Wonder Boy (Virtual Console) Review
Posted by Chris Scott on 04.16.2008
Haven't I played this before?
The Sega Master System was Sega's answer to the NES in the mid 80s. It's a system that hardly anyone in the US owned and was an afterthought in American gaming. With Nintendo's stronghold in the console gaming market, it seemed that Sega couldn't even buy a clue on how to push their system as the one to buy. Thanks to Nintendo's Virtual Console service, the SMS is getting a second chance to show what it was capable of, the it's 1st offering is a little diddy called Wonderboy.
The story is the typical "girl gets stolen, go save girl" storyline that's been done to near death as you play as Tom-Tom, an energetic scrapping young lad who is out to save his girlfriend, Tanya, after the evil Woodland King kidnapped her. Wouldn't you think all these couples would just stay inside or somethin'?
Wonderboy is your typical side-scrolling platforming adventure where you move left jumping on clouds and such to reach the goal. Although not explained in the game, Tom-Tom seems to be a pep pill addict as he just can't stop moving. Even if you do nothing, good ol' Tom-Tom just continues to run in place. To keep the Tomster moving, you need to collect food such as fruit and potatoes to keep your Vitality Bar up (which acts as the game's timer). Food appears in random places (usually in trees) for Tom-Tom to eat. Tripping on rocks and the God of Death (gotta love that name) will drain your Vitality Bar and you will die when it runs out. Unfortunately, it always drains down due to Tom-Tom's inability to stand still as well. Sometimes after eating a fruit, another item will take it's place. Collect it and it'll send you to the bonus stage that consists of platforming clouds and heart to refill your Vitality Bar. Collect the same iten you used to get there and you'll return to the stage ahead of where you were. The mystery item is different in each stage, which is a pain.
Throughout the game, you'll encounter eggs that provide power-ups such as a hatchet, milk, mushrooms, and skateboards. Collect the hatchet to arm Tom-Tom with an endless supply of hatchets to throw at enemies (snails, snakes, etc.). Milk will refill your Vitality Bar and mushrooms will make food worth more points. Hop on the skateboard and it'll send you speeding throughout the course, but will disappear after you hit an enemy or rock. Every now and then, an angel will come out of an egg and it'll make you invincible for a few seconds; nut whatever you do, to NOT open a speckled egg. That's where the dreadded God of Death comes out! Do make sure you collect the doll is each level, as they double your bonus points (which consists of the remaining of your Vitality Bar).
The game features 9 levels, each featuring 4 stages. At the 4th stage of each level, you encounter the Woodland King. Simply throw hatchets at his head until it falls off to go on to the next level, where he'll don a new head. In the later levels he moves faster and starts to throw things at Tom-Tom, but it remains the same for the most part. The levels tend to repeat the same stages over and over, only adding new enemies to attack you (including spiders, bees, dragonflies, and erupting volcanoes in the background that spew out rock at you). Despite being easy to play, the game is very hard; and you should expect to die a lot. A lot of it just takes repetition seeing how the games moves pretty fast and doesn’t give you much time to react (especially when you have the skateboard). The controls for moving Tom-Tom are a but slippery (think of Luigi in Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels and you get the general idea) adding to the difficulty of the game. Add in the fact that some of the enemies blend in with the background, the sprites sometimes flicker, and it has the dreaded "slowdown" problems that plagued games of it's generation and it can get very frustrating. Is this game starting to sound familiar?
It should, because it's almost identical to Adventure Island on the NES. Dispite Adventure island being more popular and it being released on Virtual Console first, Wonderboy came out before we were introduced to Master Higgins. Although Sega owned the right to the Wonderboy name, it's developer (Escape) owned the rights to the gameplay. Seeing how Wonderboy wasn’t exactly raking in the millions, they put out the game on different consoles as well with just enough changes to prevent and lawsuits from Sega. Seeing how the NES was much more popular than the Sega Master System, Adventure Island became synonymous with the gameplay; and the Wonderboy franchise would be transformed into a Zelda-esk RPG.
the 411:
If you haven't already picked up Adventure Island, it's worth a shot. Compared to it's NES counterpart, the colors are more vibrant, the music is better, and unlike Master Higgins, Tom-Tom doesn’t look like he's trying to hold something in his mouth throughout the game. It's simple, yet challenging and fun! If you haven't already bought Adventure island, it's well worth the $5.
Graphics
7.5
It's very colorful, but the flickering sprites are annoying and the enemies blending with the backgrounds are a pain.
Gameplay
7.5
Controls are a bit slippery, but the level design is very solid.
Sound
8.0
Although ther isn't much of a variety of music in the game, it is very catchy!
Lasting Appeal
9.0
The game's difficulty will have you dying over and over, and you'll be more than happy to keep trying!
Fun Factor
9.0
It's simple, but addictive; just like a classic 8-bit game should be!
