Talk:Wonder Boy in Monster Land

Re: Conversions

Umm... I own the European version of the Sega Master System version of Wonder Boy in Monster Land (At least, I think it was the European version, the version available in Australia?), and the music in that version is most definitely not the same all the way through. There are around 6-7 different themes that exist throughout the game. Or am I misunderstanding the context here? -- Kirby1024 07:32, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

No, you're right - although there were less tunes in the Master System version, it wasn't the same tune all the way through. My bad. Jamyskis Whisper, Contribs 13:08, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

One further error in your description, you have the ability to continue on the first 10 levels, only on the final level (dragon dungeon) the continue option is not available.

Systems

This game was also released on the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive. I know because i own the game and it's the only system i have played it on —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.168.204.97 (talk) 15:26, 28 November 2008 (UTC)

Not exactly. You played this sequel: http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Wonder_Boy_in_Monster_World

Wrong Link

The westone company link leads to an irrelevant american company with the same name. Correct link is http://www.westone.co.jp/ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.240.28.143 (talk) 10:48, 5 October 2009 (UTC)

Westone is not Hudson Soft

Don't link it as such! Renfield (talk) 20:05, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Wonder Boy in Monster Land/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

I'll be reviewing the article over the next few days. Below you will find the standard GAN criteria, along with a list of issues I have found. As criteria pass, a or will be replaced with a . Below the criteria you'll see a list of issues I've found. Feel free to work on them at any time. I will notify you when I'm done checking over the article. At that time I'll allow the standard one week for fixes to be made.

Criteria

GA review (see here for criteria)

1. It is reasonably well written.

   a (prose): b (MoS):

2. It is factually accurate and verifiable.

   a (references): b (citations to reliable sources): c (OR):

3. It is broad in its coverage.

   a (major aspects): b (focused):

4. It follows the neutral point of view policy.

   Fair representation without bias:

5. It is stable.

   No edit wars, etc.:

6. It is illustrated by images, where possible and appropriate.

   a (images are tagged and non-free images have fair use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):

7. Overall:

   Pass/Fail:

Issues found

No disambigs or dead links, so the easy stuff is covered

• Refs #46, 50 and 50 - delink IGN
• With the image File:Wonder Boy in Monster Land arcade flyer.png, is "Upload arcade flyer, meant to replace the Sega Master System cover, File:WonderBoyCover.jpg" necessary now?
• The gameplay image needs a better caption per WP:CAPTION. Right now it's very basic.

Marked out completed issues, everything looks great. I'm still working over the prose as there's a lot to read, but thus far it all looks good too. --Teancum (talk) 16:08, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Prose
LEAD

• "While the arcade version amassed moderate sales, the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and Atari ST versions received mixed praise and criticism, while the Amiga version received mostly negative reception." - flows a bit strange due to the double "while". Can the second "while" be reworked? It's not a deal breaker, but I did have to read the sentence twice to understand it.

PLOT

• "The people, helpless not skilled in fighting, were defeated by the him and his minions; they quickly took over the land, and Wonder Land became known as "Monster Land"." - "The people, helpless not skilled in fighting" also flows strange. I think it's the "helpless not skilled" that gets me
• "The people sent out for Wonder Boy, who is now a teenager," - could be simplified to "The people send for Wonder Boy, now a teenager,". The verb tense leans towards present tense in the Plot section, so "send" works better.

GAMEPLAY

• "as he destroys the monsters in Monster Land and defeat the MEKA dragon." - "defeat" -> "defeats"
• "Whenever he sustains damage from enemies, shots, lava, or spikes, those hearts turn black." - can be simplified to "Whenever he sustains damage those hearts turn black."
• "In the Sega Master System version of the game, pressing another button" - define "another"
• "Other special items hidden in the game in which the player must find out and include letters" - remove "find out and"

DEVELOPMENT

• "Super Adventure Island for mobile phones on June 8, 2005, according to their website." - "according to their website." isn't necessary

RECEPTION

• "they lauded the game's graphics, challenging gameplay, and addictive gameplay, but they criticized it for its lack of originality" - is there a way to rework the gameplay as "challenging and addictive gameplay", rather than two parts?
• "The game was reviewed in 1989 in Dragon #144 by Hartley, Patricia" - should be "Patricia Hartley"
• They said the former "is not only playable, but the graphics - the space is before the quotation, instead of after it
• IGN heavily criticized the Amiga version 20 years after its release, saying how Wonder Boy was depicted as "a diaper-clad baby". -- unsourced
• Several direct quotes cite the review and not the reviewer
• Maff Evans (reference #9) - is "Maff" correct, or should it be "Matt"?

