Hey everyone! I want to talk about a game that’s very close to my heart: Wonder Boy. If you played it back in the day, you probably remember the colorful graphics and catchy music. But what you might not know is that its history is one of the most confusing and fascinating stories in all of retro gaming.
So, here’s the deal. You might remember another game, Adventure Island on the NES, that looked and played almost exactly like Wonder Boy. Was it a clone? Nope! It was all because of a wild licensing deal. The developer, Westone, owned the game’s code, but Sega, the publisher, owned the name and characters. This meant Westone could license the game to Hudson Soft, who just slapped a new hero on it (Master Higgins!) and called it Adventure Island.
But here’s where it gets even crazier. The official Wonder Boy series completely changed. The very next game, Wonder Boy in Monster Land, wasn’t just a platformer—it became an action RPG. It had exploration, secrets, new armor, and new swords. Playing it was my first RPG experience, and it blew my mind. It was like a micro-version of the action RPGs we play today, and it’s probably the first time I fell in love with the genre.
Funnily enough, the Adventure Island series is what actually continued the original, fast-paced platforming style. So, the sequel to Wonder Boy wasn’t really Wonder Boy at all, but the other game was! Confusing, right?
It’s amazing to look back and see how this one game split into two completely different paths. Wonder Boy is more than just a classic platformer; it’s the root of a whole action RPG legacy.
Thanks for reading!