Wonder Boy (video game)
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1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 **Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal enter ...
platform game A platform game (often simplified as platformer and sometimes called a jump 'n' run game) is a sub-genre of action video games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are charac ...
published by Sega and developed by Escape (now known as
Westone Bit Entertainment was a video game developer founded in May 1986, based in Mukoujima, Sumida-ku, Tokyo. They were most famous for the '' Wonder Boy/Monster World'' series. Originally called , the company was renamed to Westone as the word Escape made them sound un ...
). Originally designed for arcades, it was later ported to the
SG-1000 The is a home video game console manufactured by Sega. It was Sega's first entry into the home video game hardware business. Developed in response to a downturn in arcades starting in 1982, the SG-1000 was created on the advice of Hayao Nak ...
, Mark III/Master System and
Game Gear The is an 8-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation handheld game console released by Sega on October 6, 1990, in Japan, in April 1991 throughout North America and Europe, and during 1992 in Australia. The Game Gear pri ...
video game console A video game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home consoles, which are generally placed in a permanent location connected to ...
s by Sega, and to the
ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as the ''ZX81 Colou ...
, Commodore 64 and
Amstrad CPC The Amstrad CPC (short for ''Colour Personal Computer'') is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Si ...
home computers by
Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one ...
. The game is also known as for its
Sega Mark III The is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console manufactured by Sega. It was originally a remodeled export version of the Sega Mark III, the third iteration of the SG-1000 series of consoles, which was released in Japan in 1985 and ...
release in Japan and ''Revenge of Drancon'' for its
Game Gear The is an 8-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation handheld game console released by Sega on October 6, 1990, in Japan, in April 1991 throughout North America and Europe, and during 1992 in Australia. The Game Gear pri ...
release in North America. A high definition remake of the game, titled ''Wonder Boy Returns'', was developed by CFK and released on Steam on October 12, 2016. ''Wonder Boy'' was rereleased in 2022 as part of ''Wonder Boy Collection'' for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 which includes its versions on arcade, Master System, SG-1000 and Game Gear. It was the first in the long-running ''
Wonder Boy The series, also known as the series, is a franchise of video games published by Sega and developed by Westone Bit Entertainment (formerly Escape). Beginning with the original '' Wonder Boy'' arcade game released in April 21, 1986, the game has ...
'' series of games and was followed up by five sequels, ''
Wonder Boy in Monster Land ''Wonder Boy in Monster Land'', known by its original arcade release as , is an platform video game developed by Westone Bit Entertainment and released by Sega in Japanese arcades in 1987 and for the Master System in 1988, with a number of oth ...
'', '' Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair'', '' Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap'', ''
Wonder Boy in Monster World ''Wonder Boy in Monster World'', known in Japan as ''Wonder Boy V: Monster World III'', is a side-scrolling action role-playing game originally developed by Westone and published by Sega for the Mega Drive/Genesis in 1991. It is the fifth game i ...
'' and ''
Monster World IV ''Monster World IV'' is an action-adventure platform game developed by Westone and released in Japan by Sega for the Mega Drive in April 1994. The game title is slightly confusing: It is the sixth game in the ''Wonder Boy'' series and the fourth ...
''. The game was also adapted by Hudson Soft as '' Adventure Island'', which spawned its own series of games.


Gameplay

The titular Wonder Boy is a tribal caveman-like boy whose girlfriend Tina has been captured by the dark King (known as Drancon in the Game Gear version). The player must guide the Wonder Boy through seven "areas", each consisting of four "rounds". The boy can arm himself with a stone
hatchet A hatchet (from the Old French , a diminutive form of ''hache'', ' axe' of Germanic origin) is a single-handed striking tool with a sharp blade on one side used to cut and split wood, and a hammerhead on the other side. Hatchets may also be us ...
, which he can throw at oncoming foes, a
skateboard A skateboard is a type of sports equipment used for skateboarding. They are usually made of a specially designed 7-8 ply maple plywood deck and polyurethane wheels attached to the underside by a pair of skateboarding trucks. The skateboarder ...
with which he can rush through the levels and temporary protection by an
angel In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles inclu ...
which allows him to destroy foes by simply running into them. All of the aforementioned power-ups are obtained by breaking open eggs. These eggs can also contain unpleasant surprises – curses which cause him to lose vitality more quickly than usual, and poisonous mushrooms which reduce the boy's vitality in one go. The player must remain aware of the vitality meter, which constantly runs down at a steady pace and can only be refilled by collecting food throughout the level. There is also one doll to collect in each level, which doubles the bonus points awarded at the end of the level. If all 28 dolls are collected, then a bonus eighth area will be unlocked. At the end of every "area", the boy will encounter an incarnation of the chief antagonist as a
boss character In video games, a boss is a significant computer-controlled opponent. A fight with a boss character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight. Bosses are generally far stronger than other opponents the player (game), player has fa ...
. Once defeated, the mighty lord's mask flies off and transforms into an item such as a tea cup or a piece of fruit, before subsequently making his escape. A two-player alternating mode is available where each player takes turn whenever the other one loses a life.


