Wonder Boy

aka: Arcade Archives: Wonder Boy, Revenge of Drancon
Moby ID: 12585
Arcade Specs

Description official descriptions

Just when things were going great with Tom-Tom and his girlfriend Tanya, some thug of a woodland king had to kidnap her and hide her away, and Tom-Tom doesn't have a clue where. That's why he has to explore deep dark forests, cross endless oceans, climb treacherous slopes, survive endless volcanoes, and even walk through clouds. But Tom-Tom will never be totally alone. You see, when he goes through the exotic locations, he has to come face to face with its inhabitants, like bees, spiders, snakes, coal-kids, frogs, bats, snails, coyotes, and octopuses, to name a few. The hatchet is Tom-Tom's only line of defense against these menaces.

The Arcade version has eight areas each containing four rounds each. In the Sega Master System version, there are ten areas, each containing four rounds each, but the tenth area can't be accessed unless Tom-Tom collects all the dolls during his rescue mission. During his journey, he can break open different eggs that will reveal hatchets, skateboards, mushrooms, milk, and even guardian angels. You can ride the skateboard through each round, as long as you don't collide with an inhabitant. When you complete each round while still riding the skateboard, you'll start the next round still riding it. As you progress through each round, your vitality will start to get low, but it can be increased by getting milk, mushrooms, potato chips,or fruit that appear everywhere you go. As well as the normal eggs, there are also speckled eggs that must be avoided, otherwise the God of Death will be released, and once he follows you, you'll lose vitality much quickly. At the end of every fourth round, there is a king waiting to destroy you with his fireballs or lightning bolts.

There are also warp-gates, but you don't find them, they find you. Warp-gates appear in rounds 1-4 of each area. If you happen to get one fruit, a special item will appear. These special items include handbags, wrist watches, a pair of shoes, a teddy bear, and a bottle of perfume. Another girl will appear and take you up to the clouds where the object is to collect as many hearts as you can without falling down or getting the item again. Once you have collected all the hearts, you can get the item to return to the surface, and more often than not, you'll get further in the round.

Spellings

  • アーケードアーカイブス ワンダーボーイ - Japanese PS4 spelling
  • スーパーワンダーボーイ - Japanese Sega Master System spelling
  • ワンダーボーイ - Japanese spelling

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Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Commodore 64 version)

C64 Version by
  • Images Design
Program
Graphix
Music

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 70% (based on 35 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.7 out of 5 (based on 64 ratings with 0 reviews)

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Discussion

Subject By Date
Original Japanese release month Andrew Fisher (697) Feb 9, 2024
Wonder Boy MSX Kaminari (1081) Jun 4, 2008

Trivia

Adventure Island

Wonder Boy is the direct inspiration for Hudson's Adventure Island series.

C64 versions

Beau Jolly's Commodore 64 compilation Big Box features a slightly different version of the game, seemingly an earlier development version supplied to Beau Jolly by mistake. The main sprite looks different, the game's iconic skateboard does not appear, a few graphics and musical effects and enemy / platform positions have been changed, and completing the game dumps the player into what appears to be a bugged and uncompletable version of level 1.

SG-1000 version

While every other version of the game is a decent port of the arcade version content-wise, including every level, bonus and boss, the SG-1000 version of Wonder Boy is much more like a different game with a much smaller scope and content set.

Awards

  • Power Play
    • 1987 - #3 Best Master System Game '87

Origin of skateboard

The discovery of an abandoned skateboard left on the balcony of the suite Westone used during development of Wonder Boy led directly to the inclusion of the object as a power-up in-game.

Information also contributed by Martin Smith

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  • MobyGames ID: 12585
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Katakis | カタキス.

PlayStation 4 added by Rik Hideto. Arcade added by FatherJack. ZX Spectrum added by Martin Smith. Wii added by gamewarrior.

Additional contributors: Shoddyan, chirinea, Martin Smith, Игги Друге, Zeppin, CalaisianMindthief, Patrick Bregger, Rik Hideto, Simon Carless, RetroArchives.fr.

Game added March 27, 2004. Last modified February 4, 2024.