The confusing Wonder Boy/Adventure Island/etc series, I think I finished finding all the US releases, so here is a rundown!

[goldenpp72 | 1,234]

Anyone who knows about my collecting method would know that the heart of my collecting is hunting down sets for various series. I know I'll never know all the various things I'm missing because I still discover new things every so often, but it's still a fun and interesting facet of the hobby, and one of the few feelings of 'discovery' that remains for me within it. I've been going at this series for probably a decade, with Dynastic Hero being the last addition that I know of. There is an upcoming PS5 release for Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom, and SLG released a remake/redo of the first Wonder Boy on PS4/Switch, but I wanted to keep this topic strictly focused on the US side. If anyone has any insights or corrections please feel free, but I figured I could share just in case anyone would be interested. This goes well beyond the retail US releases when you decide to cross regions, arcades, etc, so I'll just be focusing on running down the US retail releases. I took some pictures below, but this ended up being difficult because I was trying to make the games somewhat adjacent to each other, resulting in weird shots to try and take, sorry about that.

Anyways, it all begins with Wonder Boy in the Arcade and then release to the Sega Master System, to my understanding the actual name of Wonder Boy is owned by Sega, but the game itself was developed by Westone Bit Entertainment (formerly known as Escape). They basically make the games and Sega owns that brand, but things become confusing from there because the rights to publish the actual game itself can be shopped around to other publishers. In the earliest instance I know of, Adventure Island for the NES is effectively a reskin of Wonder Boy and published by Hudson Soft, creating a sort of alternate timeline from there. Adventure Island II, 3 (not sure why they went to normal numbers there, but hey) and Super Adventure Island/Super Adventure Island II are original games that are simply part of the Adventure Island series, with Adventure Island and Adventure Island 2 on Game Boy actually being interpretations of Adventure Island II and 3 from the NES. New Adventure Island is a sort of remake/reimagining of the first game for the TG16, but it has enough original content and changes to be a new game in my mind.

You would think from here it becomes linear, as rights and things of that nature did often get confusing as did naming schemes back then, but that isn't the case. Despite that Sega owns the rights to the name Wonder Boy, the Game Gear port of that game is actually Revenge of Drancon, based on the box and name, I assume this was an effort to try and make the game match their grittier, more teen oriented focus of that point in time, but they are effectively the same game. 

Wonder Boy in Monster Land would be the first traditional sequel to the original, and it's also the game that kind of cemented the most popular design for the series, in Japan a reskin of this game was also released on the PC Engine titled Bikkuriman World. A version similar to that titled Saiyūki World came to the Famicom with I believe more changes while effectively being the same game. This created another Adventure Island like situation due to being followed by Saiyūki World 2 which was not based from a Wonder Boy title, and this game was retitled and released in the US as Whomp 'Em. This one seems to be the least known connection, or least cared about which makes sense, it isn't really a Wonder Boy title just like any Adventure Island title beyond the first game is not, but the connection exist in some superficial way.

It gets easier from here right? Not really. The next entry in the series was a bit divisive, likely similar to how Zelda II was because people wanted the formula established in Monster Land to continue, and it did not here. Sega themselves did not release the title Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair in the US, likely because it wasn't received as favorably and the SMS wasn't exactly on fire here as it were, but an entry of it DID release here. In this case, published for the Turbo CD line by NEC I believe, simply titled Monster Lair. This is the official third entry yet it never had a US release by the Wonder Boy owners at Sega, which resulted in another confusion, another title with the number III involved.

A traditional sequel to the second game did release titled Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap, this title did get a US release by Sega for the SMS and is a highly praised follow up to the second game, TG16 got its own version of this title, simply titled Dragon's Curse, along with remakes put out for the PS4/Xbox One/Switch (though only PS4/Switch at retail to my knowledge). With this being the sequel Sega decided to release in the US, it creates a situation similar to Final Fantasy II/III on the SNES in which it really was the fourth game despite being given the label of the third game.

To add to the confusion, a new entry was made, and Sega did publish an entry in the US for the Genesis titled Wonder Boy in Monster World, making it effectively the fifth entry, Dynastic Hero is a reskin of this game put out by Hudson Soft for the Super CD side of the TG16, this being the most expensive entry in the series here.

