Japanese Mega Drive Cover

Monster World IV

Monster World IV

Monster World IV is the only mainline entry in the series without the "Wonder Boy" moniker. This actually makes total sense, considering the protagonists is now a green-haired Arabian girl named Asha. The vaguely generic fantasy settings of the previous Monster World games have been replaced with a fanciful Arabian setting, making it feel a bit like Disney's Aladdin from around the same era, albeit with a cutesy, manga flair. The story really hasn't changed much though, with Asha being chosen to leave her village to rescue the missing spirits, and the save the world in the process. With this final entry in the series, the RPG elements have been scaled down considerably. There is only a single city, Rapadagna, which as usual, acts as the hub for the four sub-worlds, which take the form of different temples. However, there's no real overworld to explore, as you are immediately transported to each of these worlds through a central temple. In turn, these areas are almost entirely linear, although you can still grab gold to buy equipment in town, as well as health replenishments from vending machines found throughout. Even though Monster World IV barely qualifies as an action-RPG any more, as a trade-off, the platforming is easily the best it's even been. To aid you in your quest, Asha finds a cute flying blob called a Pepelogoo. She can grab onto it to float, use it double jump, or throw it at switches. It's also resistant to fire, so she can carry it on her head as a shield or toss it on flaming lava to use a platform. The dungeon designs are far more elaborate than the previous games, largely because they rely on using your Pepelogoo to traverse the terrain. Alas, the tasks presented can only vaguely be called "puzzles", as most are quite simplistic. And perhaps in order to make up for the lack of exploration, the dungeons are also long. Really long, usually with multiple boss battles. But the game doesn't think up enough interesting things to do to justify their length, so they begin to grow tiresome after awhile. Other than slightly hidden chests and the usual caches of money, the only optional items to find are crystal tears spread throughout each stage. Collect then of these and you'll gain an extra heart on your second life meter. This acts as a backup to the main life meter, which in turn is expanded by purchasing new armor. However, very few of these are actually hidden, so the number of secrets compared to previous games is drastically reduced. The combat has been simplified a bit too. Unlike the previous heroes, who kept their shield out at all times, Asha needs to press down to pull out her shield. Magic is also completely gone, forcing you into melee combat against everything. You can, however, jump and thrust downward, and even bounce on enemy heads, expanding your combat strategy slightly. Even though it's largely a step back for the series, it's hard not to like Monster World IV. Asha is one of the most adorable heroines to appear in a video game, largely thanks to her expressive and fluid animations. She runs like a lady, arms swaying to her side, and wiggles her butt when opening up treasure chests. When she jumps, you can see the wind against her baggy pants. The rest of the visuals are similarly gorgeous, taking advantage of the 16-bit hardware in ways that Monster World didn't even attempt. Even screen is bursting with vibrant color, side-stepping the grainy graphics usually seen in Genesis titles. This is also the Monster World game not composed by Shinichi Sakamoto, with the duties passed onto Jin Watanabe. The title screen theme acts as an overture, with many of the later songs offering variations on the same melody. All of the soundtrack is quite catchy, though due to the recurring motifs, they do tend to grow a bit repetitive. Despite the change in setting, the aesthetics are clearly in the line with the other Monster World games. Furthermore, the four spirits to be rescued are the same as the familiars from Wonder Boy in Monster World, and there's a reference to the fate of Shion from the previous game. Despite its gorgeous graphics and solid gameplay, Sega elected not to localize Monster World IV when it was initially released. Although it was fan translated in DemiForce and DeJap in 2002, the game was officially localized nearly twenty years later in 2012, released in digital distribution platforms for the Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The official translation is more faithful than the fan translation, and also uses a nicer font. MP3s Town

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Additional Screenshots

Spiritual Successor - Shantae - Game Boy Color, Shantae: Risky's Revenge - Nintendo DSi / iOS

Although the genie at the end of Monster World IV tells the player that it is the end of the Monster World series (for now), the series has found a spiritual successor in Shantae. Developed by WayForward, and particularly the work of artist Mark Bozon, it takes place in a Arabic-styled world, with the heroine being the eponymous spry half-genie. The setting is obviously very similar to Monster World IV, but additionally, Shantae can also perform various dancers to change into different forms, including a monkey (to scale walls and get into tight spots), a mermaid (to swim) and an elephant (to break bricks), all similar to the transformations in Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap. It even inherits its vaguely Metroidvania-like open world. Shantae was originally released for the Game Boy Color by Capcom, but flopped due to having been published after the release of the more powerful Game Boy Advance. After many false starts, a sequel was finally released in 2010 for the Nintendo DSi, and later for the iOS, featuring some of the beautiful 2D pixel graphics ever seen.