Plot

In the far past, a caveman named Tom-Tom is attacked by the demon lord named Dracon. He manages to escape, but Dracon kidnaps his girlfriend, Tanya. Tom-Tom explores the island and avoids the Grim Reaper, who has set out under the command of Dracon to lead him to his doom. Along the way, he must also fight Dracon’s six advisors who wish to destroy him. After questing for ages, Tom-Tom confronts Dracon and saves Tanya. After returning home, Tom-Tom is heralded as a “Wonder Boy”.


Arcade hardware

The game ran on Sega's proprietary
System 1 The Macintosh "System 1" is the first version of Apple Macintosh operating system and the beginning of the classic Mac OS series. It was developed for the Motorola 68000 microprocessor. System 1 was released on January 24, 1984, along with th ...
hardware, based on a
Z80 The Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor introduced by Zilog as the startup company's first product. The Z80 was conceived by Federico Faggin in late 1974 and developed by him and his 11 employees starting in early 1975. The first working samples were ...
processor running at 4 MHz. Audio was provided by two 2 MHz SN76496 chips with a 4 MHz Z80
co-processor A coprocessor is a computer processor used to supplement the functions of the primary processor (the CPU). Operations performed by the coprocessor may be floating-point arithmetic, graphics, signal processing, string processing, cryptography ...
. The graphics were provided by a raster video unit at a
resolution Resolution(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Resolution (debate), the statement which is debated in policy debate * Resolution (law), a written motion adopted by a deliberative body * New Year's resolution, a commitment that an individual mak ...
of 256 x 224. The game required a cabinet that provided a two-axis joystick and three input buttons – one to act as a start button, two as gameplay buttons.


Ports


SG-1000

The first home version of ''Wonder Boy'' was released exclusively in Japan for the
SG-1000 The is a home video game console manufactured by Sega. It was Sega's first entry into the home video game hardware business. Developed in response to a downturn in arcades starting in 1982, the SG-1000 was created on the advice of Hayao Nak ...
(Sega's first video game console) during the same year the arcade version was released. The game was released in a "My Card" format, which required the "Card Catcher" peripheral. Because of the severe hardware differences, the game was remade completely for the SG-1000 with an all new set of stages. Certain enemies, stages, and items were also omitted, such as the skateboard.


Master System and Game Gear

The version of ''Wonder Boy'' for the Master System and
Game Gear The is an 8-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation handheld game console released by Sega on October 6, 1990, in Japan, in April 1991 throughout North America and Europe, and during 1992 in Australia. The Game Gear pri ...
was a direct port of the arcade title, with some minor reductions to accommodate the more limited hardware. In Japan, the Sega Mark III version was entitled ''Super Wonder Boy'' to differentiate it from the previous port, although the overseas releases dropped the word "Super" from the title. The Game Gear port in the United States was entitled ''Revenge of Drancon''. The graphics were lifted straight from the arcade version, but the
HUD Hud or HUD may refer to: Entertainment * ''Hud'' (1963 film), a 1963 film starring Paul Newman * ''Hud'' (1986 film), a 1986 Norwegian film * ''HUD'' (TV program), or ''Heads Up Daily'', a Canadian e-sports television program Places * Hud, Fa ...
was restricted to a simple vitality bar – the score and number of lives were displayed prior to starting the level. The sound was modified slightly to adapt it to the more limited audio hardware. The graphics were brighter. The controls were modified slightly to make it possible to only perform a high jump when the run button was pressed, whereas it was possible in the arcade version to perform one simply by being in motion when the jump button was pressed. However, the most important aspect that differentiated it from its arcade counterpart was the addition of "areas". ''Wonder Boy'' for the Master System and Game Gear had nine areas; this included all seven areas from the arcade original plus two new areas created specifically for this version. The new areas featured unique level designs different than the rest of the game. These two areas were dubbed as the fourth area and eighth area in the game. This resulted in a modification on the
numbering There are many different numbering schemes for assigning nominal numbers to entities. These generally require an agreed set of rules, or a central coordinator. The schemes can be considered to be examples of a primary key of a database management ...
for the areas lifted from the arcade original (for example, what was the fourth area on the arcade version became the fifth area on the SMS/GG version). As with the arcade version, collecting all dolls in the game would reveal an extra "area" which, in this case, would be the tenth area.