Monster World IV is essentially the sixth entry in the series, which did not release in the US originally (what you see in the photo is a reproduction from a long time ago). I assume both the fact it stars a girl and its late release were factors to not bother bringing it to the US, but a 3d remake was done as well as a physical release of the Wonder Boy collections which also include it. The game has also appeared in various digital store fronts, so it isn't lost and is often considered the best game in the series.

Finally this brings us to the release of Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom, which is effectively available on all modern platforms, and is the latest entry of the series. Interestingly, I recall there being discourse about this title way back in the day, stating it would not be a 'true' sequel, however I began a playthrough recently and ran into this area pretty early in, while I don't think this is debated any further, it was funny to see it cemented. Here are the other heroes from prior entries. I imagine this discourse existed because the game didn't originally start as a licensed product, but based on its themes and design, it very much deserves to be there.

 

That basically sums up the best I could find on this series, there does exist a release titled Wonder Boy Returns which I believe is part a remake and an original title all in one, but there was no ESRB rated physical release in the US, you can however still buy it digitally or find the SLG release still I'm sure. If anyone has anything to add or correct I'd love to know, otherwise I hope someone enjoyed this bizarre run down, as I had quite a time trying to get it all together myself. Here are some poorly shot photos attempting to make some level of adjacency with them.

 

 

Thanks to Sumez for finding this flow chart too!

Edited December 17, 2022 by goldenpp72

[Sumez | 2,966]

Someone made a really awesome graphical chart of all the Wonderboy games, reskins, offshoots and their own sequels. I wish I could still find that picture... 

I'm intimately familiar with all those games at this point, but I think they'd be pretty useful to most people who are still confused about the series

[goldenpp72 | 1,234]

4 minutes ago, Sumez said:

Someone made a really awesome graphical chart of all the Wonderboy games, reskins, offshoots and their own sequels. I wish I could still find that picture... 

I'm intimately familiar with all those games at this point, but I think they'd be pretty useful to most people who are still confused about the series

I actually spent a lot of time trying to find a really good graph or 'flow chart' of sorts, I found a couple but none of them really seemed all that definitive, but if someone does have anything they should definitely post it. For a set collector, it's easily among the most interesting puzzles to decipher. 

[Sumez | 2,966]

Found it! 

[goldenpp72 | 1,234]

Very cool, if you don't mind I'll add it to my post, though if you do mind, I can also remove it

[Dr. Morbis | 2,089]

Really cool stuff!  I'm a huge fan of the more linear action games on the left side of the chart, myself, but it's cool to see just how many different offshoots there are in this crazy family tree...

[Red | 437]

17 hours ago, goldenpp72 said:

Wonder Boy in Monster Land would be the first traditional sequel to the original, and it's also the game that kind of cemented the most popular design for the series, in Japan a reskin of this game was also released on the PC Engine titled Bikkuriman World, creating another Adventure Island like parallel. That being that another title that is NOT originally a Wonder Boy title was made as a sequel, Saiyūki World 2, and this game was retitled and released in the US as Whomp 'Em. This one seems to be the least known connection, or least cared about which makes sense, it isn't really a Wonder Boy title just like any Adventure Island title beyond the first game is not, but the connection exist in some superficial way.

This paragraph is a bit confusing.  It looks like forgot to mention that the original Saiyūki World for Famicom was a reskin/modified port of Wonder Boy in Monster Land.  I reads like you're saying that Saiyūki World 2 on Famicom is the sequel to Bikkuriman World for PC engine.

Edited December 15, 2022 by Red

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

Awesome write up. Never knew whomp em was one, did jaleco buy the rights from hudson soft, or was it a “spiritual successor”?

[goldenpp72 | 1,234]

2 hours ago, Red said:

This paragraph is a bit confusing.  It looks like forgot to mention that the original Saiyūki World for Famicom was a reskin/modified port of Wonder Boy in Monster Land.  I reads like you're saying that Saiyūki World 2 on Famicom is the sequel to Bikkuriman World for PC engine.