Shantae (GBC)

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Wonder Boy and Mônica

Us Westerners tend to complain when minor details are censored from our games, but Brazil has had it even worse. The Sega Master System maintained popularity there long after it died in America and even Europe. Many SMS games were tied in with children's programs to make them more appealing to the masses - some of these games include Teddy Boy, Ghost House, and Kung Fu Kid. Brazilian software publisher TecToy took three of the Wonder Boy games - Monster Land, Dragon's Trap and Monster World - and added in characters of a massively popular (in Brazil) comic/cartoon series called Turma da Mônica. Each game remained exactly the same, except for Mônica characters playing the role of the hero. Mônica seems to use a blue rabbit as a sword, which is somewhat amusing. In Dragon's Trap, instead of taking on different animal forms, you were saving your friends, who would then lend you different powers. The dragon form was changed into a guy with a shotgun (which could, cryptically, shoot fire.) The mouse form was changed into a dog. The bird form was changed into a superhero-esque character who could fly. All of these look like amateur ROM hacks but they were commercially released, and entirely legal. The cartoon is still quite popular - you can visit their official website for more info. Another article on the series is here.

Turma da Mônica em O Resgate (Wonder Boy III: Dragon's Trap)

Screenshots

(Wonder Boy in Monster Land)	(Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap)	(Wonder Boy in Monster World)

Compilations - Sega Ages 2500: Monster World Complete Collection - Playstation 2 (2007)

Volume 29 of the Sega Ages 2500 budget collection, Monster World Complete Collection includes emulated versions of the following games: Wonder Boy (Arcade, Master System, Game Gear, SG-1000) Wonder Boy in Monster Land (Arcade, Master System) Wonder Boy III: Dragon's Lair (Arcade, Genesis) Monster Land II / Wonder Boy III; Dragon's Trap (Master System, Game Gear) Wonder Boy V: Monster World III / Wonder Boy in Monster World (Genesis, Master System) Monster World IV (Mega Drive) Much like the Space Harrier and Treasure collections, also developed by M2, the emulators include a ton of options, including the ability to use different filters, and change the resolution to 480i, 480p, or 240p. The sound is almost perfect and any differences will only be noticeable to those who played on the original systems. It also includes the ability to enable the FM soundtrack to The Dragon's Trap, which is officially the first time that particular soundtrack could be heard. (The American and European Master System consoles did not support FM soundtracks without user-made hardware hacks, although it was previously listenable on other emulators.) And there's also a stunning amount of supplemental material, including box and manual scans for both the Japanese and English versions. As usual, the only major notable omissions are the Turbografx/PC Engine versions, which is understandable, given that this is a Sega collection and all. Most versions can be played in English of Japanese where available, although the English SMS version of Wonder Boy in Monster Land is missing.

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Compilations - Sega Vintage Collection: Monster World - Playstation 3 / Xbox 360 / Wii (2012)

In 2012, Sega released three Monster World titles as part of its Sega Vintage Collection. These are: Wonder Boy in Monster Land (Arcade) Wonder Boy in Monster World (Genesis) Monster World IV (Mega Drive) They were released separately on the PlayStation 3 and Wii, and bundled together on the Xbox Live Arcade. As with the Sega Ages collections, the emulation is done by M2, and offers an outstanding amount of display options. The bonus material is not nearly as complete, and while you can choose between regions, you cannot play other versions - for example, only the arcade version of Monster Land is available, not the Master System version, even though the menu graphics are taken from that port's American cover artwork. There are also extra challenges in order to earn achievements and trophies in the PS3 and XBLA versions. Additionally, there are also three new menu songs. By far the most important aspect of this collection is the fact that the arcade Monster Land and Monster World IV are officially available in English for the first time ever. Monster Land came from an English ROM set produced back in 1987 but never released, while Monster World IV's translation is brand new. It's extraordinarily rare that such retro releases are translated given the complications with ROM hacking, but its existence is astounding. The only major, baffling downfall is that it's totally missing Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap, arguably the best in the series.

Soundtrack: Monster World Album (2007)

In 2007, Wavemaster published a 2 CD compilation filled with music from the Monster World series. This includes the full soundtrack to the arcade version of Monster Land, both the PSG and FM versions of Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap, and the Mega Drive versions of Monster World III and Monster World IV. It is missing both soundtracks from the SMS versions of Wonder Boy in Monster Land, and does not include the two non-Monster World titles (Wonder Boy and Dragon's Lair). There are a handful of unused tracks included, including a high score theme from Monster Land, but none are particularly interesting. There's also a new arranged version of Monster World II featuring an acoustic guitar. More info at the VGMDB.

Soundtrack Cover

Sonic the Comic: Wonder Boy

Wonder Boy was featured in the British Fleetway Sonic the Comic series, which included several other Sega properties. There are two different stories, each taking place across several issues - "Wonder Boy in Demon World" and "Wonder Boy in Ghost World". They were written by Mark Eyles and drawn by M DJ Boyann (for Demon World) and Bojan Djukac (for Ghost World). The story and characters are based off of Wonder Boy in Monster World, however loosely. They are meant to be sequels to the Genesis game, and have Shion taking off on new adventures. The Western-style artwork doesn't really do justice to the games, being far gritter than the bright and colorful Japanese style, and the blue-haired protagonist looks rather out of place. You can find several scans at Sonic the Comic Reruns.

Wonder Boy in Demon World

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Page 1: Introduction Wonder Boy

Page 2: Wonder Boy in Monster Land Wonder Boy III: Dragon's Lair

Page 3: Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap Wonder Boy in Monster World

Page 4: Monster World IV Wonder Boy and Monica Soundtracks/Compilations/ Comics

Page 5: Interview with Ryuichi Nishizawa

Game Club 199X Podcast Wonder Boy in Monster Land Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap

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