Just don't go in expecting the same level of quality (or the same kind of gameplay) as the other Wonder Boy games.

Lanzado en 1988 para las recreativas con placa SYSTEM 16 y posteriormente porteado a Sega Mega Drive / Sega Genesis en 1990 / 1991, esta tercera entrega retoma en gran parte el estilo de juego del primer Wonder Boy.
La historia ocurre en el futuro, muchos años después de las aventuras de Bock Lee Temjin, cuando un día el cielo se llena de unos invasores voladores y dos jóvenes que estaban explorando una curiosa cueva (Leo y Priscilla) se hacen con una espada y báculo legendarios. Al hacerse con esas armas un dragón rosa volador se les acerca y les dice que, si se suben a su lomo, el les ayudará a luchar contra los invasores y recuperar la armadura legendaria que han robado (con la intención de que nadie les frustrase los planes de conquista del mundo).
Tal y como he comentado el juego retoma un gameplay parecido al del primer juego, donde tendremos que avanzar fases largas con plataformas y enemigos sin pararnos demasiado, ya que con el tiempo nuestra barra de vida irá bajando. Por suerte por el camino encontraremos bastante fruta como para mantener nuestra barra de salud. Lo curioso es que cada nivel tiene unas dos fases, una en la que vamos a pie y otra en la que volamos hacia adelante sin parar a lomos del dragón rosa. Además, la espada y el báculo en realidad sirven para lanzar proyectiles, no como armas de corta distancia. Así que al final tenemos un juego que se podría definir como un run & gun y shoot’em up horizontal con estética RPG, una mezcla entre los dos anteriores juegos. Por lo demás el juego tiene una curva de dificultad bastante lineal, pero en los últimos niveles algunas secciones me han parecido injustamente difíciles, al menos para un solo jugador. Por que otra de las novedades de este titulo es que se puede jugar con hasta 2 jugadores simultáneos.
Técnicamente el juego corre bien en la Mega Drive, me he encontrado apenas una o dos ralentizaciones de toda la lógica del juego hacia el final, con muchos enemigos. Las animaciones de los enemigos a 60fps están muy bien y los jefes también tienen patrones interesantes. Pero es cierto que la Mega Drive tiene bajones ya medianamente frecuentes desde el principio del juego si jugamos con 2 jugadores.
En el apartado sonoro, aunque no hay muchos temas, están bastante bien y el juego no dura tanto como para que te canses de ellos.