Home computers

The license to produce the home computer versions of ''Wonder Boy'' was awarded to
Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one ...
, who produced versions of the game for the
ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as the ''ZX81 Colou ...
, Commodore 64 and
Amstrad CPC The Amstrad CPC (short for ''Colour Personal Computer'') is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Si ...
in 1987. The game was true in spirit to the original, although the levels beyond level 4 differed to allow for the necessary
multi-load This list includes terms used in video games and the video game industry, as well as slang used by players. 0–9 A ...
system. The first round of each area was always a forest, the second an ocean, the third a cave and the fourth a forest at nighttime (the C64 had round 1 at night time and round 4 during the day). This was not the case in the console and arcade versions, in which the areas provided more variation (although based on these same four themes). The Amstrad CPC version contained the graphics used in the C64 conversion, but the sound from the Spectrum conversion. Some Spectrum versions were afflicted with a bug that prevented the game from preloading all four levels in 128K mode – the fourth level's graphics would not load correctly, and it would be impossible for the player to move before the game crashed and the computer
rebooted ''Rebooted'' is the third season of the computer-animated television series '' Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu'' (titled ''Ninjago'' from the eleventh season onward). The series was created by Michael Hegner and Tommy Andreasen. The season aired f ...
within around three seconds. As a result, 128K owners were forced to boot into 48K mode to run the game, and did not enjoy the benefit of having all levels preloaded as was designed. Under 48K mode, however, the 128K music still worked.


Mobile

In 2004, Sega released a pixel-perfect conversion of the game designed for mobile phones.


Wii Virtual Console

On March 31, 2008, ''Wonder Boy'' was made available for play on the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console in North America. Japan and Europe got the game a week later. The game is available for 500 Wii points, and is an emulation of the Sega Master System version.


Remake

A high-definition remake of the game, titled ''Wonder Boy Returns'', was developed by CFK and released on Steam on October 12, 2016, later releasing on PlayStation 4 on March 30, 2017. A limited run physical edition of the PS4 version was released by Strictly Limited Games on January 27, 2019. An enhanced version, ''Wonder Boy Returns Remix'', was released on Nintendo Switch on May 23, 2019.


Modified ports

Escape had a licensing arrangement whereby it owned the rights to the game design, but Sega retained the Wonder Boy trademark. Because of this, Escape teamed up with Hudson Soft to produce a conversion of the game for the
NES The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in American ...
, under a new license. To get around the licensing issue, Hudson Soft had the title changed which resulted into '' Adventure Island''. Although Hudson could have featured the generic boy from ''Wonder Boy'' as the main character of ''Adventure Island'', it inserted instead a caricature of Takahashi Meijin (known as Master Higgins in English games). Since ''Adventure Island'' is based on the arcade version of ''Wonder Boy'', it does not contain any of the original levels found in the Master System or Game Gear ports. The bonus stage that was reserved for collecting all the dolls in ''Wonder Boy'' is integrated in this game as a regular area. In this arrangement, once again, Hudson Soft retained the rights to the character and name, allowing the company to continue to produce future games using the ''Adventure Island'' name and characters. These sequels are not based on the ''Wonder Boy'' sequels. Hudson released ''Champion Takahashi's Adventure Island'' for the MSX. This version featured Master Higgins as the main character but retained the music of ''Wonder Boy'', unlike the NES ''Adventure Island'' which had a completely different soundtrack. Escape repeated the same kind of task by converting Sega's 1991 beat 'em up arcade '' Riot City'', into Hudson Soft's 1992
TurboGrafx-CD The TurboGrafx-16, known as the outside North America, is a home video game console designed by Hudson Soft and sold by NEC Home Electronics. It was the first console marketed in the fourth generation, commonly known as the 16-bit era, thou ...
title ''
Riot Zone ''Riot Zone'', known in Japan as , is a 1992, beat 'em up video game by Hudson Soft for the TurboGrafx-CD console. It was re-released on the Virtual Console for North America on January 14, 2008, in the PAL regions on January 18, 2008, and in Japa ...
''. Through its 2012 absorption of Hudson Soft,
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currently owns the rights to the ''Adventure Island'' series.


