Wonder Boy in Monster Land

The Good
The game was of course not an RPG in the eyes of many RPGers of mid '87, but I'm sure a lot of RPG hating, arcade gamers appreciated an arcade game with a little something extra i.e building wealth in order to build up your weapons/armor and pay for clues from taverners and an extending your lifebar(a form of leveling up), but in a way that didn't involve backtracking to interrupt the forward flow of the game. Cute graphics and sound and the fun of finding secret doors. I like that if you follow the correct path to the dragon's castle, you gain an important piece of equipment to help you beat him.

The Bad
While the game is certainly not easy(what arcade game is?), the cuteness marks it as being for kids and teens, not so much for adults, even though you do visit bars and drink presumably alcoholic drinks.

The Bottom Line
Something pretty new in its time, maybe not something to turn RPGers onto arcading gaming, but perhaps likely to make an arcade gamer want to have a go at Zelda or Zelda II and from there maybe go even more RPG and try Phantasy Star or Final Fantasy. It's hard though and for an arcade game, long.