LEGACY

• Direct quotes cite the review and not the reviewer

I'm done reviewing now. Overall that was a fun read on a classic game. Great work! Once these issues are addressed this can pass.

Reviewer: Teancum (talk) 13:01, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

OK, I think I nailed all of them here. Note that "Lesser" was the last name in that Dragon reference, and I made a couple of different changes than above, as I think the wording sounded a little bit better in those instances. –MuZemike 17:15, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Yep, looks good. PASS --Teancum (talk) 18:28, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Considering changing infobox cover

I have been strongly considering changing the cover featured in the infobox to a version that was used mostly in the non-SMS versions, i.e. arcade, Commodore, Amiga, etc.

• The original arcade flyer; the only problem is that it is of rather low-quality, even to display at 256px.
• The Amiga version; higher-quality than the arcade flyer, but it is cropped and of different brightness, and it says Super Wonder Boy (the game's name in Europe) instead of Wonder Boy.
• The Commodore 64 version; same as the Amiga version but a little lighter on the brightness and contrast.

I prefer to go with the arcade flyer, as I don't think the low-quality will affect how it's displayed on the page that much, and it doesn't say Super Wonder Boy on it. Any thoughts? (unless we want to stay with the current SMS boxart) –MuZemike 00:18, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

Go with the arcade flyer, it's the original release and I don't think the quality will be too bad at infobox resolution. --PresN 20:34, 11 October 2010 (UTC)

That's not an arcade flier, that's just the cover art for the Amiga/Atari ST version cropped to a small size. Jonny2x4 (talk) 03:10, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

As I said on my talk page, I would then prefer to use a console cover, likely going back to the Master System one (as the other ones say "Super Wonder Boy", which I feel would be inconsistent with the article's title). –MuZemike 18:10, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

I was also thinking: even though the other cover wasn't an arcade flyer, it still was very identifiable with the article; it was also similar enough to the covers on the computer versions of the game, and it had the proper title (as opposed to Super Wonder Boy). I still oppose the new cover that is in the article right now, but I'm on the fence as whether to switch back to the SMS cover or to support reverting back to the "mistaken arcade flyer". Thoughts? –MuZemike 23:35, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

Use the Master System cover art, since I'm 99% certain that was the first English release and Activision's home computer ports were based on it (since they all used the same translation). However, instead of using the mistaken cover art, I suggest to keep the Japanese flyer instead, since it's more significant due to its relation to the arcade game (the original version of the game). Jonny2x4 (talk) 01:24, 3 September 2011 (UTC)

I took the liberty of uploading the Master System cover and keeping the Japanese flyer for the development section. I think they're both relevant enough to be on the article. Jonny2x4 (talk) 02:53, 3 September 2011 (UTC)

Title chronology

Just for the sake of reference for other editors, here are all the titles the game has went through during its various releases. This does not include the modified versions such as Bikkuriman World and Saiyūki World.

1. Wonder Boy: Monster Land (arcade version, released only in Japan)
2. Super Wonder Boy: Monster World (Japanese language version for the Sega Mark III/Master System)
3. Super Wonder Boy: Monster Land (early English version for the Master System included in the Japanese Mark III version)
4. Wonder Boy in Monster Land (final English version for the Master System released worldwide)
5. Super Wonder Boy: Super Monster Land (misprinted cartridge labels for the U.S. Master System version)
6. Super Wonder Boy in Monster Land (cover artwork for Activision's home computer versions)

The "colons" are technically not part of the official titles, but they help distinguish between titles and subtitles. I'm not going to count spelling variations that have "Wonderboy" or "Monsterland" as single words, because it's already confusing as it is. Jonny2x4 (talk) 14:49, 3 September 2011 (UTC)

Multiplayer

@MuZemike: The game is noted in the infobox as having "Single player, two players (alternately)" modes, and to my understanding, two-player alternating turns is still considered multiplayer, even though only one player is playing at a time. Waxworker (talk) 18:26, 13 October 2022 (UTC)

The infobox is misleading, then. There is no two-player mode offered in the physical game itself. I have removed that from the infobox. --MuZemike 03:23, 14 October 2022 (UTC)

It was this edit right here back in 2012 that added it, which is incorrect. --MuZemike 03:28, 14 October 2022 (UTC)