Games - Wonder Boy

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	Games - Wonder Boy

Wonder Boy (known as Super Wonder Boy in Japan , Monster's Curse on the TurboGrafx 16 and Revenge of Drancon on the North American Game Gear release) is a 1986 video game published by Sega and developed by Escape (today Westone). It was the first in a long running series of games and was followed up by five sequels, Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap, Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair, Wonder Boy in Monster World and Monster World IV.

Originally designed for the arcade, it was later ported to the Sega Master System, Sega Game Gear and TurboGrafx 16 by Sega, and to the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC by Activision. The Japanese prefix of "super" is owed to the existence of a previous, simpler version of the game also named Wonder Boy which Sega produced for the SG-1000 console in Japan only.

Gameplay

The "Wonder Boy" in question is a character known as "Tom-Tom" - a caveman-like character whose girlfriend, by the name of Tanya, has been captured by a monster. The player must guide Tom-Tom through nine "areas", each consisting of four "rounds", which are made up of forests, hills, oceans, caves and ice palaces. The levels always run from left-to-right, with some vertical movement.

Tom-Tom can arm himself with a stone hammer, which he can throw at oncoming foes, a skateboard with which he can rush through the levels and survive one attack by an enemy, and temporary protection by a fairy 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 Tom-Tom to lose vitality more quickly than usual, and poisonous mushrooms which reduce Tom-Tom'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 fruit 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.

At the end of every "area" (thus every four levels), Tom-Tom will encounter an incarnation of chief antagonist Drancon as a boss character. Once defeated, Drancon's mask flies off and transforms into an item such as a tea cup or a piece of fruit for Tom-Tom to collect. Drancon then subsequently makes his escape.

A two-player mode was available, but as per many arcade titles of the era, it was a version of the one-player mode whereby each player would take alternate turns between lives.

Conversions

Master System and Game Gear ports

The Sega Master System and Game Gear ports of Wonder Boy were a direct port of the original arcade title, with some minor reductions to accommodate the more limited hardware, and original designs for the final levels in each area. The Game Gear port was entitled Revenge of Drancon in North America to avoid any confusion with Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap, which was released around the same time - the European Game Gear port kept the Wonder Boy title.

The graphics were lifted straight from the arcade version, but the HUD 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 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 jump was pressed.

It also featured an easter egg in the form of a tenth area, which could be accessed by collecting every one of the 36 dolls in the game.

Non-console ports

The license to produce the home computer versions of Wonder Boy was awarded to Activision, who produced versions of the game for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC in 1987. The game was true in spirit to the original, although the levels beyond level 4 differed to allow for the necessary multiload 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 -- this was not the case in the console and arcade versions, in which the areas provided more variation (although always with these same four themes). Interestingly, the Amstrad CPC version contained the graphics used in the C64 conversion, but the sound from the Spectrum conversion.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Wonder Boy ]

Games - Wonder Boy

Gameplay

Conversions

Master System and Game Gear ports

Non-console ports

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