Wonder Boy is really where it all started. Developed by Sega and Westone for the arcade, the game was a fast-paced platformer starring some boy, presumably wonderful, trying to save his girlfriend from some monster, and doing so shirtless in a kilt made of leaves. Now that takes some brass balls.

Wonder Boy plays as a platformer designed to eat your quarters should: it is very challenging. A lot of that challenge comes from the slipperiness of the character, a one-hit-kills-you design philosophy, and especially a strict time limit. Oh, no, there is no countdown ticking away in the corner of the screen. Instead, you have a "hunger meter" which slowly drains away unless you can keep feeding Wonder Boy fruit.

The title did well for Sega, and Wonder Boy became one of their mascots, enjoying about the same level of popularity as Alex Kidd (who?). But interestingly, Sega only owned the rights to the character and the lore of the game. The level design, the gameplay, the code, all of that belonged to Westone, who decided to team up with Hudson Soft to create an NES version of the game. The character still wears only a bunch of leaves, still uses the same weapons, still has to satiate his hunger with fruit, except that this time, the hero is not the blonde and lean Wonder Boy, but instead a chubby guy with brown hair and a cap, named Master Higgins after Hudson Soft's spokesperson in Japan. He looks nothing like him.

The games are almost identical, except that most people would agree that Adventure Island looks much worse.

So, you can chose whichever version you like (both are 500 pts on the Virtual Console) and start playing and discussing (and possibly cursing!).

Thank god for infinite continues...

edit - As Roykoopa suggested, why not add either Wonder Boy or Adventure Island to your collection, and indicate you are currently playing it?


List of Awesome:
ludist210 (finished Wonder Boy)
anon_mastermind (finished Wonder Boy)
nate38 (finished Wonder Boy)
RoyKoopa64 (finished Wonder Boy)
X‑pert74 (finished Wonder Boy)
Zero (finished Wonder Boy)
TriforceBun (finished Adventure Island)

Guillaume (finished both Wonder Boy and Adventure Island)

URL to share (right click and copy)

I'm here to just say I approve of this thread - not that anyone needed my approval. Have fun guys. Maybe I'll be able to join the next Retro Game thread....

I will vote for: China Warrior!!!!!



just kidding..

S

@Mr_Mustache Everyone who does such a thing should be called on it. It's silly to judge a game without playing it for yourself.

Up to 6-1 in Adventure Island, now. I am strangely addicted... I am this game's bitch.

@Smerd

7-1... enough for tonight.

You know, TriforceBun, I'd love nothing more than to follow your "don't die" advice, but I don't think it's gonna happen...

8-1. I'm not looking forward to the grind of these next 4 stages. Ugh.

So I just ran from 4-1 through 9-4 in one sitting. Took like an hour and a half or so. I didn't really care for the game all that much at first, but it's a pretty quality platformer. Comparisons to BIT.TRIP RUNNER are valid, many of the stages can be sprinted through at a brisk pace and responding (or not responding) to whatever's ahead of you is key.

My main complaint is that stuff blends into the background WAY too much, because the backgrounds themselves are too color-saturated. But if you slow down, it's not so bad. Oh, and that boss dude is the stuff of nightmares. I don't know what the hell it is supposed to be, but it will haunt my memories for the rest of my life.

But yeah, good game. If my parents had bought me games like this and Sonic, I'd have actually played my Master System as a kid.

@nate38

But certainly you didn't get to miss out on the genius that was Alf?

*shudders*



*shudders*

@X-pert74

I'll play it in NYC on the Negative World trip when someone brings their Wii with it.

I'm not going to pay 5 bucks for a sub-par copy to a game I already own.

It's a fun game; it's not sub-par!

@X-pert74

It sounds watered down..but replaced "water" with "horrible music and easier gameplay."

What's up with the Wonder Boy hate? I enjoyed playing through the whole game, and so have several others in this thread.

After finishing Wonder Boy, i finally started playing Adventure Island for the first time ever. Yeah, it's quite challenging!

I must say I'm really glad I played Wonder Boy first, the similarities between the two games is very noticeable. It's interesting to see how these games handle on different game systems.

Although AI doesn't have the big bold and bright graphics of Wonder Boy, everything is much easier to see. But yeah, Guillaume, the flickering in this game is absurd. But one thing AI does is have is tighter control. Master Higgins doesn't feel like he's sliding all over the place like Tom-Tom.

There was some very tricking platform jumping in 3-1 but finally made it.

The eggplant things are tough because you can't avoid them when they pop out of the egg. But if you memorize which egg has the eggplant, then it's all good (so far).

What's the deal with the killer rock near the end of 4-1? These three rocks are grouped closely together, I jump over and land on the third one and die! Usually rocks just deplete a bit of your vitality...

Anyway, I managed to simply leap over all three rocks and carefully take out some frogs before finishing the level.

Now I'm on 4-2.

@roykoopa64

Yeah, got no idea why some rocks kill you. This game makes no sense...

I'm at 7-2, I don't know if I've got the patience to play this game much longer.

Made it to 9-1 in Wonder Boy tonight. Closing in on the grand finale!

7-4 in AI... I hate this game. Who am I trying to impress here? Ugh.

@Guillaume

Me. I've made it to world 5 then f'd up my continue (hit start instead of right + start). I flailed around like a 4 year old for about five minutes. I'm sure it would have been amusing to watch.

@Abdooooo No. Freakin. Way. That really sucks man. I'm afraid of screwing up that infinite continue option myself, but so far I've been lucky.

Anyway, Adventure Island... I'm on 6-1!

@Abdooooo

I don't know if you want to know this, but there are two occasions when you can press left + start and keep going: on the game over screen, of course, but if you mess that up and just press start, you can press left+start on the title screen after that.

Anyway, I'm sorry I gifted you the "wrong" game, Abdooooo! It's the one you seemed to want!

@roykoopa64

The Wonder Boy hate is pretty much restricted to me, someone who hasn't played it or seen it in person with my own eyes. The music sounds horrible, and descriptions of the game have it painted as a watered down version of Adventure Island. Adventure Island is hard as heck. neo-Pandy's struggles with Adventure Island after "breezing" through Wonder Boy says to me "hey man, Wonder Boy is cake. It has nothing on Adventure Island in terms of difficulty. Until people start destroying Adventure Island, don't get excited."

@Guillaume

Good luck!! And you're trying to impress me. I'll be very impressed.

@Abdooooo

Haha, that sounds awesome!

@Mr_Mustache

Adventure Island is harder for all the wrong reasons, though!

And Wonder Boy is hardly a breeze to get through. It's "just right". It's just that when you start over, it's much easier because, you know, you got better at the game.

Adventure Island? I don't think it's possible to "get better" at it. The game is a series of dick moves that you can't predict.

@Guillaume

But the stage is the same each time through. Its not random. Its no different (in a sense) than running a time trial on a racing game. Or F-Zero.. I know you guys like F-Zero so I'll pander to that. Anyway, you said you went like 4-5 worlds without continuing. That reeks of "too easy."