I think I criss crossed a bit of the information there when trying to edit, but I'll try to make it more clear unless someone has a better way of putting it, the PC Engine got Bikkuriman while the Famicom 'version' was Saiyuki World, so I tried to clarify that, hopefully that works!

Edited December 15, 2022 by goldenpp72

[goldenpp72 | 1,234]

2 hours ago, MrWunderful said:

Awesome write up. Never knew whomp em was one, did jaleco buy the rights from hudson soft, or was it a “spiritual successor”?

I think Jaleco merely published it, but it isn't in itself a Wonder Boy game in that it isn't based on any of those games, just a sequel to Saiyuki World on the Famicom which was based from a Wonder Boy game. It's a bit weird to think about this situation because typically a publisher owns the whole deal in anything they work with, like Microsoft owns the IP and game code for Scalebound ensuring it can never be released without them, which is fair because they bank rolled it. I'm curious in this situation who actually funded the base creation of the games Westone worked on, was it just them who then shopped it out and different publishers got to rebrand it?

Unfortunately I haven't been able to find much clarity there, but it is an interesting situation all around.

[AirVillain | 490]

Thank you for this. I will follow this thread and commit myself to your work. 

Now I gotta go buy Whomp-Em....

[phart010 | 1,707]

My two cents:

-the chart would be WAY better if it listed the consoles next to the title

-I think there may be more Monica games in Brazil

-Adventure Island 1 and 2 on Gameboy are called 2 and 3 in Japan. They don’t have a game called part 1 on Gameboy in Japan.

-Wonderboy Titles may vary by region. I know specifically there is a game called Super Wonder Boy Super Monster Land that’s not on the list. It may actually be one of those on the list but with a different name 

 

Edited December 18, 2022 by phart010

[phart010 | 1,707]

A similar thing that happened was with Pocky and Rocky. In Japan the series is called Kiki Kaikai. There were NES Kiki Kaikai games and maybe other consoles. But all we got in the US was two SNES games and a GBA game.

In Japan, a developer made a new Kiki Kaikai game for PS2/Wii, but apparently it wasn’t up to Natsume’s standards so they didn’t grant the license. The Pocky and Rocky characters were removed and they released the game as “Heavenly Guardian” (Snow Battle princess Sayuki in Japan). 

I wonder if Snow Battle Princess Sayuki has any relations with Sayuki World on Famicom?

[Sumez | 2,966]

1 hour ago, phart010 said:

But all we got in the US was two SNES games and a GBA game.

The arcade game was distributed in the US as well. 

[goldenpp72 | 1,234]

4 hours ago, phart010 said:

A similar thing that happened was with Pocky and Rocky. In Japan the series is called Kiki Kaikai. There were NES Kiki Kaikai games and maybe other consoles. But all we got in the US was two SNES games and a GBA game.

In Japan, a developer made a new Kiki Kaikai game for PS2/Wii, but apparently it wasn’t up to Natsume’s standards so they didn’t grant the license. The Pocky and Rocky characters were removed and they released the game as “Heavenly Guardian” (Snow Battle princess Sayuki in Japan). 

I wonder if Snow Battle Princess Sayuki has any relations with Sayuki World on Famicom?

I have all of those and the recent Switch/Ps4 releases, so that's another somewhat confusing one, though not TOO bad. It's hard to really include HG as related even if it began life as one just because it's not observed nor officially an entry. It kind of enters into that space of something like Bloodstained or Mighty No. 9 not being officially part of the series even if designed to succeed them in some fashion.

[phart010 | 1,707]

7 minutes ago, goldenpp72 said:

I have all of those and the recent Switch/Ps4 releases, so that's another somewhat confusing one, though not TOO bad. It's hard to really include HG as related even if it began life as one just because it's not observed nor officially an entry. It kind of enters into that space of something like Bloodstained or Mighty No. 9 not being officially part of the series even if designed to succeed them in some fashion.

I see what your saying, and agree to some extent. As a person interested in history though, I can’t ignore it. There’s probably a prototype out there somewhere with actual Pocky and Rocky characters in it.

Speaking of this game, apparently they re-released it on Switch, but now they are sticking with the title “Snow Battle Princess Sayuki” in all regions.