Wonder Boy is a 1986 platformer video game published by Sega and developed by Escape (now known as Westone Bit Entertainment). It was the first in the long-running Wonder Boy series of games and was followed up by five sequels, Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair, Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap, Wonder Boy in Monster World and Monster World IV. It was also the basis for the Adventure Island series.
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A fun and colorful action platformer, with a variety of levels, even if most of them are pretty simplistic in design.
There were two arcade games that I had the luck to play when I was 7-8 y.o. at the beach that nowadays provoked a huge sense of nostalgia. One is definitely this (commonly more known as "Adventure Island") the other was another platform that ends up with a princess rescued with the hero in a carpet while being cheered by the city's crowd. No idea if I'll ever find out what game was, but for this I'm 100% positive it was my first approach.
How it was? Well, I got impressed positively by the nice graphics (which still looks great, especially for being a 1986 game where most of the times you would have NES/8-bit games or something), a little less impressed by how slippery it felt to play (only managed to get to the cloud level) and how fast the skate was.
It still looks a solid platform to me nowadays.
How it was? Well, I got impressed positively by the nice graphics (which still looks great, especially for being a 1986 game where most of the times you would have NES/8-bit games or something), a little less impressed by how slippery it felt to play (only managed to get to the cloud level) and how fast the skate was.
It still looks a solid platform to me nowadays.
Artísticamente es un portento y tiene cierto humor que suele carecer en los primeros años de los videojuegos, lo cual se agradece. El problema viene cuando se vuelve un juego tan arcade que básicamente dura 20 minutos y el resto del tiempo es completar exactamente el mismo juego varias veces hasta ver la pantalla de créditos.
Retro Yearly List #12 [1986: Wonder Boy]
Man, that was... awful.
The first entry of Wonder Boy is pretty bad, seriously, I struggled to beat this even with save states, the game looks nice at first and the first levels are really fun, the graphics are great, the movement is a bit frustrating, but there are fun sections when you use your running and jumping properly, WHEN the game design allows you to.
After a few levels it gets old pretty fast, the next ones are just recreations using the same assets placed differently and creating new challenges, but using the same stuff, the same mechanics, it's like they have worked hard on the first levels and then used a randomizer to generate the sufficient amount to have freaking 32 levels... yeah that's right, game has 8 worlds each one containing 4 "sub-levels" with repetition until the end, that's the definition of unnecessary. Also the bosses are all the same only with increased difficulty, so that's reciclated as well.
The axe mechanic is a mistake, you will start with it but if you die, you have to beat some sections just avoiding enemies positioned chaotically, without having a chance to knock them out, until you find another axe, the skate power up is just ok, is another hit to take and you will most likely press back to walk slowly with it anyway, there is no room to rush here, although they may have intended to create that feeling, it simply doesn't work since there are enemies everywhere doing hell-pattern movements.
Game design is also atrocious to the point that you have cloud platforms placed in crucial sections, that when you hit them, they fall off and you die, forcing you to do everything again, I did not expect to play I Wanna be the Guy or Cat Mario, but that's it.
The ONLY music that plays on the entire game is nice until you hear it again for the 5th time, it just gets to the point where you don't even bother anymore and just want to finish it.
Let's see how they will improve it for the next entries.
Man, that was... awful.
The first entry of Wonder Boy is pretty bad, seriously, I struggled to beat this even with save states, the game looks nice at first and the first levels are really fun, the graphics are great, the movement is a bit frustrating, but there are fun sections when you use your running and jumping properly, WHEN the game design allows you to.
After a few levels it gets old pretty fast, the next ones are just recreations using the same assets placed differently and creating new challenges, but using the same stuff, the same mechanics, it's like they have worked hard on the first levels and then used a randomizer to generate the sufficient amount to have freaking 32 levels... yeah that's right, game has 8 worlds each one containing 4 "sub-levels" with repetition until the end, that's the definition of unnecessary. Also the bosses are all the same only with increased difficulty, so that's reciclated as well.
The axe mechanic is a mistake, you will start with it but if you die, you have to beat some sections just avoiding enemies positioned chaotically, without having a chance to knock them out, until you find another axe, the skate power up is just ok, is another hit to take and you will most likely press back to walk slowly with it anyway, there is no room to rush here, although they may have intended to create that feeling, it simply doesn't work since there are enemies everywhere doing hell-pattern movements.
Game design is also atrocious to the point that you have cloud platforms placed in crucial sections, that when you hit them, they fall off and you die, forcing you to do everything again, I did not expect to play I Wanna be the Guy or Cat Mario, but that's it.
The ONLY music that plays on the entire game is nice until you hear it again for the 5th time, it just gets to the point where you don't even bother anymore and just want to finish it.
Let's see how they will improve it for the next entries.
It is fine enough of a game but the bad music makes it worse than adventure island in my eyes. The level design is often cheap and lazy. Thankfully the series pivoted from this style
If Super Mario Bros didn't come out just a few months ago prior, showing everyone how you do 2D level design, I probably would've respected this game a little more. But, we don't live in that reality. Wonder Boy feels woefully outdated and basic in comparison. Controls feel slippery, the jump doesn't feel quite right, every level is a linear flat road with little to no complexity... unless you're feeling nostalgic for some Wonder Boy, there's just little reason to go back to this one.