Reception


Arcade

''Wonder Boy'' was a commercial success in arcades. In Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed ''Wonder Boy'' on their May 15, 1986 issue as being the fifth most-successful table arcade unit at the time. It became Japan's tenth highest-grossing table arcade game during the latter half of 1986. It appeared at number-two on Euromax's nationwide UK arcade chart in 1987, just below Capcom's ''
1942 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 – WWII: The Declaration by United Nations is signed by China, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union, and 22 other nations, in w ...
'' at number-one. The arcade game was critically acclaimed upon release. In '' Computer and Video Games'', the game was lauded by reviewer Clare Edgeley for the detailed, bright, colorful graphics and simple addictive gameplay, whilst some criticism was leveled towards the lack of variety. She also stated it reminds her of ''
Super Mario Bros. is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The successor to the 1983 arcade game '' Mario Bros.'' and the first game in the ''Super Mario'' series, it was first released in 1985 for ...
'' though "not as complicated but just as playable." Writers now note that both games share a common ancestor in ''
Pac-Land is a 1984 side-scrolling arcade platform game developed and released by Namco. It was distributed in North America by Bally Midway, and in Europe by Atari Games. Controlling Pac-Man (character), Pac-Man, the player must make it to the end of eac ...
''.
IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
.


Ports

The Sega Master System port received positive reviews from ''Computer Entertainer'' and '' Computer and Video Games''. ''
Amstrad Action ''Amstrad Action'' was a monthly magazine, published in the United Kingdom, which catered to owners of home computers from the Amstrad CPC range and later the GX4000 console. It was the first magazine published by Chris Anderson's Future Publishin ...
'' awarded the Amstrad CPC version of the game ''68%'' on its original release in 1987, and ''62%'' on its re-release three years later. ''Computing With the Amstrad'' awarded the game ''88%'' on its original release. Reviewing the ZX Spectrum version, ''
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'' remained unconvinced, citing technical shortcomings, including poor character-based
scrolling In computer displays, filmmaking, television production, and other kinetic displays, scrolling is sliding text, images or video across a monitor or display, vertically or horizontally. "Scrolling," as such, does not change the layout of the text ...
, considerable slowdown, and confusion induced by the
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display. On its re-release, while quoting the aforementioned problems, the reviewer was willing to overlook them, highlighting the quality of the sprites and the fun offered by the game, and offering it 69%. ''
Sinclair User ''Sinclair User'' was a magazine dedicated to the Sinclair Research range of home computers, most specifically the ZX Spectrum (while also occasionally covering arcade games). Initially published by ECC Publications, and later EMAP, it was pub ...
'' was the most enthusiastic about the game, offering it ''8 out of 10'' on its original release, and ''72%'' on its re-release. ''
Your Sinclair ''Your Sinclair'', or ''YS'' as it was commonly abbreviated, was a commercially published and printed British computer magazine for the Sinclair range of computers, mainly the ZX Spectrum. It was in circulation between 1984 and 1993. History T ...
'' offered ''7 out of 10'' on its original release and ''67%'' on its re-release.Your Sinclair Magazine, issue 54, p. 51 The C64 version shares the same graphics as the Amstrad CPC version; unlike the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad versions, however, the game featured smooth horizontal scrolling. Zzap rated the game 52% criticising the poor sound and labelling the actual arcade game as 'ordinary'. IGN awarded the mobile version ''7.1 out of 10'', praising its accuracy to the arcade original.


Notes and References


Notes


References


External links


Official Sega minisite





Official Nintendo minisite
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wonder Boy (Video Game) 1986 video games Sega video games Sega System 1 games Arcade video games Master System games SG-1000 games Game Gear games Amstrad CPC games Commodore 64 games ZX Spectrum games Mobile games Wonder Boy (video game series) Sega arcade games Virtual Console games PlayStation 4 games PlayStation Network games Platform games Activision games Single-player video games Video games developed in Japan Westone Bit Entertainment games de:Wonder Boy fi:Wonder Boy